Tag: Summer Vacation

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How to Prepare Your Child for a Trip

Mother helping to put on the seat belt for child

With the school year winding down, many of us are starting to think about our summer vacations. Trips are always exciting for every member of the family. However, it can be stressful to leave home, especially if this is the first trip your child has ever gone on. Here, we list some ideas to help prepare your child for your next trip:

Let the kids help plan

To help your child get excited for the trip, let them in on the planning. Knowing that they had a say in what you do will make the trip even more appealing. Sit down with them and go through some ideas together. Not everything they suggest will be do-able, but just doing one or two of their ideas will be enough to excited them!

Make it familiar

Some kids get anxious when leaving home because they’re heading for unfamiliar territory—literally! To help reduce any nerves, educate your child about where you’re going. Show them pictures of the hotel, the city you’ll be staying in, as well as any other destinations you may visit.

Create a list

It’s important that your child brings everything they need with them. However, expecting them to remember everything themselves is asking a bit much. Start creating a list of items at least a week prior to when you leave. This way, they can add items to the list as they remember them and then check them off once they start packing.

Bring a comfort item

As excited as your kid may be, it’s normal for them to feel a bit nervous when leaving home. Bring a comfort item with them can help ease some of their anxieties. A blanket, toy, or stuffed animal will always do the trick. Plus, you can then take cute photos of their stuffed animals at different locations throughout your trip!

For more tips and tricks on how to prepare for your summer vacation, read through our blog today!

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The Travel Agency for Stuffed Animals

Teddy Bear on Train Tracks

When we travel, it’s a chance to see the world. That’s true for humans, but now, thanks to a Japanese travel company, it’s also true for our stuffed animals.

How it started

It all began with a handmade eel named Unagi. It belonged to Sonoe Azuma, eventual founder of Unagi Travel, the Japanese travel agency dedicated to stuffed animals. Azuma had Unagi ever since she was a little girl, and when she got older, she began taking Unagi with her on trips. She took photos and posted them to her blog which “made my friends smile and made me smile,” she said. “I thought it was a fun and creative way to share my daily life.”

After a while, Azuma’s friends asked if they could bring Unagi with them on trips as well. And, just like Azuma, they took photos of Unagi enjoying the sights, sometimes having it pose beside famous landmarks. The trips made Azuma realize that the idea of sending our beloved stuffed animals on their own vacations could appeal to more people. So, in 2010, she started Unagi Travel.

How it works

After placing an order, you simply send your stuffed animal to Unagi Travel and they handle the rest. Once received, your stuffed animal friend will enjoy all the sights and events of Tokyo and Kamakura. They might attend a TED Talk, or maybe they’ll visit Historic Asakusa. Wherever they go, your stuffed animals are sure to have a fun time.

A trip that’s instaworthy

You don’t have to worry about being kept out-of-the-loop on your stuffed animal’s vacation. Unagi Travel posts photos of the stuffed animals every day on their social media accounts, showing them at different sites or attending different events, and allowing you to follow along on your stuffed animal’s adventure.

Unagi Travel is a fun experience both for your stuffable friend, and for you and your child. So once you’ve received your new best friend from The Zoo Factory, why not send them on a trip? It’ll be a vacation of a life-time.

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Summertime Programs With Stuffed Animals

Attention all summer camp counselors and summer program coordinators!

School will be letting out soon for summer vacation and that means you will be taking over for the teachers and parents and have multiple children to care for. Usually these children will be a wide range of ages and sometimes it can be difficult to find tasks all the children will enjoy doing, along with one that is affordable and fits in with your program budget.

To help get everyone to know each other it may be a fun idea to have them all stuff their own animal in the first week of camp, then all summer long they will have a friend nearby even if their school friends are not in the same program.

To make things easy buy all the animals a plain white t-shirt and use graffiti pens to decorate them. This way each animal can be an individual just like your campers.

These stuffed animals will go on many adventures with your students and the students will always have them. Just think of the times when they grow up and pack away their toys, they may keep the stuffed animal out just as a reminder of what fun the summer of 2015 was for them. Stuffed pets are the best for cuddling for when the students have a scrapped knee and need to get a Band-Aid, they also make a great companion for playing red rover.

The Zoo Factory animals are an extremely affordable option for your program. Start your summer program on the right foot, or even the proverbial furry foot. Contact us for more information today!