Today I announce a new recurring Guest Post Series for KidsTravelBooks – I Explored, Now He’ll Explore: Souvenir Books for Aiden. What’s this about? Melissa from Baby Castan on Board frequently travels around the world. During her travels, she picks up a book or two for her son, Aiden. In this series she’ll share the books she finds and why she loves it. And now I’ll let Melissa take over.
Souvenir Books for Aiden: Dublin
I recently traveled to Ireland for a business trip. I usually travel to Europe once a year and then a few times domestically for work. Now that Aiden is here, one of my favorite things to do is purchase a book, or two, from the location I am visiting. I try to get one that is culturally relevant to the area I am visiting and a second, more fun book. Purchasing books as souvenirs will help build a diverse library and help us educate Aiden on different locations and cultures.
Cultural Book: Dublin
Photo Credit: Baby Castan on Board
For the cultural book I found a book called Irish Legends for Children. I thought this was a perfect book to bring home because if you know anything of the Irish culture, it is that they have a rich history of storytelling with many of their stories being passed down through generations.
The book includes six well known Irish legends, or short stories. The illustrations are beautiful and colorful which is great to capture the attention of a baby, and large clear lettering for when the time comes that Aiden can actually read the book. Each story has a moral which I plan to use to teach Aiden different lessons as he gets older.
One of the great things about picking up books from another country is that they can be quite different from what you might find in the United States. For example, many of the legends have adult themes such as death; the book doesn’t really gloss over, or sugarcoat those topics. This might be surprising for some parents, but I embrace the opportunity to teach Aiden about culture and educate him on the lessons the stories tell.
Fun Book: Dublin
Photo Credit: Baby Castan on Board
The second book I purchased is a pop-up book called Dublin: A Three-Dimensional Expanding City Skyline. This book is really fun and I haven’t really seen anything like it before. It is a small square of cut-paper that you pull out of a cardboard holder. As you unfold the book it opens to popular sites in Dublin and gives a little history about the location. This one was really fun because when I would Skype with Aiden, I could show him all the sites I visited.
About the Author
Hi, I’m Melissa! I am a mama to my little baby boy Aiden Milo (born November 2015), and a police wife to my husband Dan. We live in Northern Virginia. I work full time as a meeting planner for two non-profits, one of which is international, so I travel several times a year.
When we brought Aiden home we were smacked with a huge dose of reality, but we wouldn’t have it any other way. I now share my experiences and adventures of being a first-time mama on my blog babycastanonboard.com to hopefully help other first time moms.
Follow her on Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook.
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