Parental guidance

When my oldest child was 9 months old, we got on a plane and traveled to Mexico. Despite the fact that my husband and I both served in the Peace Corps and consider ourselves fairly seasoned travelers, that vacation with our baby was the roughest trip of our life.

It should have been obvious, but having a child made us less portable. We learned that the hard way. Still, we’ve persisted in the last few years. We took our son to Guatemala and Honduras when he was 2. And last year, we traveled with both our kids, ages 3 and 1 at the time, to Nicaragua.

Some people say that taking kids on an overseas trip isn’t worth the trouble. Maureen Wheeler, co-founder of the Lonely Planet guidebook company, recommends waiting until children are at least 3.

Is international travel with younger kids a complete waste? Is there such a thing as an age-appropriate vacation for a child?

Share your thoughts at spokesmanreview.com/ blogs/parents.

– Virginia de Leon

Camp deadline coming soon

Twelve students entering grades 6 through 12 will be selected to attend a weeklong day camp at The Spokesman-Review.

The journalism camp will be sponsored by the Vox, the student publication published by The Spokesman-Review, and will be an opportunity for students to become familiar with the field of journalism.

Students selected will receive instruction in news writing, journalism ethics, reporting, photojournalism and editing. One goal of the weeklong project will be to produce a package of pages to be published in The Spokesman-Review.

Camp will be at the downtown Spokesman- Review building, Aug. 11 through 15, from 9:30 a.m. to 4 p.m. Lunch and snacks will be provided and there is no charge for participants.

To apply, download an application from: spokesmanreview.com/ blogs/vox. Deadline is Friday.

E-mail any questions to erind@spokesman.com.