Travel Diary And Surprise Packets For Kids

Travel at Night With Young Kids
- When going on long trips it is better to leave at night with young kids so they can sleep. I buy inexpensive toys and give 1 to them every hour since kids only like to play with toys the first hour. (Try magazines with older kids)

Travel Diary
- Prior to your trip, prepare a homemade 'book' with a page for each day you will be gone. Write the day/date at the top of each page. As you travel, your child can use any sit-down time to fill in what you are doing that day, draw pictures of interesting things you saw, paste brochures, or get the autographs of anyone - from your waiter to the occasional celebrity! Your book will be just the thing to share with your friends when you return.

Travel Packets
- In planning a road trip with younger children, prepare surprise packets for them to open periodically during the trip. Perhaps you could plan for two a day - one midmorning, the other mid-afternoon. In these packets could be such items as books, travel games, snacks, small toys. This gives the child something to anticipate . . . as well as something to do.

Unusual Toddler Toys
- For our young toddler, a roll of tape was her favorite airplane toy. They tend to stick together and get lost less.

Videocam Entertainment for Tots
- Air travel with tots: To keep wiggly toddlers in their seats happily, film their favorite video on your handheld videocamera. Replay in flight, letting them watch it on the small screen. (Tip: bring extra batteries!)

Wetting Accidents
- When taking long road trips with younger children (6 and younger) have them wear diapers or pull-ups (or for older kids, goodnites) while riding in the car. This has saved us from many accidents. If they refuse to wear them, keep a couple in the glove box and have them put the diaper on when they need to go.

What Happens if You Lose Your Child?
- Here's a tip that will help defray some of that worry. Before starting on the trip, visit a local hospital and ask if they will make one of those plastic bracelets for each of your children. Usually, they will. Then you can put whatever information you'd like on a slip of paper and insert it into the bracelet. If you're traveling to/through foreign countries, you may want to put the information in several languages.