What To Prepare and Pack Before Taking The Kids Abroad

This time of year, most of us are thinking about holidays. I love preparing for a holiday as I like to be organised and have everything ready quite early on. I think the earlier you prepare, the less stressful it can be. especially if travelling with little ones. I am one of those parents who has a huge tick off list of all the things I need to do, prepare and pack for the trip. These are my top 5 tips of things I prepare and pack before taking the kids abroad.

Vaccinations

First thing I always do before we travel anywhere is see if the kids need to be vaccinated. If you’re travelling to another continent, there’s a chance you might have to get the little ones a vaccination (and yourself, if you haven’t been there before). Holidaysafe provide a useful guide, detailing when you’ll need to get vaccinated. This is particularly helpful for pregnant travellers, who might be unsure of when they can and can’t get a jab.

It's so important to make sure you prepare your little ones. Don’t lie about where they’re going. Be honest and let them know the jab will hurt a little, but not a lot.

Keeping Them Entertained On The Journey

We have been to Cyprus a few times now with a flight time of over 5 hours and America with a flight time of 9 hours. I had prepared its of activities for both big J and little J to help keep them entertained. Long journeys can lead to extended periods of boredom for young children. They’ll often act up during this time, and can become a handful. The easy solution is to give them something which takes their mind off the journey.

Your Modern Family provide a series of useful tips for keeping them preoccupied.  Some of the best include playing car or plane games, as well as using colouring books and tablets to watch movies on.

Suncream

As we don't always have the weather for suncream in the UK I make sure I start putting suncream on the boys about a month for we travel. It prepares them for the fact they will have to have cream on several times a day. I don't think any child likes to stand there and have cream applied but it gets them used to it and also what it feels like on their skin.

Vitamins

Keeping vitamin levels high at all times will make a massive difference when it comes to handling your little ones. We always take some kids multi-vitamins abroad especially as the days are long and tiredness can kick in quite quickly after a day by the pool.

If you are planning on taking some vitamins for the kids consider trialling some first with your kids before you head away. The last thing you’ll want is to turn up on your travels and discover they won’t take them.

Give Them Freedom

While you’ll want to keep an eye on them at all times, it’s important to allow kids the freedom to choose what you’ll be doing as a family. They shouldn’t have complete say over this, but nor should their opinion be overlooked or ignored. When you’re out and about, let them do what they want (within reason). Gifting kids the chance to learn through play is an important means of development.

Remember to keep these  in mind when you head away with the little ones. It could make a massive difference.

For more tips head over to Big Family Little Adventures

Michelle

This is a collaborative post