St. Louis staycation: make a passport for kid friendly summer fun

"Passport" stamp I made on the computer...feel free to copy.

According to a USA Today/Gallop poll, Americans will be cutting back on expensive summer travel. The poll says that over 50% of us won't be traveling much.

That means that St. Louis moms like us will be planning for a St. Louis Staycation this summer. You better start planning now to avoid hearing a lot of "Mooooommmmmm, I'm booorrred!"

Get the kiddos together now and brainstorm all the places you'd like to see around St. Louis this summer. We're lucky to live in a town that's jam packed with fun, kid friendly and downright cheap attractions. How about a trip to the St. Louis Zoo (lots of of stuff is free the first hour it's open), the Magic House, the St. Louis Science Center, the Arch, a riverboat ride, or the City Museum?

Now take that list and add a few free activities, like a trip to a park you've never visited, a picnic, a nature hike, or a bike ride. Encourage summer reading by taking them to the library, or out for a story time.

If your kids are younger you can get them excited about their St. Louis Staycation by making a St. Louis Passport. Check out the directions to make an easy accordion photo album from Kodak here. Feel free to simplify it - if it's just for the kids to use, make it out of drawing paper. If you're going to turn it into a summer keepsake for mom, use good scrapbooking paper.

Decorate the front cover with the words "St. Louis Passport" and include an ID page in the front, just like a real passport. Add a school photo, or ask your kids to draw a passport photo of themselves, and list their name, age and home town. Get as detailed as you like!

Label each page with a place you'd like to visit in St. Louis. As you go places, the kids can fill in the pages of the book with drawings, or you can glue in a photo of them having fun at each place.

Decorate the pages with "passport stamps" - use cheap-o award stickers, make some on the computer, or simply draw them in with crayon! Feel free to copy the stamps I made for this post - I typed them on a drawing program (Publisher) the copied them into Photoshop to "dirty" them up. I picked up some Passport themed scrapbooking stickers at Target for about $2, and a pack of 2000 motivational stickers (in the crayon aisle) was also around $2.

If you need more inspiration to make your own passport stamps, check out some real stamps online. See real passport stamps here from Flickr.

Read my next post on activities to fill your St. Louis Passport here. And have a great summer!