It’s all about the journey, not just the destination. We’re always saying that here at jorg&olif – but try telling a seven year old that!
In the age of digital, these days our children love any electronic gizmo that they can get their hands on as soon as they kicked their way out of the womb. Reading Dr Seuss’s Cat in the Hat on-the-go with your iPhone App from Oceanhouse Media is all well and fun, but are there better, slower ways to entertain a child and explore the journey together?
Card games, crosswords and puzzles are great and are thought to improve attention span, memory and problem solving. What about the traditional game of I Spy where children are encouraged to be present and observe their environment as they seek for the object?
Growing up in Yorkshire, long journeys through rural villages were spent appreciating pub culture. My sister and I would get points for first spotting – and then calculating – the number of legs in a pub sign – so The Castle would get no points (unless you could prove the number of people living there from the sign), while Ilkley’s The Cow and Calf (two legs x two) would get four. For some reason it was only our parents who got bored of this game.
On train journeys, you can also encourage scavenger hunts, encouraging older kids to locate specific items or characteristics within your train carriage: a man with a moustache, a white handkerchief, a Harry Potter book. And there’s fun in it for you as you’ll have to look for them first!
Homemade quizzes – based around family knowledge, tales previously told and what they are learning in class also keep the children more entertained as they know you have made the effort.
Rather than packing sandwiches, if you feel a little adventurous you could bring the fillings and bread for them to practice making their own, as this will also keep them entertained. Packing a surprise (a toy they didn’t expect) will also keep your children happy.
One fun idea is to get your kids to keep a travel journal and get them into the habit of recording their life from a young age that they can look over in the future or share with their fellow schoolmates when they return from their holiday. Older children could be given a map with the planned journey ahead drawn on so that they can identify where they are in relation to their surrounding areas.
A few crayons, a notebook and a sturdy book for them to lean on does the job just brilliantly. Or you could get your little ones to take photos as another way of recording their experiences, or by encouraging them to find items from the journey that they can stick into a scrapbook when they return home.
Image credit: ♥ Jaye
