If you're getting ready for your dream family vacation with kids, and are just worried about your travel, stays, and packing, it's important to revisit your priorities!
While meticulous planning for your travel is vital for a stress-free journey, keep in mind the importance of also preparing your kids mentally for what's involved in your journey, so their short attention spans don't throw a spanner into the works!
Therefore, it's important to prepare your little ones for travel to make your vacation feel more like a grand adventure and less like an upheaval. Here are a few tips to do so:
The most important part of training your kids for your next vacation is setting expectations. It's vital to understand that while travelling, you'll be taking your kids from one unfamiliar situation to another, not knowing how they will react to them. Thus, it's worthwhile to set your child's expectations about what's going to happen on the trip, and your expectations for their behaviour during the trip. This will help them be prepared for all situations - be it a plane travel, a bus ride, or a visit to a public place.
Kids being kids, make sure to keep reiterating on the day of travel what's going to happen next and, what are your expectations from them. For example: Remind them to wear seatbelts on the plane just like they do in the car.
While travelling with kids, it is advisable to involve them right from planning, so that the entire process becomes fun and engaging for them. Make sure you start discussing the vacation plans with them in advance. Also, ask them for a few ideas on what they want to do and where they want to go, to increase their excitement levels.
Give kids a packing list, and let them select their own clothing, which will help them in making independent choices, and be responsible. However, you might want to review their choices before you leave for your vacation - they are kids after all!
To make sure your kids properly learn about the places you're travelling to, nothing beats a good atlas or fact book. Get non-fiction books about the places you're visiting, which are beautifully illustrated, carefully researched and well-designed for kids.
It's always helpful to make your child try and get used to the cuisines of the places you're visiting in advance so that they don't get fussy about food and avoid any dietary hassles. You can do so by cooking these cuisines at home or taking them out to different restaurants.
Knowing the local language, or at least its basics, is always beneficial while travelling, as it helps in connecting with the locals easily. Make sure to teach yourself and your kids how to say simple sentences in local language, like "Good morning", "How are you?", "My name is Ben", "What's your name?", etc.
In short, kids shouldn't feel they are being dragged along, but rather become active and involved (and therefore, happier) participants in your travel.
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