Product Review: Little Passports

When I was first contacted by a rep for Little Passports with an opportunity to review the product, I was excited! M has recently caught the travel bug and we're spending a lot of our time talking about all the places in the world we're going to go someday. That list is getting pretty long, and I thought Little Passports would be a great way to talk about different areas of the world.

Here is the product brief:

It’s time to pack your suitcase, because your family is invited on a world adventure – without leaving your backyard! I wanted to introduce you to Little Passports, an educational monthly subscription box, that invites kids to learn about culture, history, and more from Canada and around the world.

Recently named a Parent Tested Parent Approved (PTPA) winner, Little Passports fosters excitement about geography, history, and culture (including food) by following the world travels of characters Sam and Sofia on their GPS enabled scooter! Each month kids receive a special package from Sam and Sofia with hands on activities and recipes from the places they have visited.

With two editions, USA and World, kids will truly have the opportunity to learn about the culture and history in their own backyard and across the globe. In the World edition, Sam and Sofia visit one country a month and send kids a letter talking about their journey, a souvenir and hands-on activity sheets that help the child learn about that country. In the USA edition, Sam and Sofia visit two USA states a month.

The travel case arrived and I was mighty impressed. So was M. The first "destination" was Brazil. The travel case was full of materials including a mini passport and stamps, a map of the world to be updated with sticker pins (big hit with kids, M has a huge map on her wall with push pins marking the places she has already been), a picture of a native creature of Brazil, the background story and the Brazil adventure story, and a "boarding pass" to activate the online portion of the monthly package.

We had a good time for a little while with the stories and the passport and the stickers, but when it came time to check out the online portions, they were finicky. The soccer game instructions read "use your mouse to position and kick the ball" and moving the mouse positioned the ball, but nothing seemed to kick it. I fiddled with it for a few minutes and M, having completely lost interest, went to do something else. And then I pouted, because I really wanted us to enjoy this together. After all, I'm on maternity leave and keeping her quiet while Z naps is job #1 around here.

If there was an option for a physical package with a little more stuff every month OR an online subscription, I'd consider ordering Little Passports. Alas, that doesn't appear to be in the pricing options so we'll have to go back to Googling all the places in the world that M wants to visit.

Disclosure: I received a sample package from Little Passports for review purposes, but no monetary compensation. All opinions expressed are my own.