Are We There Yet
By Steve Johnson
Traveling, especially by car, takes extra patience on the part of everyone -especially kids. It's not easy for children (or adults) to sit still with nothing to do for long periods of time. So you want to think and plan ahead to avert unnecessary stress.
Plan on hearing, "Are we there yet?" several hundred times. Your kids aren’t trying to stress you out, they just want some parameters on the plans for the day. The more information you give them (within reason, of course!), the more satisfied they’ll likely be. So if you tell them that you expect to be on the road for 8 hours, break it down for them. Tell them at 10:00a.m. where you expect to be and what they might see, etc.
Take a few minutes to pack a fun kit of games and amusements for your kids. You can even reward them for good travel behavior by letting them open a little present - a travel game- every hour. These little inexpensive treats often make for a pleasant trip.
It's important to take frequent breaks when traveling with children. No matter how great things seem to be going, stopping every two hours will make the whole trip go more smoothly. Give everyone a chance to go to the bathroom, walk around bit, and take a break. Although this adds time to your trip, it also adds sanity to your trip. Let the kids run off the energy they’ve stored up from being in the car!
The key to keeping your children occupied is to vary your activities every half hour or so. You can start out talking for the first half hour, play music the second half hour, then get out and take a exercise and bathroom break. Eat a little snack, and then it's back in the car for the next hour. You can watch a DVD, or listen to a radio-play or book on tape.
There are great resources for kids’ listening material on the web—Focus on the Family has several radio-theatre productions of The Chronicles of Narnia books. Something like this will engage both adults and kids and not make you feel like you’re going to rip the CD or tape out of the player before you hear another word.
Little games like seeing how many different license plates from how many states on the way. Twenty questions, or playing with the new electronic Q20 game. The last suggestion is something that you as an adult can help the kids with by reading the questions aloud and guiding them as you enter the response in the handheld unit.
Sing - take a sing-along CD. These are fun, even if you can't carry a tune in a bucket. There are traditional ones out there (think “Hootenanny”) or more contemporary ones (“Veggie Tunes”)—all of them are lots of fun and give you the opportunity to have fun and be silly at the same time.
DVD player in your vehicle will provide a couple hours or so of hassle free driving. You may want to offer the crew a new DVD they haven't seen before as a reward for traveling peacefully and patiently—or in order to get them to travel peacefully and patiently!
Don’t forget old favorites that you had as a kid—magnetic games (remember using the little magnet stick to make a beard on the funny character’s face?), Connect Four, magnetic checkers or chess, or even travel-sized MagnaDoodles for young children.
If you can find small craft kids that don’t have a million pieces and don’t require gobs of glue (regular or the super-variety), use those as well. “Weaving” of potholders, coloring and sticker books, or even Mad Gab books are still available and lots of fun for everyone!
With a little creativity, you can make your travel time pleasant for everyone. And that makes for the start of one great vacation!
About the author
http://basiciptv.com/ from http://www.FreeArticlesAndContent.com
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