Family vacations during the summer are memorable times for kids. But it’s often a stressful time for mom who ends up having to do everything. It doesn’t have to be that way. Make a decision to change the way you do family vacations by getting your kids involved. It’ll not only help ease the burden for parents but the kids will be playing a role in creating their own memories. So let’s change the way we do family vacations by making every vacation not just fun but educational too.
So let’s say you’re headed to Yellowstone National Park. Google it with your kids and then make it a game by having them find 3 interesting facts about the park. Whoever comes up with the facts first is awarded a prize (think about giving them their favorite candy bar). You can teach about the importance of planning by having your kids help with the itinerary by choosing activities, places to visit, where to stay and what they need to bring. You can even teach about budgeting by having them put together a spreadsheet that lists the expenses and what they’ll need to do to stay within a budget. You could assign a role to each child based on their strengths. So if one of your children enjoys math, have him be in charge of putting together a simple budget. Your social child could have the role of finding activities for your family as well as responsible for taking the photos. If you’re driving to your destination, have your kids figure out the mileage, the cities you’ll be passing through and sites to visit.
Once you arrive at your destination, think about topics you could learn about when you get home. You could also start thinking about putting together a scrapbook of your vacation by having all the kids involved. Have each child write a one page entry you can include in the scrapbook that details their favorite parts of the trip and why. So now you’ve not only taken your vacation to another level, this could be the beginning of a new family tradition that your kids can pass on to their kids.
Copyright 2018