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So You're Traveling 
With Your Kids
Great Advice for Parents and Grandparents from a Mother and a Grandmother who has been there and back!
By Contributing Editor,
Pamela Loxley Drake
Good for you! I have traveled three times by car across the US with my children at various ages and many times over the years by plane. Now I am traveling with my granddaughters. Guess what!? Nothing has changed. What was true years ago holds true today. You are on an adventure of memory gathering and creating a new relationship with your children that will only grow more deeply with time. So, let's get to work.
All types of travel Some activities and packing advice holds true for all types of travel and most ages. Packing and traveling Clothing - Layers! Pack for different climates by layering. Take extra shoes for little ones and enough clothing to get you buy at least 3-4 days (don't forget diaper accidents and spills). Pack a sweater or jacket for little ones regardless of the season. Keep outer wear simple to removal when hopping in and out of the car (no one wants to stand in the rain tugging on a jacket or wants to get a child out of a sweater once the car warms up). Note. Kids like to wiggle their toes and curl up when they travel. Let them wear shoes that are easily removed and socks to keep toes warm. Getting in and out of cars and planes will be easier, especially with tired children.Suitcases - If you are buying new travel bags for your child, let them have a choice. In order to save time in choosing the bag, narrow down the choices (luggage on wheels is great). The child will feel very grownup having his/her own bag and will gladly pull it to all destinations. For older children, let them have a choice in choosing items to be packed as well packing their own bag. Note. Let your children make luggage tags using contact paper or laminate, fun shapes of card stock, hole punch and heavy cord. They will feel part of the preparation team and will be proud to show off their tags.
Backpack - reat for small trips away from your base. Remember to bring a baby backpack to carry small children and toddlers. Note. When traveling to theme parks, take a backpack. Rent a stroller and place the pack over the handle. Everyone will be more rested. Also remember to place a tag with your name and phone number on the child in case they are lost. Pack a spritzer bottle of water for extremely hot days. It is as good as a hop through the sprinkler.
Car Prep - Buy a caddy pack to go over the back of the front seat to hold water, toys, snacks, books, diaper, etc. Also, place a towel under car seats to keep little feet from soiling the seat. This towel can also be used to cover the car seat on hot days so the child avoids hot plastic.
Detergent/softener - When staying away from home, you will more than likely do laundry. Laundry packs are small and easy to pack. Pack softener sheets in your clothing for fresh smelling garments.
Antibacterial cleaner and spray - A must with recent concerns of cleanliness in rooms and especially to protect your children. (stay away from pressurized cans).
Hand sanitizer - One for the car and one for your purse.
Wipes - The entire family will use many of these. I like to pack a roll of paper towels for emergency clean ups.
1st Aid Kit - Need not be more than an antibacterial ointment and bandaids.
Plastic Bags - Make use of those store bags. Great for garbage, wet clothes, treasures from the beach or forest, separate dirty clothes from clean clothes, shoes, etc.
Activities:
- Travel Journal - This has been my favorite part of traveling with children of all ages. Find some type of fun scrapbook album that will appeal to the kids. Save flyers, ticket stubs, anything that represents the places you visit each day. Take along a glue stick. Each day, place the date at the top of the page(s) used and label each item glued (silly sayings are always fun). Leave spaces for photographs to be added later. When traveling with my teenagers, we took turns each night writing in a journal. When I look back at the journal now, I find great delight in the different ways we each experienced our days of travel.
- Travel games -many big named games come in travel form as well. Great for all of the family.
- Puzzles, activity books, crayons and coloring books
- Toys -Many toys come in play sets with little carrying cases. Take a variety of rattles and mobiles for babies. They will get bored, too.
- Bead sets
- Electronic games - I tend to stay away from these because the child loses the opportunity to interact with the rest of the family and misses out on the adventure of travel, especially that going on outside the windows.
- Silly Putty - Great for plane flights. Be sure to take a comic book or some book that does not have slick pages. Supervise use.
- Collect patches - When we traveled from state to state, we collected patches from each state and placed them on a wide, grosgrain ribbon on their walls. It was an adventure to find the patches and fun to see how many states the children had visited. Sometimes we if we were close to a state border, we would just hop over it to gain a new patch.
- Binoculars - Always fun for wild animal and scenery watching.
- Video camera - Let your older children make a video diary. They can plan out their shots, choose what is important to represent the places you see and will capture their own voices behind the camera. What fun!
- CD's - Don't forget your children's favorite music. For babies, lullaby's and classical music are a must.
Medications - Don't forget the motion sickness meds just in case. Be sure that prescriptions are filled and you have the number of your doctor and pharmacists (take refill numbers if you don't take the RX bottle).
Disposable camera - A must for kids 5 and up. Remind them that they have a limited number of pictures. Help them keep a log of where and when the pictures are taken.
Contact information - Be sure to carry your address and phone number and the phone number of a contact not traveling with you. Also give someone your itinerary so they can keep tabs on you if needed.
Camera - Be sure take extra film and be sure to have enough memory on your digital camera.
Alarm clock and/or timer - This is a great way to keep kids from asking "how long".
Pillows and throw - Everyone will be cozier in the backseat with travel pillows to rest on and a small throw to wrap around them as they nap.
Snuggle toy or blanket - Each child sleeps better with a 'friend' from home. I personally wish I could take my 3 pillows!
Snack/Water - Be sure to have bottles of water even if you pick up cold ones on the way. If you only have water, there is no battle of what is drink choices remain, there are no sugar highs and no stains from spills. Snacks should be healthy. For little ones, fruit strips are clean and good as are snack bars. For adults and teens, nuts are good to last awhile as are granola and granola bars. Teething biscuits for little ones are risky and messy. Dry cereal can be messy but is something less likely to cause choking. Note. When flying, popping ears can be extremely painful for children. Remember the chewing gum. Also, drinking from a bottle of water can help. Giving the child an antihistamine seems to help, too.
End of the day - This might just be the most special part of your entire trip. Don't miss this opportunity to spend time making memories. Here is a list of things that have worked for us. Be creative and silly. The kids will love you for it.
- Sharing the Best part/worse part - This is something we do with my granddaughters at the end of the day or at meal time. Each person talks about the best part of their day and the worse part of the day. Encourage each person to share. This not only opens up communication but also gives you incite into what is happening in their lives. It also helps for them to know you have bad days, too.
- Shadow Puppets - I even did this with my grown kids on a trip across the southern part of the US. My daughter was in college and my son in high school. Of course, they thought I was an idiot but finally got into the fun. This was right before my son informed me that I looked better laying on my back because all the wrinkles went to the back of my head. Hm.
- Card games - Everyone loves cards. It's never too late to learn new ones or make up games for the little ones. The match game works with most any deck of cards. Play Slap Jack with the kids and Gin Rummy when the kids go to sleep. Build a card house when all else fails!
- Treasure Hunt - This is a game that ages 4 and up can play in the car. First, make a list of things that the children will see along the way (animals, red truck, FOOD sign, etc). Make it more challenging for older kids. They must mark off items as they see them (be sure they show you the item since there is a reward at the end of the day). When you are tucked in for the night, talk about what they saw then count up who found the most. Give a special reward. It is fun to use marbles. They can see how many they have at the end of the trip and can carry them around in their pockets.
- Picture Diary - Using markers and/or crayons, let your child draw a picture of something that happened or something they saw during the day. This works well in your Travel Journal.
Car Games - Our family loves travel games. I grew up playing them on Sunday drives in our old Packard. (Okay, the truth is out, I'm old.) Here are some that we played and those that have developed through the next two generations.
- My Father Owns a Grocery Store - The first person says "My father owns a grocery store, and in it he has ____ (obviously, something from a grocery store). In rotation each person has 3 guesses. We don't really have winners since little ones would never have a turn. Four year old Gabby usually has boats, cars, anything she sees on the street in her father's grocery store. We get a good laugh out of the adventure.
- Storytelling - I've found that on short or long car trips, the children love to make up stories and usually request me to do the same (great time to tell stories of their parent's growing up). It stimulates their imaginations and makes for an enjoyable time. Sydney (age 7) has been making up stories since she was just 4.
- Rhyming - Another great tool to help the children learn. One person starts with a word then each following person must rhyme a new word. Again, no winners or losers.
- Zip Zip - This is a game from my childhood. We played as follows: Horses are 1 pt, dogs are 2 pts and goats are 3 pts. With my little ones now, we usually use dogs and cats. Everyone can play and play for hours. If someone sees a graveyard, he/she yells "Bury your zips." Everyone else then loses their points and must start over. We don't play this part with the little ones. It's a good game to help children observe and use math skills.
- ABC - In rotation each person takes a letter starting at the beginning of the alphabet. We skip the difficult letters or help find them with the younger children. The letter must start a word (on a sign, car, truck, etc). Again, it encourages observation outside of the vehicle.
- Singing in the car -I grew up in a family of singers. A trip in the car meant a good time singing. I still sing with my granddaughters. We even make up our own songs. Take along a voice activated tape recorder. You won't regret it.
Capture memories, take advantage of the time together and enjoy. Traveling with children of all ages builds family, communication and love.
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Cheers,
Annette
President & Co-founder
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