We all long for stress-free travel with our little ones. While we can’t promise a completely stress-free travel experience, we do have a few tips for keeping your kids busy and having fun together. You have probably already chosen a family-friendly destination. And you have to think through which little kid gear you have to take with you, and which pieces you can do without. Even then, the gear list is a lot. All we can do is try not to say bad words while we try to get our vehicle trunks to close. But, the travel time – that we can help with. Here are a few ideas for keeping little ones entertained while traveling.
Start with your time plan
We all know how long it’s supposed to take to get there. However, if you are traveling with little ones, it is going to take longer. Significantly longer. So let’s just plan for it. Planning for the extra time that we need will take so much stress off of us parents. Let’s think through feedings, diaper changes AND diaper emergencies. We have to plan for longer bathroom breaks and longer stops.
It’s also important to build in time for getting out of the car for some running around and wiggling. If you’re flying, it’s still important to keep lots of extra time available in your schedule.
At this point, we’ve added hours to our trip. But it would have taken hours longer anyway. So let’s plan for the extra time, and then, perhaps, we can feel really good about how long it took us to get there. It’s better than feeling behind and stressing our family out. Keeping the schedule stress-free and positive is the first step to keeping little ones entertained while traveling.
Easy games
It’s best for our kids’ development to be looking around. So for your forward-facing littles, it’s good to have a few simple games in mind to help them look out the windows. Yup, we’re talking “I Spy…” types of games. Little kids love to say, “I spy something yellow!” And they love to hunt for the things that you spy.
These games can be varied in all kinds of ways. You don’t have to play official “I spy.” But you can hunt for red cars. Or you could look for the colors of the rainbow. Children love to look for the alphabet or the numbers in order when they know them.
Another way to keep little ones entertained while traveling is to make (or buy) some cars with specific objects to hunt for. This could include things like buses, big trucks, emergency vehicles, or specific types of buildings, signs, or even clouds.
Thankfully, these hunting games can be fun for us adults as well. And they can be adapted for layover times in the airport too. Be sure to check out our transportation section in the Signing Time Dictionary to learn some signs to go along with your games.
Keep screen time as a last resort
It can be really tempting to start the screen time as soon as we begin our travel time. But let’s leave screen time for the last resort, the last leg of our travel day, or the thing that keeps our kids OK on a flight.
Of course, when we use screens, let’s have our kids doing educational activities, playing educational games, and watching educational shows. And you know that we think our shows are educational and fun in a way that really speaks to little ones and helps them to remember what they’ve learned.
So when you pull out the screens to keep your little ones entertained while traveling, consider heading to My Signing Time for some really positive screen time. My Signing Time is available on so many devices, so you can take it traveling with you.
Good luck on your traveling adventures this summer!