Travel Tips for Christmas

Online Violin & Fiddle Lessons

Christmastime often means traveling to grandma's or a family party. You can make these trips less stressful when you have kids along by following some of these tips.Traveling with children often times requires that you become an expert storyteller, comedian, actor, or magician in order to keep peace and make the time pass quicker. Here are some age appropriate tips for you to use on your next holiday trip.Babies enjoy looking at bright objects that have interesting shapes, or are pop-up tops, and also mirrors and rattles are favorite amusers too.Toddlers will be kept busy with hand puppets, shape sorters of all kinds, board books, musical toys (that won't irritate you), and plastic containers that kid can easily open themselves and close. Keep play objects in them that are not too small (choking). A coloring book and chubby crayons are great entertainment.Preschoolers love to unwrap boxes that contain surprises for them to play with like magnetic numbers and letters on a metal tray, picture books, treats to eat, or mirrors and stuffed animals.Younger school-aged kids love to work with activity books that have stickers in them, felt boards, modeling clay, action figures or dolls and stuffed animals.Older kids can use travel-size board games or hand-held electronic games, magazines or books, or car games like finding certain state license plates or counting colored cars, or store signs. Kids have great imaginations and can sometimes amuse themselves on long car rides by playing these car games like "I-Spy" - spotting something along the landscape that is a certain color or shape.

It is a good idea to take along music CDs or books on tape for hours of entertainment value. Some popular series are: Silly Sing Alongs, Toddler Tunes, music by Joe Scruggs, Raffi or hits that you remember from The Beatles, or Broadway or Hitsville USA: The Motown Singles or a popular kids group: Sharon, Louis and Bram. Taking a variety of music will help to pass the time not only for the kids but for the adults as well. Audio books can be not only entertaining but learning experience as well especially if you are traveling far and can find an audio book about your destination.
Many of the vehicles now have built-in VCRs or DVD players for hours of movie entertainment.
Car trips can bring your family closer together by creating this unique time of sharing and doing stuff together. You can share jokes, tell stories, and talk about what is happening in your lives.