Traveling Solo with Grandkids, Part Two

Set Expectations & Reinforce Them:

Sandi Poindexter, grandparent and worldwide traveler has more suggestions for traveling solo with a grandchild based on research and personal experience in part two.

 She suggests to set expectations, reinforced by parents. Beside the basics of where, when, and how, there are the creature comforts and specials considerations for traveling with children.

Where will we eat? How late can you sleep in? What’s unacceptable behavior? How will we get around ? How much screen time is permitted?  Is there free time?  How will we keep safe?  What do you do if lost? Does your teenage grandchild know your phone number if their phone is lost? Children should always carry an id, hotel info and phone numbers separately from a phone. Learning safety and group social skills will last a lifetime.

The Bank

  Souvenir buying doesn’t need to be an on-going struggle. Agree upon a souvenir process before you leave. 

Use "The Bank" Method for Kids' Spending

You can write down a dollar limit on a piece of paper and put it with the money into an envelope called “The Bank.” Every purchase is paid by and subtracted by the child from the envelope total.  Have the child write the item down on the paper. 

  When the bank is empty, there are no further purchases so remind the child to consider value, balance, and opportunity cost. Don’t be surprised if you hear a child’s self- debate “If I buy this, I can’t buy that. This costs too much. I don’t have that much left.” With this experience, a child may be able to understand a travel budget.

   After the trip ask for an assessment of where money should be spent in the future – on lodging, eating out, activities, and why. While the answers may not be your preferences, the selection process is a route to expressing reasoned opinions.

Contrariness

  Whining, pouting and other contrariness are inevitable so plan for it. Quietly wait it out, eat a snack, read a book, or find a park with a playground or nature area. Inserting these activities into your schedule may reduce problems. Calmly verbalizing when you become irritable can help a child learn how to handle their own behaviors. Watch for cues. Everyone needs a time out occasionally, some protein, and exercise. Maybe you are doing too much.

Plan & Check Your Documents

 Plan ahead. Collect needed documents for the trip. Written parental permissions, insurance cards and birth certificates may suffice. If you travel internationally, visit the country’s embassy and immigration websites for rules on traveling with minors. In addition to passports, it may require original documents, immunization, notarized letters and marriage certificate when the child’s surname does not match yours. 

After the trip while making a memory book, evaluate what worked and whether you met your goals. For more see grandparentsteachtoo.blogspot.com and wnmufm.org/Learning Through the Seasons.

Photos: Fran Darling fdarling fotos

Solo Travel with Grandkids

Where Are You Going?

Sandi Poindexter, grandparent and worldwide traveler has some suggestions for traveling solo with a grandchild in this two  part series. Understanding your motivations and asking some basic questions at the front-end helps increase trip rewards and make it enriching and enjoyable, according to Poindexter.

  Why are you going? Objectives range from helping parents and building memories to exposing a child to new environments and having fun while educating on the go. Will you take one grandchild, siblings of different ages or cousins of similar ages? Where will you go? Best choices include: somewhere you and your grandchildren want to go, you’ve been there before, you think your grandchild would like to visit, and you can afford to travel there.

Planning

 What will you do? Research activities to create a list of options within your budget and common interests. 

Research and Plan Your Trip Activities

Ask your grandchildren and their parents to narrow it down after discussion and looking at websites or travel materials.  Besides amusement centers, many museums and parks offer interactive learning with costumes, scavenger hunts and educational play areas. This selection process involves critical thinking, self-awareness and consideration for the grandparent. 

 Is it a trip goal to explore diversity? One advantage of metro areas is sampling foods from a variety of cultures at one time whereas visiting a region allows more in-depth discussion on a specific culture and life-style. If understanding travel options is a goal, try varying types of lodging within the trip – hostels, bed and breakfasts, and high-rise hotels in a city center, suburban chain hotel, rented cottage or vacation home.

New  Travel

  Is it possible to travel in a new way? Even a young child can 

Travel in a New Way - Why Not??

compare trains, planes and cars: trains are better because you can walk around and the windows are bigger,” “Planes get you there faster,” “You can stop when you want in a car.” 

 Long trips often produce the “When are we going to get there?” question. In an airport, give a child a copy of the flight information and show them how to navigate from check-in to the gate. In a car, it helps if a child knows where you are going and can track your progress on a map. Before you leave, point out the starting point, routes and end points. Map reading, whether paper or digital form, requires spatial reasoning. Explain the map annotations for roads and exits and compare them to the roadway signs . There are several ways to apply math skills on a driving trip --compute gas mileage, estimate time based on distance and speed. Ask, what does 60 mph mean? If we have 120 miles to go, how long will it take to get there? What if we stop for gas? 

For more see grandparentsteachtoo.blogspot.com and wnmufm.org/Learning Through the Seasons.

Photos: Fran Darling, fdarling fotos 

Traveling with Young Children

  Traveling to family gatherings can be stressful, or it can be fun.  Snacks, drinks, a favorite blanket, drawing materials, books, storytelling, and games keep the family happy while riding along. 

What To Do:

  Young children love to hear about family member’s childhood.  It is their first exposure to history and stories of people they love.   Most important these tales are passed on and not lost.

  Think of some lessons of kindness, perseverance, courage and triumph over difficulty. Perhaps your grandparents told you some funny or scary stories you vividly remember.  Retelling the story with exaggerations, descriptions, and sound effects will make it come alive for your children, too. When you reach your  destination, children will rush in and tell all about what they heard on the way.

   Children can play Tic Tac Toe and Dots game with a hardcover book for a desk. To play Dots make ten rows and columns of dots equally spaced. Each player has one turn to connect two dots.  The object is to connect dots to enclose a square, put your initial inside, and earn another turn. The player with the most squares wins. Preschool children catch on to these two games quickly.

  You’re about an hour into the trip.  Now what? Take a few verbal games out of your bag of tricks.  One game is called “What Do You Know?”  The adult asks simple questions and children take turns giving their answers.  Questions are based on children’s age, interest, and vocabulary.  For example for the younger child, “How many colors do you know?  What foods are red? What do we call people who take care of us when we get sick?”

  For older children the questions could be related to geography or history. “How many states begin with the word New?  Now many bird names can you remember?

Can you name a holiday for each month?” 

   Another car game is called “I just saw it.” One person begins having noticed something just passed—for instance, a telephone pole. “ It was tall and thin. I just saw it.”  The others begin to guess.  If they fail, the person adds more clues until the object is guessed.

 “Colors” is played by naming a common color.  When two things are found you take turns switching to another color.

  How does this Help My Children?

  A recent study compared the vocabulary of children entering kindergarten from the 1950’s and 2009. It found that children in the 1950’s had DOUBLE the vocabulary entering school.  Family games and conversation help build vocabulary used for reading and success in school.

For more ideas about traveling with children go to our previous blog: Are We There Yet? and also check out our WNMU Learning Through the Seasons podcast about traveling. For more ideas check out the authors’ book “Learning Through the Seasons.” 

Illustration: Mark Nowicki
Photo: Photo: Norman, Steve. nat143.jpg. . Pics4Learning. 22 Dec 2012