Little Passports and a Brigadeiro Recipe

We signed up for Little Passports this past summer. I’d read good things about it. My children love to get mail and I was tired of Chirp magazine.

Our first box contained a welcome letter from Sam and Sofia, the friends who go on international adventures and send us souvenirs, post cards and more each month. We also received the cutest suitcase to keep all our mail in each month. Let me tell you, there was excitement in the house!

The children love getting our monthly mail and I love the simplicity and educational value of the package, not to mention the fact that it’s just on subscription!

Our first package was from Japan. The children loved the origami activity. Both needed a little help to complete it but boy, John was sure pleased with his boats!!
A recent package was from Brazil. The children were very excited over the beautiful piece of amethyst from the Brazilian mine. We also made the recipe included in our Brazil Activities card: Beigadeiros, a chocolaty Brazilian treat! {and I share below!}.

One of the things I love most about this box is that we aren’t learning all there is to know about the countries nor does it require a huge amount of time or energy on my part. I’m a busy mama. We homeschool. We have activities. My special needs child has appointments constantly. The last thing I need is something labour-intensive that will sit undone, leaving me feel guilty each time I see it. This doesn’t! It suits our family perfectly (my children are 3, 6, 7 for reference).

The monthly Little Passports package is simple:

• A letter and post card that have some fun information about where Sam and Sofia visited
• A boarding pass (I think it has a code for related online games but we’ve never used that part of it)
• A flag sticker {*stamp*} for the passport you receive in the welcome package
• A pushpin sticker to mark on your map where you’ve “been” each month with Sam and Sofia {full fold out world map is part of the welcome kit}.
• A souvenir {so far we’ve received a sushi eraser and a package of origami paper/instructions from Japan, a camera where you press the button to see the photos of France and the kids favorite so far – the amethyst rock.}
• Stickers for your suitcase. We haven’t put them on our suitcase though because I just don’t want to mess it all up! lol. We do a sticker collage instead.
• You also get an activity sheet which, in addition to the activities, seems to have a recipe in it frequently; not sure if it will every month but our latest two months have.

It’s a great introduction to world geography and different cultures. You can expand it more with the online activities, add in some books from the library or whatnot…or you can simply just enjoy an hour a month reading the post card, marking your map, doing the few activities and trying the recipe.

With Christmas coming up, it would make a really fun gift for the child in your life…or multiple children. Chloe and John share the subscription. The activity sheet usually has more than one thing to do and the origami package had 6 or 8 different things to make in it so it was easy to share. {even mama made one!}

Missionary Moments:

We have a Missionary Map downstairs and when missionaries come through, we put their prayer cards up on the wall. I was excited to have Brazil this month because a friend I grew up with is a missionary in Brazil! We didn’t have a missionary that we knew of in Japan or in France so we just used it as an opportunity to pray for the unknown missionaries there and that God would send more to those countries. {I don’t know if this is telling tales out of school but John prays constantly that God would let him be a missionary to somewhere when he grows up}.

Brigadeiro Recipe

Recipe {tweaked a teensy bit} from our Little Passports monthly package

Melt 3 tbsp butter over medium heat then add one can of condensed milk. Dissolve 3 tbsp of cocoa in 1/2 a cup of water and add to the pan. Stir for 15-20 minutes until it thickens {mixture should stay separated for a moment when you drag a spoon through it}. Spread on a plate and cool in the fridge for 20 minutes. Once chilled, drop small amounts in to toasted coconut and roll around until coated. Chill in the fridge for 15 minutes and ta da! They’re ready to eat!

So what are you thinking? Have you tried Little Passports before? How about Brigadeiros?

• This post contains Little Passports affiliate link which I just signed up for. it means my family earns a little bit from your purchase so thank you! I am thrilled with our experience and am happy to answer any questions you have about our experience. I was in no way compensated for this post. Our subscription was bought and paid for with our own hard-earned dollars and worth it in my opinion!