Having a Happy Road Trip with Your Kids

It is getting to be summer. For my family growing up summer meant taking a road trip somewhere fun.  Though it may sound like a nightmare, there are many advantages to taking road trips especially when you have children.  You can save money if you plan the trip correctly, you also get to avoid sitting for 5 hours on a plane with a screaming child.  There is also something very American about driving across the country and stopping at the "Mummy Alien" or whatever else you find along the way. 

I am a huge believer in no personal electronics on a road trip.  The point of sitting in a car together is to connect and bond.  It may be easier on you if you let your kids have their own little world, but when your children are grown you're going to wish you had spent more time connecting and talking instead of taking the easy route of electronics.  Besides our parents didn't let us use things like that or watch movies in cars and we all turned out perfectly fine. 

Planning

Plan your trip wisely.  Do not try to rush to your destination, enjoy the journey.  Remember that at every gas stop, your entire family is going to need to get out and potty and stretch.  If you have a young one that is in the middle of potty training, bring his or her potty and some wipes with you.  That way if you have to make an emergency stop in the middle of nowhere, they at least have a potty to sit on while they go to the bathroom.  Plan for stops at the world's largest whatever and anything else cool you see on the way.  I would also suggest planning on stopping at your motel or hotel for the night by 6 or 7 pm.  Then you have time to let your kids run around, play in the pool and explore your stop for the night.  You should also plan one long stop during the day so you can find a park and the kids can run around and play for an hour or so.  Letting children get their wiggles out at a park or a road side stop, means less wiggles during the car ride. 

Activities

Have lots of activities for your children to do in the car.  You can get some audio books from your local library that your whole family will enjoy.  You can also burn a few cds, if you can't stand listening to wheels on the bus one more time you might want to consider burning some pg songs that you like to listen to on the cds.  Play games like finding the alphabet first or I spy.  Have quiet activities they can do as well like books, coloring books, etch-a-sketch, dolls, action figures, ect.  Buy a couple surprises and have them stashed away for when times get super rough and they need a new activity.  Bring a map and let your kids follow the route on the map.  If they are young you can plot out the map for them and show them where they are and where they are going, if they are older have them plot out where they are.  A road trip is a good way to to learn how to use and read a map.

Food

This may be the most important part of the trip.  Have some cut raw veggies available, home made granola bars, sandwiches, tube yogurt, goldfishies, water, and whatever else your family eats.  If you are planning on saving money, you might consider having picnics for breakfast and lunches.  You can pack the picnics at the motel the night before, buying fresh food at a local store or bringing a loaf of bread and jar of peanut butter on the trip.  Then you can all look forward to having dinner somewhere special.  My family had a rule that you can't eat somewhere you can eat at home.  This meant no nation wide chains and we got to experience local favorites.  Whatever you do, don't limit yourselves to burgers and fries.  I'm sure I'm not alone when I say eating fast food makes grumpy.  Whatever you do avoid feeding your children lots of sugary foods.  There is nothing worse than making them super hyper and then locking them in a car for hours on end.  Having lots of yummy, healthy snacks is a way to make the trip much easier on yourself and kids. 

Enjoy your trip.  The road trip is about spending time together and seeing something you might not otherwise see.  Don't get frustrated or stressed before the trip, the driving is the fun part of the experience.  Hopefully it is something you will love doing with your kids and make it a regular part of vacations. 
 

Picking the Right Preschool or Daycare

There comes a day when it's time to trust your child to strangers by sending them to preschool or daycare.  The choice of which preschool can be overwhelming to parents.  Do you send them to a commercial center or in someones house?  Do you pick the Montessori preschool or the private one at your church?  There are certainly a lot of choices and not every preschool is the right fit for every family. 

When picking the school or daycare you need to consider how long/how many days a week, cost and location before you even go to look at the school.  After you find a couple centers in your price range with the hours you need it's time to schedule a visit and go see the schools in person. 

On the day you tour the school or daycare you should come with a list of questions for the person showing you around.  You are going to trust these people with the most precious possession you own, don't be afraid to ask a million questions.  If you don't know where to start questioning I will give you a few things to ask or at least consider asking before picking a place. 

• What is the child to adult ratio?
• How do you discipline a child?
• What does a typical day look like here?
• How much time do they spend outside in a day?
• What do you feed the children for snack and or meals?
• Do they serve organic foods?
• Do they clean with chemicals or are they eco-friendly?
• Do you do evaluations of the children to let me know how they are developing?
• Will you let me know if my child has areas he or she needs to work on?
• What if my child gets hurt?  Do you send home boo-boo reports?
• How many field trips do the children take a year?
• How are you going to prepare my child for kindergarten?

When touring the school poke around a bit.  Does it look clean and well organized?  Is the bathroom clean and kid friendly?  Are there lots of toys?  Is it designed for children i.e. small tables and chairs and everything low for a child? Is there a playground outside?  Does it look well kept or run down?  Is the staff friendly and smiling or do they look tired and grumpy? 

If you still want to know more ask if can come in during business hours and observe the staff interacting with the kids or ask if your child can come for a day or a week to see how he or she likes the school. 

My suggestion is to introduce your child to the idea of preschool slowly especially if he or she is used to a nanny or being watched by someone at home.  I would start the child off with half day two or three days a week and from there eventually build up to more days/longer days depending on if you plan to send your child to full day or half day kindergarten.  For daycare you don't usually have the option of introducing your child slowly, put you can still make the experience postive by talking up how great it is. 

Preschool is a wonderful time in a child's life when they get to develop a social life and make friends outside of who their parents pick for them.  It is their first real taste of freedom and look into how wonderful school will be.  Putting them in the right mindset now will help cultivate a love of school.