3 Steps to Prepare for Travelling with Children

Travelling with young children is always a little tricky.

They crave predictability and routines... and travel is usually anything but.

However, with the right prep before your trip, you can make it a little easier.

If you're doing any travelling for the holidays, here's 3 simple things you can do to make travelling with young children easier:

1. Talk about your trip ahead of time

Imagine how strange or stressful it would be if someone said to you "we're leaving our home and sleeping in a new place tomorrow."  If you have no idea where you're going and for how long, you'd probably feel a little stressed too.

You can help to prepare your child by reading books about road trips/train trips/going on an airplane and talking about where you're going. Our last vacation, I also showed my oldest photos of the hotel we stayed at on my computer.

You don't need to talk about it constantly for weeks because that can have the opposite effect, leading your child to believe it's a really big deal. Just simple conversation, following their lead.

2. Let them help pack

Ok maybe not their whole suitcase because you might end up with a suitcase full of stuffed animals and not a single pair of underwear 😂 but even children as young as one can help pack their own small backpack or fanny pack, helping to choose snacks and activities.

Giving choices and independence can give a child some sense of control, in a situation where they might feel they have no control.

3. Prep lots of activities

Patience and sitting in one place for hours goes against a young child's nature.

Being empathetic to this can help your patience BUT what helps more than anything else is having a bunch of activities pre-planned.

We've got some really great travel printables here, like a:

• Road Trip Scavenger Hunt
• Airport Scavenger Hunt
• Road Signs Scavenger Hunt
  

         

• Letter Scavenger Hunt (or Bingo)
  
• Colour Scavenger Hunt
• Car Dot Printable