During school holiday, some parents will plan for family trips to somewhere fun and at the same time educational, and exciting for everyone. Travelling with kids can be a little daunting to some if you did not plan ahead and well-prepared. To ensure our family trips involve children can be interesting and enjoyable, read this article on tips that will make your family trips with kids a memorable one.
Planning
The keys to an enjoyable and exciting holiday with kids are planning ahead. Particularly if we have to travel long hours in airplane, car or train, kids will need something to distract them from having to sit in their seats for the entire trip.
Unlike adult, we can pass the time by sitting on the seat and do reading, listening to music, snoozing the hours away or chit chatting about the good times to be spent in our holiday destination. Kids if they get too bored, they start to make noise and fussy. It is a good idea to pack some distractions in our bag along the journey.
Let’s find out what are the important things you should be taken into consideration during your planning stage for family trips with kids.
Medicine
Children are prone to cut and bruises, it is good to pack some small bag with bandages, antibiotic ailments, gauze pads, tweezers (to remove splinters) and plasters. You may need to standby some oral medicines such as cough syrup, paracetamol, flu and antihistamine (for allergy), puffer (for asthma) and other essential medicine for kids with underlying health conditions.
Insect repellent can be a good choice to keep the bugs away from your children too. Get the stick on, spray or roll on, which are easy for on-the-go.
Snack
An empty stomach can cause a child to be fussy sometimes. Pack some cookies, oatmeal bar, cheese stick, healthy cracker or sliced fruit to offer them at regular intervals throughout the journey. Water bottle of course is no.1 must bring item in the food list.
Sometimes candies or lollipops can be given to your children during the trip. When you travel by air, sometimes children will suffer from aching ear during take off and landing. Taking candies or lollipops can be a simple way to prevent the ear pain during the changing pressure.
Extra clothing
Pack at least one change of clothes in case you need to change them as a result of spills or accidents. Kids will be just kids, eating and drinking can be messy sometimes. If you have a baby, extra nappies, wet tissues, napkin are the essential items.
Comfort toys
If you child is still small, it is best to bring him/her one or two comfort toys such as small pillow, blankie, favorite toys or stuffed animals she/he likes to play with. If you are lucky, family trips with kids will end up in happy and peaceful journey.
Keep your little ones busy
Kids tend to get bored with their old play toys. Sometimes, it is good to introduce new toys to bring along in your carry-on bag. You may include some familiar old toys that they currently love and you know they will play for much longer periods.
New toys will catch their attention and only present it to the children when the need arises. Example, during their inconsolable crying or fussy in young children. Wrap them up nicely and it will never fail to cheer up the moody child, especially when they unwrap them and reveal a brand new toys.
What are the things you can do to keep your little ones busy during the journey? I have listed some down and maybe you have more in mind! Here are some examples,
1. Story book or flash card
For toddlers, you can introduce books with pop up scenes, and lots of colorful pictures which you can read out to them. Take couple of books along and you will never regret it.
2. Coloring book
Kids love drawing and colouring. Look for an attractive colouring book with their favorite superhero icon or cartoon characters (such as hello kitty, iron man, Doremon, Baby shark, Unicorn and etc) to work on, may does the trick. Provide them with crayon, sketch pen, color pencils, or magic markers will easily keep them busy for quite a while. Of course, make sure they color or draw on the book but not else where.
As a responsible parent, we shall ensure the colouring pencils or crayon are placed securely on the box to prevent them to drop underneath the car or plane seat and cause inconvenience to others.
3. Gadget
Nowadays, digital gadget is so eye-catching that will never fail to make kids happy and occupied for a long time. For younger kids, upload their favorite nursery rhymes and fairy tales before the trip in the tablet, and play them during the journey. For older kids, you may upload some video games or play station to kill their time.
Moderate usage of gadget with good purpose is still healthy and you know, let’s have fun, it is a family trips after all. Don’t feel guilty about it.
4. Rubik’s cube
Kids who are above 6 years old will love to pass time challenging themselves with Rubik’s cube while the young one might just be attracted by the moving squares. They will be sitting there quite a while trying to solve the simple combinations. Once they have solved it, they will be delighted and the games keep rolling on.
5. Water reveal activity pad
Small kids love playing with water reveal activity pad. This is a good alternative for colouring book if you think bringing crayon and color pencils are sometimes troublesome. They use a water filled pen on the pad, you don’t have to worry about messy drawing. It will reveal the colors, letters and numbers with the pen and the activity pad can be reused once you let the pages dry.
6. Sticker activity book
Small kids love stickers. Get a few new stickers book with different theme such as vehicle, animals, can be anything come with colorful pictures and interesting theme. It may take them a while to complete them and some stickers are reusable too. Remember to throw some into your carry-on bag.
Conclusion
A long haul journey to your holiday destinations are sometimes exhausting and imagine traveling with kids can be a little daunting to some if you have more than one kid. If we are well-prepared and have those things ready I think our journey can be an enjoyable and exciting one too!
Please feel free to share your wonderful experiences while traveling with kids. I am sure your valuable experience can be an inspiration to those parents who feel doubtful to bring children out for holiday.
Previously I have written an article about “4 parenting styles-their effect on social behavior of a child“, click on this link to read on.
Happy reading!