Member Article

How to Keep Your Child Entertained While Having a Trip

A family trip is always an adventure. You meet new people, see new sites, and gain new experience… But while you’re driving, your child has to sit still, buckled up. He can’t move freely, and this is irritating. That’s why it’s so important to be creative to find something interesting to occupy your children while traveling. So, when you plan a long drive somewhere, pick a couple of toys or finger puppets, a music player to play your kid’s favorite songs or tracks. Moreover, a new toy will grab his attention, too.

While on the road, many children become hungry, so don’t forget to pick some snacks for them. When children feel tired or start creating, offer them the snacks you’ve taken. Don’t take candies or sweets, they are full of empty calories and make thirsty. Take some nuts, raisins, cheese or crackers.

While in the car, you’ve got a great ability to observe the surroundings. Offer you kid to make up a story about people driving in the cars or about places they see. Also, you can play a game called ‘banana game.’ You count yellow cars and get points for that. In general, you can count cars of different colors. For example, you can spot only red cars and your child - only blue.

Another game is interesting and educative at the same time. It’s called ‘a spelling bee’ game, and it teaches your children how to spell words. Each person in the car has to spell a word. If he or she spells the word correctly, he remains in the game. If the word is spelled incorrectly, the person drops out. The competition lasts until someone is left and this person will be named ‘the champion speller.’ When selecting words, especially for small children, make sure that you choose words that are age appropriate. Otherwise, children may feel disappointed or unhappy.

One more game which is good for developing your children’s speaking skills and fantasy and can be played in the car - is a story-telling game. Suggest your family composing a group story. One person in the car suggests the first line of the story. The beginning can be simple, for example, “Once upon a time, there lived a king.” Also, it is possible to start the story with something more extraordinary like, “The King had three songs and a daughter who turned a werewolf in the night’. Then, each person adds a line, and finally, everybody will come up with a fascinating story.

If you can’t keep your child entertained all the way, ask him or her to do something by himself. You can offer him to draw something on paper using a plastic tray which can be stored in the car trunk. Don’t forget about a pen or a pencil. Many children love to draw, and they can spend a lot of time drawing. Another drawing idea - is to take a mobile device with you, an iPhone, iPad or Android tablet. You can download any drawing application from their app markets, and your child can draw on the screen, without paper and pencils. Prefer drawing applications that teach to draw, instead of applications that provide just a drawing instrument. Children need drawing ideas and learning, so give preference to applications Download Pandora apk with drawing lessons or tutorials.

If you drive in the car and you have an iPad, my suggestion is to install a drawing application ‘How to Draw - Easy Drawing Lessons.’ It’s free, easy to use and it contains a lot of drawings, like, cars and planes for boys, and cats and flowers for girls. You can download it from the Apple store

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Manish Prajapati .