Many parents tend to avoid long distance travel with young children, but with a few fun and easy forms of distractions the panic and dread of traveling can be put to ease.
In a perfect world our children would be angels in the car or plane no matter how long or short the distance. As it is toddlers do not typically want to sit still for long and can get easily agitated, bored, whiney, and at some points unbearable.
As a parent I used to think the hassle of taking a long distance car trip was not worth the unavoidable headache that was sure to arise. Thankfully, I now see how to make traveling far more enjoyable. My biggest test was a 7 hour car trip that ended with a happy mommy and toddler, who had not cried, screamed, or whined during the entire trip.
Here are some fun and easy ways to avoid toddler meltdowns, tantrums, and boredom.
1. Be prepared with snacks, even for a short trip a snack can save the day. Try to avoid foods that are sticky, melt, or crumble easily. Healthy snacks such as baby carrots or sliced cucumbers are ideal, but for the picky eater that is not a fan of vegetables, the multi grain cheerios are a big hit. 2. Communicating with your child by playing games, asking questions, and singing songs can go a long way; kids love to talk and feel like they are being listened to. Giving them objects to look for and count such as stop signs and school buses can keep little ones interested in their surroundings while going over their numbers. Asking them questions about things they know or are learning can be an easy way to review and enhance their understanding of a particular subject. Going over things such as animal sounds, colors, letters, spelling words, etc. are great educational topics. Making your questions more challenging by asking for words that start with particular letters, or requesting examples can makes it more interesting and fun for both parents and children. 3. Technology has made it so easy to have portable entertainment for kids. Whether by use of a portable DVD players, phone, handheld gaming system, or e-reader these devices can all provide educational learning at the press of a button. So many options are now available to parents; from putting on a Dora video, letting them play a spelling game app on your phone to being read aloud a Dr. Seuss book via e-reader or tag learning system.
Providing entertainment for your children while traveling can be tiring, but hopefully these 3 tips will save the day on your next trip.