With Chunjie fast approaching, it’s fair to say that most of us are starting to get holidays on the brain. For families, though, the holiday season can often prove challenging, especially during the arduous travel time between places. Whether you’re planning on driving, catching the train, or flying somewhere, you’re bound to hear the inevitable “are we there yet?” more than once. Here are some of our tips for avoiding it, or at best, reducing the stress a little.
• Make up a playlist (or a mix CD for the less tech-savvy among us) with a couple of tracks each from everyone in the family. This way the kids don’t have to sit through Neil Young and you won’t have to fight the urge to fling the Frozen soundtrack out the window.
• Download an audio book with a story that the whole family can enjoy. Our suggestions: A Wrinkle in Time, The Golden Compass, or anything by Roald Dahl.
• Bring a laptop or portable DVD player and pop on a film. Just keep an eye out for motion sickness in the little ones.
• Try out a few rounds of games, and what better than the tried-and-tested I-Spy. Hey, if it ain’t broke don’t fix it. Other ideas? 20 questions, or the category game: take turns to name a certain thing, like names of books, colors, or breeds of dogs. Take it up a notch by only using a certain letter at a time.
• If you’re on a train or plane, or waiting in the airport, try going for a walk halfway through the wait to break it up a bit. Make it into a game: try and find certain colors or words.
• Bring along a coloring book, or print out some comic book panels and get the kids to draw their own story.
• If you’re travelling in a car, pick up some window markers that the kids can use to get creative on the car windows. When they’re done, just wipe it clean.
• If you’re feeling organized, come up with your own board for Road Trip Bingo ahead of time with things to look out for like a dog, a yellow car, or someone wearing a red coat. When the kids see the thing they can cross it off their own board – first one to get them all wins!
Photo: Courtesy of Wiki Commons