SOME GREAT ROAD TRIP ACTIVITIES!

 Going on a road trip is very exciting and can get frustrating too if you are not well prepared for it especially if you have younger kids. Im always browsing for tips and ideas to keep my kids busy during long drives and would like to share them with you too.Whenever we  plan road trips, we prefer to pack well so that we are organised and can enjoy with kids.

       SOME FUN ACTIVITIES THAT WE ENJOY!

50 THINGS TO DO ON A CAR JOURNEY ACTIVITY CARDS:These are Usborne activity cards that we like to carry along with us on road trips and it keeps all of us engaged as there are activities for everyone to enjoy such as car bingo,five word story,king of the car,guess the noise etc...I bought these from Karachi book expo and im sure you can get these from good bookstores!!

• PUZZLES AND MAZE BOOKS: These are great to keep in the car for kids as they keep kids busy. Solving maze enhances their cognitive skills as well as it improves eye hand coordination.They are brain booster exercise for them as well as a  good time passing activity .

• COLOURING  BOOKS AND DRAWING PADS: This is again an interesting activity to improve focus and can keep them entertained for some time and also let them create a masterpiece.

• STORY BOOK:I want my kids to keep their favourite books in the car to read. Once they start reading they are engaged in it for a couple of hours and its easy for them to spend a productive time rather than watching screens.

• FIDGET TOYS:Fidget toys are great boredom busters for kids as well as adults.These are great when kids are feeling restless.These toys come in a variety of styles, like fidget spinners, stress balls , pop it,fidget cube,or even those pop tubes which kids can spin,stretch,pop, twist etc.

• MAGNETIC GAMES:Magnetic games are also ideal for road trips.They are easy to carry .Some of the ones that we have are Hangman,Fishing game,Tic Tac Toe which kids love and even enjoy them while waiting for food at a restaurant.Hangman is the most popular one and it enriches kids vocabulary while kids enjoy their time too.

• TANGRAMS:Tangrams are also good to entertain kids as well as promote brain development.As Tangrams is a set of 7 geometrical shapes,it teaches younger ones the names of shapes too.They come in wide variety such as  magnetic Tangrams,Wooden Tangrams,Plastic Tangrams etc....

SURPRISES: Kids love surprises!!why not get some cheap toys or surprise eggs for them and wrap them in a brightly coloured paper and use it as a reward during road trips or maybe when they are too exhausted during the trip and dont want to do any of the activities you have planned for them. These items can range between Rs50-Rs500 and can include a fancy pen,pack of colours,  sticker sheet, colouring book, doodling pad, toy car, bouncy ball ,unicorn, erasor set etc....

TRAVEL JOURNAL:

My kids enjoy writing about their road trips as well such as the place they are going to,what three things they enjoyed over there ,what they saw during the trip and at their destinatioN ,whom they met,and capture pictures to use later for their journelling which i guess is a great creative hobby!

What do your kids enjoy on  their trip??

MAGIC MAGNETIC CUBEAND RUBICS CUBE: This is a hit in our homes as well as rubics cube.My kids enjoying solving rubics cube and my 6 year old loves solving the cube and has mastered her skills by taking it along with her on road trips.The magnetic one is great for younger ones as well as adults to explore plus try the challenges which are given on the cards.

What activities do your kids enjoy on road trips???Comment below to share your favourites!

Best Places To Buy Books From

Best Places To Buy Books:

As a book lover Im always hunting for good books for my kids which are reasonable as well as worth reading for their age group and also some collection for myself. In this technology era most people love reading online or on kindle but I prefer to have a book in my hand and also encourage kids to do so rather than online reading and that is why we have different sorts of book collection for all age groups in our house .I've come across  some bookshops that try to arrange your requested titles which is great I guess .

Im sharing my list of shops or online pages from where you can get new as well as used books at good prices and make the most of it!!

Mr Old Books:

This is one of my favourite since my college days .I used to purchase books from them and also exchange my previous collection .Its located at Boat Basin as well as Khayaban e Shahbaz and now I take my kids there, to either get their course books or maybe their storybooks.you can also request the titles you are after and they can try to arrange it at a good price  for you which is great.

Address: 32-C Khayaban-e-Shahbaz, D.H.A Phase 6 Shahbaz Commercial Area Phase 6 Defence Housing Authority, Karachi, Karachi City, Sindh 75500

R2GG+762, Khayaban-e-Saadi, Boat Basin, Clifton, Karachi, Sindh, Clifton

Liberty Books:

Liberty Books is a popular bookstore with a wide variety of books.You can find new titles here .To be honest i find it bit expensive but when they have sales then you can find some good bargains.Recently i got to know about the Liberty books clearance outlet in phase 2 which has a good collection at discounted rates ,some of books are at more than 60 percent off these days but you have to hunt for them which means you should visit this place when you have ample time.

Address: 17c South Park Avenue, D.H.A. Phase 2 Phase 2 Commercial Area Defence Housing Authority, Karachi, Karachi City, Sindh 75500

image credits: Liberty Books Face Book page

Book Ocean:

Book Ocean Is again one of our favourites and I have been visiting this place since i was in school and now kids love going here to get their books or stationary items.They have some collection of story books, kids activity books, educational books and school or college course books too.Once kids wanted some series of Australian author which they couldnt find anywhere in karachi and they arranged it for us and even at good price.They also have some collection of books at discounted price.

Address: E, SHOP#3,PLOT#79, 9th Commercial St, Phase IV Phase 4 Defence Housing Authority, Karachi, 

Frere Hall Sunday Book Fair:

Frere Hall is a popular tourist spot in Karachi and is a famous historical spot with great  architecture. Book bazaar started in 1997 at Frere Hall and is a must visit spot for all the book lovers. Whenever you plan to visit this place its best to go in the morning so you can easily browse the collection. There are hundreds of books from cooking ,gardening, poetry, fiction, non fiction ,urdu adab ,flash cards etc.....Children as well as Adults can find good treasure for themselves and can spend a great Sunday morning there .Its opened from 9am-11pm Sundays.

Address :Fatima Jinnah Road ,Civil Lines. Karachi.

Image Credits:Frere Hall Face Book page

Image Credits: Frere Hall Face Book page

Decent Stationary:

Decent Stationary is a popular bookshop which has stationary items ,course material ,gift items craft stuff etc.....They have good collection of flash cards as well as some story books both in Urdu as well as English.They also stock up imported activity as well as story books which i find interesting for my kids.

Address:31-C, Street No.1, Shahbaz Commercial, Phase VI, DHA, Karachi.

Readings:

Readings is the largest online bookstore and has a n

outlet in D.H.A ,Lahore.You can easily order you book collection online and recieve them within a week or maybe 2-3 days if you have prepaid .Whenever you get a chance to visit Lahore dont forget to visit Readings.Im sure you'll fall in love with this book store.They have kids section where parents can sit and read to younger ones or kids can browse their books or also a dedicated area for public where one can enjoy a cuppa and a good book! When we visited Lahore we spent around 2-3 hours there and wanted to stay more but we ended up buying so many books which we were unable to fit in our luggage and had to carry the bag in our hands on our flight back to Karachi.

https://www.readings.com.pk/

Image Credits:Google Images

Tadabbur Books:

I also came across Tadabbur Books which is located at Ittehad Commercial.It has a good collection of Islamic books As well as Arabic book for kids as well as adults.You can find Ramadan related books,Seerah Books,Prophet Stories ,Dua Book etc all under one roof! You can also have a look at https://tadabburbooks.com/

Address: Shop No 1, 26th Residence Building, Plot 26C, Ittehad Lane 6, Ittehad Commercial Phase 6, DHA, In Lane Of Jardin Restaurant, opposite Memon Medical Lab, Ittehad Commercial Area Phase 6 Defence Housing Authority, Karachi

Bookaan By Shereen Khan:

Bookan is also an online book store which has books by Pakistani Canadian author Shareen Khan.She has written informative books for beginner as well as emergent readers both in English as well as urdu. Shereen has also introduced english grammar books for younger ones that explains the terms to them in a simple words as well as early readers on culture which is great for younger ones and must have for school libraries. So what are tou waiting for? Head on to their website and browse the complete collection which is https://bookaan.com/

SOME FACEBOOK PAGES FOR GOOD BOOK DEALS

Here are a couple of Facebook pages which you can follow that have good deals on books 

1. shakeel books 
2. Bookaan by  Shereen Khan
3. Z-Square
4. Rainbow Collection.
5. ITS ALL ABOUT BOOKS
6. Pick a Book

Feel free to share pages that you like from where you buy your book collection!😊😊