Tips to Engage Children Meaningfully During Travel

Tips to Engage Children Meaningfully During Travel

Tips to Engage Children Meaningfully During Travel -Vacations call for happy times with family while you explore the place and enjoy being away from work and daily chores. We all plan well ahead of our vacations, except for the impromptu plans. Even till date, whenever I plan a vacation, I browse through various websites, people’s opinions, best time to travel and all the places out there which I can explore. These are some of the basic things that anyone would do as a tourist. If you have a traveller bug in you, you would go some extra steps to read about the place, its history, the cuisines and delicacies you can try out there and find out those places which remain unexplored by a vast majority of people.

Travelling with children requires exactly the same amount of preparation. After all, your ultimate aim is to let your kid explore and enjoy right from the beginning of the trip till you get back home. Just like us, travelling not only expands their horizon and knowledge but also makes them get that break from staying within the four walls and all the comfortable places he has known and always been to. Travelling for children with developmental delays is a great way to boost their confidence and also help them explore and learn. Here are few tips that you can imbibe to get your child more engaged during travel. These tips work very well with children with developmental delays as well.

Tips to Engage Children Meaningfully During Travel

Set an expectation

The most effective way I have felt is to let your child take a virtual tour of the place you are planning your vacation to. Show them the famous places and vacation spots of the destination. It will not only trigger their thirst to know more about the place but also set an expectation of what they might see over there. You may also learn quite a bit in the process and figure out what kind of places your child really enjoys visiting. Back in the days when we used to travel as a family together, my father used to tell us about all the famous places, monuments and the geography of the place; if we will be seeing a mountain or it will be a beach. It would just keep me imagining the place and all the things I can do once I get there. Now with internet being available to everyone and on the go, the process is even simpler. Humans learn a lot from pictures. So grab their attention by showing them the place and taking them through a virtual tour. You will see your kid being excited as you to explore the place once you get there!

Read

Yes! Read. Remember the time when you had visited Banaras or Munnar and how our parents would tell us all the relevant stories about the place? The historical background, the scenic beauty, or talk of a war memorial established there. So read them stories of the place. Let them know why you have chosen the place to be your upcoming holiday destination. It will not just introduce them to a world of knowledge but over the years when they grow up and start reading about the places in their books, it will be easy for them to relate and understand better. Most of the historical events or mythological events that I know of are all told me as stories by my parents and grandparents every time we travelled to a place of interest. These stories that you tell them now along with the travel will be etched in their memory for long. Moreover you can see your kid asking you questions when you get there with every place you visit about its significance.

Plan activities for them

There will surely be few places you go on a vacation where you can plan some activities for your kid. If you are on a beach holiday, you can carry your kid’s beach play kit along. Even if you do not have extra space for a kit in your luggage, you can engage your child in making sand castles once you are at the beach. It enhances their creativity and imagination power and also lets you relive your childhood memories!

Include them in the planning

If you wish to engage your kid during travel, the first step should be taken at home. Include them in the planning. Help them read a map, mark your destinations and let them plan their own basic luggage. Certain websites let children know and understand about a country they are travelling and they will surely learn few from these websites which even you would not know!

Travelling is all about exploring and creating memories. Surely we cannot expect our kids to be as interested in a museum or art gallery as we would for half a day, but we can surely give them some background of the place and tools to help them get them hands on experience and create memories that will last them a lifetime.

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