Traveling with Your Children
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7 Tips To Make Your Travel Time Fun, Easy and Enjoyable
What many parents do not look forward to (and perhaps even dread) is the actual traveling; the journey; the long hours spent confined in small spaces with their normally angelic children who, in their boredom and complete disruption of their routine, turn into crazed, out of control little beings who will test our patience beyond any reasonable limits.
Don’t despair. Here are 7 Tips that will make your travel time a lot more fun, easy and enjoyable:
1) Discuss the plan for the day. Just before you depart on your trip take some time (eg. at the breakfast table) to sit down and talk to your children about the plan for the day. What’s going to happen? Where will you have lunch? How long will the plane/car ride be? Do you expect them to have a nap or quiet time during the trip, if so when? Are there any treats or rewards they can earn or look forward to? Children have little or no concept of time and they probably have no idea of what distance you will travel therefore talk to them in terms they will understand. Break the trip down into segments that they will understand.
2) The role of the entertainment committee. Whether you want to be or not you are the entertainment planner and director. The most successful trips you will have with your young children will be those where you have planned a variety of activities and games to help pass the time. Remember to have many tricks up your sleeve for long trips because the average attention span of young children can be as little as 15 minutes and if you’re lucky up to an hour. Here is a list of suggestions to help your planning:
Portable DVD Players - perfect to occupy an hour or two of a trip if your child likes to watch movies.
Treasure Bags - child sized backpacks filled with gift wrapped toys. Give your child a new toy to unwrap every hour or use them as prizes for games you might play along the way.
Games - Click here for a great list of games you can play with your baby and toddlers while traveling. For kids having their parent’s undivided attention is heavenly and for parents it is true quality time spent with your children without distraction.
Books on Tape/CD - these are wonderful, especially if you have a pre-schooler or a child who is beginning to read. Books on tape or CD help to teach word recognition to children.
Music - CD’s and tapes with familiar songs are perfect for family road trips. Get the whole family singing along!
Activity Books - With young children this is another great way for parents to interact with their children. Check out our wide selection of activity books for all ages! We have just added some fun new activity books by Klutz - Totally Tape and Make Your Own Twinkly Tiara are great for children ages 3 - 8 years old.
New Toys - What child doesn’t love a new toy? Bring some familiar ones but make sure you buy some that will engage them while traveling. Magnetic toys are always good for traveling and they are a real novelty for most children. Click here to view our large selection of magnetic toys.
Healthy Snacks - an important part of traveling! Take a selection of snacks that are fun to eat, but low in sugar and low in salt.
3) Traveling Toy Box - whether you are traveling by car, plane, train or bus, take a toy box. The Happy Traveler Family Gear Bag is a travel bag. Having a toy box that can sit beside you child’s car seat gives them the opportunity to play quietly with their own toys and have the freedom to choose what they want to play with.
4) Give them opportunities to run around. Children by nature are not able to sit still for long periods of time! And even though you are trying to get to your destination you have to plan for the necessary release of pent up energy. When traveling by car, plan to stop every 1 - 2 hours - if you are very organized check in with organizations like AAA or go online and look up parks, walking trails or other interesting stops in or near communities you will pass through. When traveling by air, go online to the airports where you will change planes or have layovers and see if they have a play area or bring along a jump rope, small ball etc. and find an out of the way area of the airport to play with your child.
5) Give your children choices. Even if you go out of your way to avoid having routines in your life chances are you do enough stuff on a day to day basis that your child learns to anticipate it and has some expectations about what the day will bring. When you take them out of their routine and familiar environment it can help them tremendously to offer choices so they feel they still have some control over their lives. You don’t have to give them a buffet of options just two is perfect. For example: grapes or strawberries; eat lunch now or in 5 minutes; do you want to sit by the window before lunch or after lunch and so on.
6) Travel Trays. These are incredibly useful especially if you are traveling solo with your child or children. Travel trays provide your child with a play/drawing/snacking surface that keeps their toys and their snacks contained and within reach. Both the Taby Tray and the Snack & Play Travel Tray are excellent options.
7) Accessorize your child’s car seat to increase their comfort. Products such as the Foot’z Rest, the many car pillows, and travel trays all can make your child much more comfortable in their car seat. Click here to see all of the great car seat accessories
Our thanks to Traveling with Kids for these great tips!
