Posts Tagged ‘traveling with toddlers’
Traveling Across Country with Infants and Toddlers
Author Alexine
Whether you are planning a big move or a fun family vacation it can be a challenge when you have young children. Traveling with infants and toddlers requires lots of patients and plenty of free time. It is especially important to plan accordingly when traveling across country with little ones. With the right preparations your trip can be fun and successful.
Plan Your Route
Before you hit the road it is important to figure out how long of a trip it is to your destination or multiple destinations. Once you figure out how far it is and the roads you will be taking then you have an accurate mileage count. This is important when determining how many days you will need.
Driving Schedule
It is important to give yourself plenty of time when traveling with little ones. Trying to cram lots of driving into each day will become wearing on your energy and patients. To help make your trip more fun, break up the drive into no more than five hundred miles in one day. This will most likely take you all day to do so it is important to get an early start.
Book Hotels
To make your travel plans run smoothly and to get a bit of down time between days of driving make sure you book hotels. With an accurate driving schedule you should be able to book your rooms along the way. This is nice so you can have a place to shower, bathe the kids and relax before getting back on the road.
Pack a Cooler
When you have infants and toddlers in tow it is really important to pack a cooler with snacks and drinks. Having plenty of sippy cups and bottles of formula or breast milk is essential for long trips. You will also want to pack non-perishable sandwiches in case there are no places to get lunch when they get hungry.
Plan on Stopping
When traveling by car with your little ones it is hard to drive for long periods of time. Remember to plan on stopping quite a bit with infants and toddlers, especially if you are potty training. It is almost more convenient when they are in diapers because you can wait to stop and change them instead of taking lots of potty breaks.
Entertainment
To make the ride more enjoyable for your infants and toddlers make sure you pack plenty of toys and books. Teething rings, rattles, links and sensory toys are great for infants to keep them busy in their rear facing car seats. On the other hand toddlers require more stimulation so a DVD player, DVDs and books to read are great for road trips. Also kid songs CDs are great if you do not mind singing along for fun.
Necessities
While this is the last category on the list necessities are the most important things for your trip. Infants and toddlers have a lot more necessities than older children to make their experience more enjoyable. Remember the binkies, bottles, sippy cups, blankies, diapers, wipes, extra clothes and medicines.
If your babies get fevers or are teething it is nice to have your bag of goodies along to help save the day. Also if there is a spit up situation or a blowout it is always nice to be prepared. You cannot prepare enough when it comes to traveling long distance with your infants and toddlers so take your time when packing and planning.
Ten Fun Activities to Entertain a Traveling Toddler
Author Alexine
By: Alexine
Traveling with toddlers can be very tricky as they are in the “terrible 2” or “terrible 3” stage. Pretty much once your child starts running around and taking fewer naps traveling becomes a challenge. Making sure they don’t get bored and scream on the flight will save you a headache for sure. To help keep your toddler entertained en route I have come up with ten fun activities to do together or independently.
Drawing
While a pencil and paper are not the best choices for an active toddler there are plenty of options available. Using one of those magic pens on the black paper that only show the colors when the pen is used are great. There is no mess and they can draw you lots of pretty pictures.
Coloring
Crayons and coloring books are lots of fun to use together or let your toddler do alone. There are many different stages of coloring books available and one for beginners is preferable. This way you can talk about what they are coloring and work on staying in the lines. It’s good practice and takes up time.
Painting
I would never suggest taking an actual paint set on the plane however those paint with water books are wonderful. All you need is a paintbrush and cup of water to use the book. The great thing about these is the colors appear when the water is put on them so you can talk about the colors of the shapes for fun.
Flash Cards
Working on getting ready for school and expanding your toddler’s vocabulary can be lots of fun. Flash cards are a great activity for traveling as you can do many activities with one set of cards. First you can name them. Then you can sort them in different ways. It is a learning activity and fun all in one.
Reading
Bringing along a few of your toddler’s favorite books is great to keep them preoccupied. Sometimes you may have to read the same book over and over but that is a lot easier on the ears than a frustrated tot. Once you have read the book you can also go back trough and talk about the pictures on the pages.
Movies
If you have a portable movie player then this would be the perfect opportunity to put it to good use. I have seen many toddlers sitting on airplanes silent and happy while watching their favorite movies or shows on DVD. If you don’t own one then you can use your laptop or rent one at the airport.
Puzzles
Educational toys are some of my favorites because they work on the mind and keep your child entertained. Puzzles are a great solution for long flights as they can be an activity you do together. Make sure you bring age appropriate puzzles to keep your toddler’s attention.
Treats
Special treats like lollypops and sweets are great for traveling because they help calm down you little one when they are getting out of hand. There is sure to be a moment or two where you just need something to get them to sit down or quiet down. This is when you try a lollypop or some fruit snacks.
Picture Album
This activity is great because it keeps your toddler entertained and gets them thinking about fun memories. Picture albums of personal photos or filled with pictures out of magazines are great. You can put animals, people, objects and other photos in there to keep them talking to you instead of whining.
Cozy Blanket
Most likely at some point throughout the day of traveling your toddler will finally get burned out. This is the perfect time to bring out a cozy blanket from home and maybe a stuffed animal or two. Familiar cozy items are wonderful sleeping aids when getting your little one to take a nap.
While it may be a lot to take all of these things along with you while traveling, pick and choose according to your toddler’s interests. Make sure you bring several activities along to keep them busy because their attention spans are normally pretty short during this phase. If you really wanted you could probably fit all the items above in a small roll on bag. Then you surely wouldn’t run out of activities.
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