How to make the most of Summer Vacations with your kids

With summer rapidly in full swing, many families will be planning vacations with their kids. With so many destinations to choose from such as the beach, amusement park, or camping, it is important for parents to plan and choose appropriate activities. If parents come prepared on a vacation, they will have more freedom to fully enjoy their time with their children. Here are some tips to help make the most of your summer vacation with your kids:

1. Ask for Kid’s Input

It is important to make kids part of the process when it comes to planning a vacation during the summer. If parents ask for input, it can help kids feel like they are taking into consideration their ideas of a perfect getaway. It can help if they have kids make a list of all the places that appeal to them, even if they are silly. If parents make their children part of the planning, it will teach them how to comprise on various suggestions such as going to the beach, camping, overseas, or even a day trip.

2. Plan Activities in Advance

It can make activities go a lot smoother if parents make reservations ahead of time because they fill up fast. Parents may want to search for discounts on vacations spots to help cut down the costs through websites, newspapers, and advertisements. When scheduling a trip with kids, make sure to research the age requirements of various activities. For example, sometimes amusement parks have restrictions on different roller coasters as well as spinning rides.

3. Be Flexible

It can help if parents learn to be flexible when it comes to summer vacations because it will lower stress and anxiety. It also is vital for them to plant the seed with their kids that sometimes-scheduled activities may not go as planned and that is okay. If parents teach their children to be flexible during summer vacation it may provide less disappointment when they can’t attend a certain event. Parents may want to have a back-up plan in case it rains, or the weather does not cooperate with certain events. If traveling with smaller children on extended vacations, parents should consider building in time on their agenda for breaks or low-key activities. Toddlers and kids cannot be expected to be at their best with a packed itinerary.

4. Encourage Proper Social Etiquette

When parents take their kids on a summer get-away, it is a wonderful opportunity to practice social etiquette with them. They can teach them to say “Thank you” when others give them food at a restaurant, a guided tour of certain facilities or even gives the family directions. It is also an opportunity to teach them how to wait patiently in line at the zoo, at an amusement park, and at an airport.

5. Keep a Vacation Journal

If parents have not kept a vacation journal with their kids in the past, it might be fun to start one this summer. Vacations are all about making memories with families. Parents may want to have their kids write one positive thing that happened every day on their trips. It can be a funny story, an activity they really enjoyed or something they are looking forward to on the trip. If the trip includes visiting state/national parks, consider purchasing a passport stamp book. They are inexpensive way to document family excursions through US state and national parks. Sometimes, kids like to add photos in the journal to help them remember their wonderful vacation with their families!

Have a wonderful summer!!