Summertime is the time for road trips and vacations and while it’s tempting to just put a movie in the car DVD player or let the kids play on their DS for the whole drive there are other ways to help keep your child busy as you travel. Now I know as a parent that I can only play I Spy with my Little Eye, or sing “The wheels on the bus” so many times before it drives me nuts so here are a couple of other ideas that can help take the “Are we there yet” out of your children.
1. Wind-up toys can keep fingers active and provide amusement. Their small size makes them easily portable.
2. Dot –to –dot books from 1 -20 or 1-500 can be bought and keep kids interest as they anxiously connect the dots to find out what the picture is on the paper.
3. Travel games are available in a lot of different varieties. Plus games are a great way to help teach social skills like communication and good sportsmanship as well as reinforcing vocabulary, spelling and math skills. I still love the old Traffic Sign Bingo.
4. Magnetic play sets. These come in a wide variety of themes and allow children the ability to imagine, pretend and play while in the car and don’t take up a lot of room.
5. Drawing paper and stickers are a part of every household with children and have gone on many a road trip. Have your child keep a journal of the trip making notes about everything that they see. Have them exercise their creative writing skills by writing fictional stories based on what they see. Creating comic books can also really help those miles disappear.
6. And speaking of books, good old fashion books and reading are still great ways to pass the time on those long road trips. Better yet, take turns reading the book to each other and practice your flair for Drama. Kids will love hearing all the different voices you can make and you will love finding out how well your child can read.
These are just a few tips and ideals to help you pass the time on all of your trips. Whatever you do and however you choose to help your kids pass the time, remember that the importance of a summer road trip is to spend quality time with your family. So next time you’re heading on a long trip, I hope you remember to have fun and activate your child’s imagination.
Coming up next time: Summertime Learning Loss and what you can do to help eliminate it.
1 comment:
Reduce the number of pieces. You don't want to be forever trying to find missing pieces. Nor do you want baby screaming on the plane because the ball keeps falling on the floor and rolling down the other end of the plane. This will end up being more trouble than it's worth.
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