Tips for Summer Travel

For parents of young children, days for vacation can easily “swerve into the wrong lane” during summer travel. Days of relaxation can easily turn into days of frustration. Through the years, I have learned these seven simple tips that have often rescued and redeemed a summer trip with kids:

• Healthy snacks like cheese cubes, breadsticks, fruit, and bagels can help avoid “sugar highs” that often skyrocket into challenging behavior.
• Books and games that are reserved for times of travel only … games that can be played as a family … trivia games, license plate lists, travel journals with drawings of places visited (pics on smart phones can be collected to place in the journal.) (Coloring books/pages on a cookie sheet with crayons can also be a big hit!)
• Comfortable clothing is a must … and, bright colors are helpful when it comes to being able to spot and keep up with kids.
• If possible, give kids opportunities to give input related to visits and stops. Insure the kid-friendly nature of at least some of your stops.
• CDs with kid-friendly music that the whole family can “jam out” to and have fun singing as a group.
• Family apps that can not only occupy a child’s time to help the trip go faster, but, also to enrich kids spiritually (i.e., Bible Studies for Life: Kids family app; Explore the Bible family app; The Gospel Project family app)
• Your attitude! … remain positive … be happy!

Happy traveling!

Jerry Vogel serves as an Editorial Kids Ministry Specialist. He is married to Janie and has four children and thirteen grand kids. Jerry is committed to enriching the lives of those who teach kids as well as making eternal investments in the lives of children.