After you have made your cheap travel reservations, whether they are cheap airplane tickets, discount hotel rooms, cheap auto rentals, or cheap vacation packages, the time comes when you need to start figuring out what you want to pack. This is when your family should consider taking a Wi-Fi free vacation thereby spending more time together.
Instead of having your kids buried in their iPads while traveling, spend more time communicating as a family. Discuss with your child what he or she is seeing from the window of an airplane or car. Look at maps, discuss meteorology, time zones, even aerodynamics. Travel can be filled with great teaching moments.
The following are suggestions from Erin Gifford on how to prepare for an Internet free family trip:
Inform your kids prior to departing about your plan for a Wi-Fi free adventure. Such trips go best when everyone knows what to expect in advance.
Bring an almanac so that your children can do a little research on your destination. Challenge them to learn a few new facts each day about places you will visit.
Create playlists with your kids or ask older kids to create their own music mixes. While traveling, listen to music together and discuss with your kids why they like certain songs and ask for their input about your music.
Pack fun snacks and be sure to include favorite snacks from home as well as brand new treats. Miniature boxes of cereal are often good because they are easy for kids to snack and keep messes to a minimum.
Fill a backpack with your childrens favorite items, such as magnetic games, coloring books, crayons, and Brain Quest cards. Encourage older kids to create a journal to keep track of favorite places and activities along the way. Comfort items, such as blankets and stuffed animals should also be packed.
Plan hourly surprises, if traveling with young children, who often find it challenging to sit quietly during long car rides or plane trips. Purchase small toys, stickers and/or trinkets from a local dollar store that you can hand out frequently as a reward for being good travelers.
When traveling by car engage your kids with car games that encourage thinking and keep their minds off the drive. Younger children can often be kept occupied by challenging them to count how many cars of a certain color they can find. Older kids often enjoy playing the license plate game where they choose a number and then try to find that number by adding, subtracting, multiplying or dividing numbers they see on license plates.
Using soap as markers when traveling by car allows kids to play tic tac toe, write messages or play hangman and have minimum mess at the end of your trip.
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