We love having things around our house that help bring back memories from our travels. One type of collection that is easy to start and keep up with is destination magnets. Almost everywhere we have gone, we have found lots of magnets to choose from. These collections belong to the kids, and we let each of them choose a magnet for each of the places we visit. You can start your memory collections at any time. If your kids are too young to choose for themselves, just pick them out yourself & stash them away until they are older. If you have traveled to lots of places and haven’t started a collection yet, that’s OK too. It’s never too late to start!
I like to write their initial (so we don’t get them mixed up) and the year on the back of each magnet. As time goes by, it’s so easy to forget what year we went to each of these places!
The red and black circle magnet boards are wall mounted on my son’s bedroom wall. The red ones were purchase at shopping portals to see which has the best payout at the time of your purchase.
My daughter’s magnet boards were purchased at IKEA. They are the SPONTAN magnetic boards in the white color. Luckily they fit perfectly on the sides of her shelves that surround her desk area (desk top and legs also from IKEA).
One thing to note: There can be some concern with young kids and swallowing magnets, so if your kids are at that age, you might want to stash their magnet collections away until they are old enough to have them displayed without trying to eat them.
One of my very favorite things to do on beach vacations is to walk along the beach looking for shells. There is just something about their colors, shapes, and unique beauty that really gets me. Whenever allowed (some places don’t allow shell collecting, but I have only found that once – Cozumel), I will collect shells and bring them home as a free souvenir and a way to remember our trips. I never take live shells (the ones with little squishy things in them) & always wash them. On our recent trip to Marco Island, the hotel even had shell washing stations on the walkways from the beach. My daughter also loves to collect shells, and I have found that this had led to a great mother-daughter bonding experience.
I display and organize the seashells (and sometimes rocks) the same way that I do the these to make the twine stick to the glass if needed. I like to write the location and date on the tags. The shelves have plenty of room for an expanding shell collection!
