– Be Prepared

Keep in mind that newborns and toddlers do not have the tolerance that you do for extended vehicle journeys. If your road trip will last several hours or days, divide it into manageable portions with pauses for playing, eating, and resting. Short road excursions with small children, in our opinion, are the finest. As children develop, so do their attention spans, allowing them to ride in a car for extended periods of time while remaining engrossed in their activities.

– If Your Kid is Flaying for the First Time

Consult with the airline. 24 hours ahead of time to ensure that your departure and return schedules have not altered. If your children are traveling for the first time, explain to them what to expect during the security screening procedure. Airlines provide this time-saving function on their websites, which means you won’t have to entertain the kids while everyone else waits in line to check in at the airport.

– What is the Right Drive Time?

Some people advise driving at night when traveling with toddlers or newborns. In principle, a nighttime travel is simpler for parents since they will have to spend less time entertaining their children in the car. In actuality, this means that parents will arrive fatigued and behind schedule. Arriving in the middle of the night may disturb your children and disrupt their circadian cycles. Most significantly, driving at night is far riskier.

Instead, plan your trip to coincide with your family’s natural routine, while attempting to avoid morning and evening rush hour traffic. If your child sleeps well in a car seat, consider driving during nap time to help the miles fly by.

– A Check-list for a Road Trip

1.Always lock the doors and hide the keys. This stops minors from tampering with keys or sneaking into cars without their parents’ knowledge.

2.Take a look before you lock. Check the backseat every time you park your car, even if you believe you are not transporting a youngster.

3.Keep something necessary in the backseat. Place your handbag, mobile phone, shoes, or anything else necessary for the day in the backseat.

4.Bring a stuffed animal with you when you travel. In the automobile, have a teddy animal or a toy. Place it on the front passenger seat as a reminder that there is a youngster seated behind you.

What is your ultimate goal? What are the must-see and do items on your itinerary, and what are your fill-in activities? You could get a sore back, your kids might be grumpy, or you might simply stumble into an unexpected adventure. Make sure your plans are flexible enough to accommodate for unexpected – both positive and negative!

La entrada Traveling with children: What you need to know se publicó primero en yademasmama.

While many schools have already resumed the ‘normal’ pre-pandemic schedule, it is becoming increasingly necessary to establish schedules for the activities of our children, this will allow us as parents to also have better control of our children’s time and that they make the most of the hours.

There are different ways to attack this, here are the ones we recommend:

1.- Establish a clear and joint schedule, make it on a poster board or a friendly format so that it is visible to everyone involved, put the days and times with their respective tasks / spaces for elaboration.

Be quite specific, put all the activities on the cardboard, this way you will avoid sterile discussions about when it is time to go to school, to the ballet, to dinner, to bed.

Keep some flexibility, let’s say you establish a fixed schedule for going to bed and sleeping, then consider the possibility of being flexible at least on weekends. If from Monday to Thursday he sleeps at 8 p.m., allow him to stay a little longer on Fridays or Saturdays watching TV or playing games.

Teach him that he can intervene at certain times to make the schedule together with you. However, set clear limits and deadlines. You can go out and play when you finish this homework.

5.- Depending on their age, teach them ways to distribute their time such as breaks of so many minutes between homework and homework to play or distract themselves. For teenagers the 45/15 rule works very well. Set the timer and for every 45 minutes of uninterrupted homework he can have 15 minutes to himself. This can be ‘flexed or eliminated’ if the task is very long and warrants more concentration. Discuss this point and explain the benefits of finishing everything on time.

6.- Limit screen time, video game consoles, cell phones and television.

7.- Divide tasks into micro tasks or steps, so he will be more organized and less overwhelmed.

Other ways to teach him the value of time:

● Play games with timed tasks.

● Mark important dates and reminders such as birthdays or milestones on a calendar.

● Teach him to use a clock and alarms.

Proper time management avoids anxious moments, fosters discipline, respect for punctuality, rewards after completing assignments, the role of obligations in their life, as well as prepares them to make better, unhurried decisions. A child who knows how to manage time has less frustrations, improves his school performance, enjoys space to be distracted and will have less irritability than one who leaves everything to the last minute, of course, you must always have a real balance of their tasks versus their leisure time. Be the main manager and custodian of their time and do not allow excessive manipulations such as the ‘five more minutes’ that turn into dead and lost hours.

La entrada How to help yout child with his time? se publicó primero en yademasmama.