Little ones get excited at the start of a journey in a new and strange van but after an hour or two boredom can easily set in and the newness of the van will have lost its sheen. Therefore you really need to prepare for a journey which, to them, is going to seem twice as long as it does for you. So think about bringing along the following:
- Entertainment. We touched on this in our last post but it’s worth mentioning again because it’s crucial as far as little ones are concerned. For a start their boredom threshold is a fraction of yours as an adult. Always bring along books, comics, electronic media and travel games for keeping them amused during transit. If you’re going to be making any lengthy refreshment stops then outdoor games – such as baseball or soccer – can be a good way of tiring them out for long sections of the journey. And if you’re taking along Rover or Fido then they’ll appreciate getting to stretch their legs too.
- Toiletries. It’s always worth taking along a large bag full of sanitary napkins, snacks, sweets and spare plastic bags (for sweet wrappers and apple cores etc). Take them in a separate bag as you’ll probably be digging in to this quite a bit.
- Clean clothes. Sod’s law dictates that one of the kids will spill either a drink or some food down the front of their tee-shirt so having a spare tee-shirt and shorts near at hand is essential.
