Summer Vacation & Kids

How to you Get kids to Behave In the Car?

So you are off on your vacation. Everyone is excited..the car is loaded and off you go!  For the first 15 minutes it is wonderful. You are talking about what it will be like when you get there.  Then little Jimmy takes little Sissy’s barbie doll…and all heck breaks loose….for the next 13 hours!

Sound familiar?  So what do you do to help keep your kids occupied on a trip?

Have plenty of things lined up to do.

1) Books – They are wonderful if your kids read. Make a special trip to the book store or library so that book seems really special.

2) Stories on CD – You can get at the library or bookstore.

3) DVD Players – I think this is a saving grace. We have a portable one we bought only for trips. But we don’t use it the whole way.

4) Have a pad of paper & pencil for each child. Play the License plate game (they list all the states they see) or the ABC game. Find the ABC’s on signs and the first person to get to Z wins.

5) Take non messy snacks and water. Fruit snacks are good or dried fruit. Small bite size crackers don’t make too much mess either. It is best to dole these out in individual bags for each child.

Have a Plan for Rewarding Good Behavior

Should good behavior be expected? Well sure.  Should it always be rewarded…nope . But come on, we are talking a 13 hour car ride straped in a seatbelt or car seat…we can’t ask for miracles.

1) We rewarded each child with .25 cents (yes..only a quarter and this included the 14 & 15 yr old) for each hour they behaved.  The real deal was that they had to ALL behave so that any of them could get their quarter. It worked great. They didn’t want to bug each other because they knew if they ticked that person off…they might lose their own quarter.  After a total of over 27 hours in the car (both ways) I think there was only 4 hours they didn’t earn their quarters. It gave them a little extra spending money and it was enough incentive to give them encouragement.  Did it take dollars each hour? Nope…just a quarter.

2) You can make a sticker chart or some other form of reward chart. They can do something special on the trip.

Give the kids Time Markers

Are we there yet?  How many times do you get that question?

Make some kind of visual marker so the kids can see how many hours are gone.  We have used CD tapes before. We used to have them in a console and each hour we would turn one a different direction. We only had up the # of hours we were driving. So the kids could see how close we were to the time we were to get there.  You can use lifesavers on a string. You could use beads or stickers on a chart.

I think if the kids feel a little more “in control” then they will be a little less “out of control” in the car.

Don’t forget…you can always do the old stand by = Drive at night so they will sleep.

Summer Vacation Planning

Have You Planned Your Vacation Yet?

This was from our trip 2 years ago.  I call this the “Ugly Van”.  I hated the looks of it, but it sure worked great for 7 people to travel in, especially when you come home with this!

Yes…hubby one him on a game. How could I say no to these kids?  Yes, after they had him a few months and realized he was more in the way than fun, they donated him.  But until then…he took up the 8th seat in the van on the way home…and he did make a good sleeping pillow.

Packing

Make a List before you start packing.

1) Write down essentials.  If you are going to a unit that you can do laundry, then plan for that. You don’t have to bring clothes for 7 days, but maybe just 3 days.  At least for the kids. You may know they have on an outfit they wore 3 days ago..but if it is clean and your on vacation…chances are that no one else will notice….or care.

2) Decided if you will need a roof top carrier or not.  Do you have one or can you borrow one?

Pack Activities for the kids

1) Do you have activites in the car to keep the kids occupied?  (books, car games, DVD, ipods)  Traveling with kids wouldn’t be so bad if they didn’t fight. Many people leave at night just so the kids will sleep most of the way. I have never done that myself. But helping them to stay occupied sure helps the bordom and decreases the fighting.

2) Pack a bag for each child. It makes them feel special and gives them some “territory” that they can feel is in “their space” in the car.

3) Keep it simple. Remember there are great games you can play while traveling that doesn’t take batteries or power.

Organizing to Traveling

I have started my traveling this year….in a big way.  So I really have been organizing to travel!  I just went to Austin, TX to be a judge for the Genesis Today Bloggers Immersion. I got to help pick one of the 5 finalist for the Genesis of a Great Idea Contest.  Debba Haupert won by the way from Girlfriendology.com

I leave on Wednesday to go to Nashville for the BlissDom conference. I am going to see my boys who live there on Wednesday and go to the conference the next day. I will be driving there. I flew to TX.

I come back from there on a Sunday and leave again on Wednesday for the Disney Social Media Moms Conference. I will be flying there also.

Here are a few tips that I have used to make getting ready to go easier.

1) Make a packing list.  Ok..I always do this. But I took it a step further and have it on my computer now. So I just have to print it out and tweek it for each trip.  It has all the items that I am always worried I will forget…like the phone, computer, camera chargers and sync cables, business cards.  I have a section on it for things to take on board the plane.

2) You can also make another list like the above for things to do before you leave.  Cooking meals for the family, make a copy of your itinerary for your husband or wife, leave insurance card and schedule for kids activities.

3) If possible use a little larger suitcase to go with, so you will have room if you get things on your trip to bring home.

4) Pack a base color of clothes and use accessories to change your look to reduce clothing. Scarves are great accessories (I am just learning how to use them myself)

5) Be sure all your electronic items are charged before you leave.

Space-Saver Bags….What do you think?

I saw these space saving bags that are meant for travel. I have used the others and like them…these do not have to be sucked out by a vacuum. You seal your clothes in and then just roll. The air comes out a valve on the other end.

I am traveling to Blog World Exp and will be there for 5 days. Trying to fit everything into one suitcase can be a challenge.  With the cost involved with just your suitcases….you want to only take one of them.  It is $20 for the first bag and $30 for a 2nd bag..that would be $100 just in luggage round trip. That is crazy!!

The finished product…..

The side view.  There are 3 blazers in here.

Here are my shirts…

Sucked up shirts.

So here is what I think.  I think these could be a big benefit.  My main concern was if the clothes were going to be wrinkled much worse than they would be from normal packing.  Looking down into the finished sucked up bags….all I could see were these wrinkled looking clothes. It was hard for me to believe that they wouldn’t come out that way. Not that I didn’t want to give a full testing for all of you….but I didn’t want to have completely wrinkled clothes. Maybe…..they don’t wrinkle…but I didn’t want to be walking around BWE in terrible looking clothes and have to say…ooops….

So I didn’t use them other than on my jeans.  Those did not roll very well either.  I did pack the empty bags in my suitcase because I think they will be awesome to put my dirty clothes in to come home.

The gold sweater already had some wrinkles after just 5 minutes in the bag.  The other issue I had was that I roll as many of my clothes as I can to fit down in the sides…with these I couldn’t roll as much.

But I do think these could be of good use in several cases.  So I am not giving these a bad review…but I think you have to just be careful with what you use them with.

Full disclosure – I purchased these myself at Meijers for $14.99 (2 small and 2 large bags).  I was not asked to review…just thought I would let you know.

List Travel

For those of you who are going to be traveling soon (hopefully to Type A Mom Conference like me) this post is for you.

LIST

Make one!  Sit down with your cup of coffee and start writing down all of the things that you need to take with you.  Make sure you do not forget all those phone and computer chargers. (Best to label them with what they are for and your name and phone number in case you forget them in a hotel room.)

I made a list for what I am taking and when I think of something else I add it on.

I made a list today. It looks like this:

Monday Tuesday

1) Todays posts                                                           1) Car oil change

2) Do Bills                                                                      2) Clean out car

3) Get pouchee orders out                                     3) Write family itenary

4) Start packing                                                           4) Finish packing

Well..you get the point.  But if you plan out all you need to accomplish and get it on paper you are going to clear your head and keep from forgetting things.  Cross things out as you do them and you feel like you are accomplishing something and you can see clearly how much more you need to do.

Just one way to simplify what can be a crazy time…keep from staying up at night because you don’t want to forget to do ….(fill in the blank)

Lists = simple + free + organized