5 Easy Ways to Get the Kids Involved in Your Family Summer Travel Planning

Posted on Jun 9, 2015 | 0 comments

The passage of time is ever speeding up and it seems that summer is upon us yet again.

As the last day of school draws ever closer, it is time to start planning which summer camps, vacations and friends to visit this season. My kiddos are getting older and I think it is high time that they start to learn and be involved in the planning aspect of traveling.

Here are 5 Easy Ways to get the kids involved in your family summer travel planning

#1 Way to get the kids involved in your family summer travel planning

Make a summer bucket list together. For 3 nights in a row, at dinner, I had a pen and paper and wrote down everyone’s travel wants for the summer. We made a list of 50 things we wanted to do with our summer break. We included everything from beach days to checking out a local attraction we know is close but have never taken the time to see to attending a concert in the park to taking a few trips. This is a great way to get everyone excited for a change of pace for 8-11 weeks! We made a poster board out of the summer bucket list so we can check things off as we do it.

Psst…. Dinner is also a great time to have each family member take a turn sharing something they appreciated from their day…!!!! 😉

#2 Way to get the kids involved in your family summer travel planning

Compare costs with your children. Talk to them about the cost of everything. Family travel offers the opportunity for a whole lotta learnin’ so let money be one of those topics. Kids are never too young to learn that things cost money; you earn a certain amount and you have to figure out how best to spend that amount. It does not matter how much money you make, the kids need to learn and this is a great chance for them to do so. We compare the costs of the rooms while taking into account all of the different activities we want to do and the actual travel day expenses.

Family Travel Tip: Once on vacation, I always make sure my kids have a certain amount of money to choose a souvenir with. It is a great exercise to go into a souvenir shop and watch how they choose to spend X amount of dollars. They have to look at the price of things and figure out if they have enough. Then they have to pay and make sure they receive accurate change! It doesn’t matter how much they have, it matters that they figure out how to use what they have!

#3 Way to get the kids involved in your family summer travel planning

Delegate! If you have tweens who are on social media, get them (and yourself) connected to great, safe sites that constantly share great travel deals – it is the fastest and best way to score travel deals! Have your kids notify you of anything reasonable that you would want to take advantage of. @Airfarewatchdog @JetBlueCheeps @airbnb @Quikbook @Expedia all are great feeds to follow. If you have little littles, get their imagination going and keep them feeling involved with one of these cool kits to keep them busy while you surf the web for great deals! Tell them they are doing research on your next destination and have them make a picture list of all of the places they want to visit. This teaches them so much!

#4 Way to get the kids involved in your family summer travel planning

Stack their summer reading pile! Get a couple of age appropriate books that take place in the destinations you will be visiting to use for their summer reading list. Libraries are great resources for this, I am sure your local librarian would be glad to help you with this project!

#5 Way to get the kids involved in your family summer travel planning

Start saving together! Get a jar out and encourage everyone in the family to start saving their money for summer travel together. Make sure they see you putting money in. If you have little ones, encourage them to drop in your bills and coins for you, for teens suggest that they put some of their allowance or earnings in. Not only does this help teach our children about saving money, but it also builds excitement as we all see the jar filling up.

Family travel is an opportunity for learning, sharing and growing together.

What are your great ways to get the kids involved in your family summer travel planning?

Malibu Mama Loves Xx

#FamilyTravel