How do I ensure my Super active toddler is ready for all short and long trips? as it could be exhaustive, Boring ,Tiring and what not in toddler dictionary.
As I told you guys in my previous blog about my 16 hrs flight journey with Sia (those who have not read, can read it in link below). In this blog I will walk you through my journey at railway station -Trains – Cars and Hotel.
Screen-free long hours travel with toddler
How do I prepare? While preparing my Travel binder I realised Sia was attracted to the plan of journey. Hence I decided to involve her more and take her aboard even before we boarded the flight.
What Do I do?
- I started to talk to her more about trip, about India, her grandparents , village, family and places we will visit. you will not believe I even showed he videos of Incredible India,videos of Jaunpur (my hometown) and places we were to visit in Delhi and Rajasthan ( a short vacation in a vacation,when her father arrives).
- I involved her in all packing, like choosing her clothes, packing gifts we bought for family, preparing her travel binder etc.
- By now she was all excited. SHE WAS ALL ABOARD !
This was an easy stroller, lightweight, quick and easy to open and close and compact. Best thing was even sia was able to drag it and walk.
Now this time decided to keep activities which does not need lot of space, which is compact and spill proof .
Art & Color – This is my always to go activity for Sia as it never fails. but here we need to be careful coz unlike plane, trains and cars will not be smooth whereas it will much more crowded and lot of people moving around. Cant risk to paint someone dress 😛
we got our solution at amazon . Just fill some water in pen and start coloring, pads will change into colorful pictures. (Picture in middle is just to show how card looks. I clicked this picture at home post our return,She wanted to experiment with regular brush and water 🙂 )
FLASH CARD :-We kept some flash cards. which had memory , numbers and planet games. Number of players can vary from 2-5 ,she even made new friends in train, involved in her card game. This has become our game night thing every time since our return. Also, It’s worth noting that the development of mathematical and logical thinking is influenced by the classification game.
Maze Book :- This was not a hit thing at the age of 3, hence I would not suggest anyone below 3 (again it varies with each child’s interest) but as of now she is 3.5 and soo much into this that She finished entire book in 1 week. We keep this book in car for any long/short drive and sometimes she picks up at home as well.
As per North Shore Pediatric therapy, Its important to practice Maze with your kid for this 5 reasons for sure:- Problem Solving (Functional Skills) ,Fine Motor, Visual Motor, Grading of an activity and build Confidence.
Stickers:- As much they are a fine motor powerhouse. It helps kids in Visual scanning which is required for skills like reading, writing etc.
And I , love it as it keeps her busy for almost 20- 25 mins. Mostly we use this in car where she can stick the stickers on the window glass. Often she makes a story around and keeps on talking. As yesterday during short drive we heard story of dinosaurs family , boy was not eating palm tree 😛
Small Cars:- We collected all her small cars in Ziplock bag and placed in upper zip of my bagpack instead of travel binder, to make it easy to pull out and return in the bags at the railway stations,Airport or hotel lobby/room. She mostly drove it on benches or carpet. Remember these were not gear or battery cars , you can just hold it and push back n forth . It should not be something which needs lot of supervision and difficult to control 😛 As Maria Montessori Says:
“A Child needs freedom within limits”
These are just few excerpts that I am documenting in order to be prepared and give your child a prepared environment and make your journey fun and learning.
Apart from this we did lot of travelling with families of both sides and she was involved in lot of talking, singing and looking around the woods, cities , trucks,trains etc.
While writing this i am pumped with joy that we successfully made our 4 months long trip to India ,made lot of new friends, traveled lot many old and new places, ate lot of delicious local food . Bliss….
Looking forward for our next trip as soon as corona virus passes, i am sure you must be looking forward too. Try these “work” with you little travel buddy and have lot of fun.
Bye for now…Se y’all super soon…. 🙂
Love ‘n Light
AsthanaMama 🙂
TheAsthanaMama 