Less is More When Traveling With Children
As the weather has warmed up and the school year comes to a close, I know many of us are turning our thoughts to our summer travel plans. Well, this past weekend, my family got a head start and did more than just think about travel—we packed up and headed to Colorado.
On Saturday morning, as we drove to the Kansas City airport, I was a bit nervous. After all, it was our first time to travel by plane as a family of five. Though we’ve made several road trips, we’d yet to brave boarding a plane where there is no option to pull over for a pit stop and the fasten seatbelt sign doesn’t seem to care that your potty-training toddler has to go potty right now . See why I was a bit nervous?
As it turns out, I had no reason to worry. Our kids did great. As I thought back on our trip, I couldn’t help but wonder if just a small part of that was due in part to the lessons we’ve learned on our many road trips. You see, I’m bit of a minimalist when it comes to traveling with children. I realize that this is contrary to lots of wonderful advice you might get from others quite a bit more qualified than me to give parenting advice. However, it truly does work for us. So, since I’ve yet to see any advice similar to mine, I thought I’d share and hey, if it works for your family that’s great! If not, then by all means google “traveling with small children” and you’re sure to find something that will work for you.
The main thing that I’ve found works for us when traveling with our young children is that less is more. We’ve done road trips where I plan special activities for them to do throughout the trip. At certain times, I planned to give them different toys or art supplies to help keep them occupied as we passed hour after hour in the car. Well, that was a big mistake. My kids would just look at one toy for a few minutes and ask for the next. I didn’t take the hint the first time around and it was only after two or three trips that I finally realized there might be a better way to travel with our three kids. As it turns out, there was indeed a better way.
That better way has translated to the following list of things that I insist are in my backpack before I begin a trip with my three children.
1. Hand wipes, hand wipes, and more hand wipes. Do I really need to explain that?
2. Crayons and paper or coloring books: Better yet opt to take along Crayola’s Color Wonder products and you won’t have to worry about the crayon or marker marks going anywhere besides the special paper. (This works especially well with plane travel.)
3. Brain Quest Cards: These wonderful cards are bound together and made for a variety of grade levels and ages. (You can even find them for two and three-year-olds.) I pull these out when one of my kiddos seems to need a little extra attention while we’re traveling. The cards encourage conversation while giving children practice with a variety of skills.
4. Books: My little prereaders like to look at Usborne’s 1001 Things to Spot books. We also like the I Spy and Look and Find books. Of course, any of your children’s favorite books are fair game to include in your travel arsenal.
5. Portable DVD Player and DVDs: Yes, there are plenty of ways to keep children occupied while traveling that don’t include electronics. However, we’ve found that a movie or two while making a long road trip gives everyone a bit of a rest and only serves to make the trip better for us all.
6. Hush Food: Again, it is possible to travel and give your kids nothing but healthy food. By all means bring the carrot sticks, apple slices, and homemade sandwiches. In fact, we frequently bring those things in a cooler. However, we’ve also learned that nothing makes that last 30 minutes of a ten-hour road trip go more smoothly than a nice little lollipop. Our kids are partial to Ring Pops. It helps that they only get these when we travel.
7. There is no number seven: Aside from the regular things that I carry with me on a daily basis such as an extra pull up or diaper, we truly don’t take much more with us when we travel. Of course, if I was still traveling with an infant, I’d include a change of clothes for the baby as well as other baby necessities.
So, what do you find works best for you when traveling as a family? Leave your best family travel tip in the comments and then be sure to head over to Kristen's at We are That Family to see what other tips you can find or advice you can offer. Happy Wednesday!