Involving Your Child in Packing for a Trip
Travel can be an exciting time for your family to create lifelong memories and enjoy fun experiences together. Though the process of packing can sometimes cause stressful or challenging moments, especially if you’re traveling with young children, we have some suggestions on how to help the preparations go more smoothly.
The Montessori approach emphasizes independence, and it can be fun for your child to be involved in decision-making and packing as you prepare. It can also be an empowering opportunity to involve your child in the process and support their executive functioning development while doing so.
While you want your child to have some ownership of an upcoming trip, there is also a fine balance between practical packing of what they will need and what they might be inclined to bring. You probably don’t want to end up only with an ad hoc assortment of toys your child may want to toss in.
We recommend:
Provide some packing freedom for your child along with helpful limits. Create a packing list together, visual or written, depending on their age and ability to read. Your child can follow along with the freedom to choose WHICH pair of pants they would like or WHICH stuffed animals to bring within the limited numbers provided.
Let your child pick a set of packing cubes in a pattern that they like or get monogrammed packing cubes for each member of your family. If your family ends up sharing bags, it'll be easy to divide up the items belonging to each family member at your destination, and it makes unpacking/repacking a breeze. Bringing a dirty laundry bag will easily help keep the dirty from the clean items.
You should select a backpack or carry-on bag that your child can comfortably wear independently, and your child can select items to bring with some guidance. For example, “you may bring two books, three toys, five pens or pencils, etc.” Once their carry-on has been filled, invite your child to try on the bag. It should be comfortably held or worn and make it clear that, “no one else is carrying your bag, so make sure it is comfortable and light enough to wear!”
Children have a hard time understanding the nuance of time, so try not to discuss a trip too far in advance (it will be hard for them to fully comprehend when a trip is several months from now). One option for younger children is to offer or create a visual calendar when you get closer to the departure date so that your child can see exactly when the trip is happening.
When you are ready to talk about the trip, be sure to share all the details so that your child is fully prepared. “We will be driving our car to the airport, then we will be parking our car there. After that, we will take a shuttle to the airport. There will be a lot of waiting at the terminal, we may eat some food or read some books while we wait. Then, we will board the plane and it may feel like a long flight, so let’s pack and plan some games to play or some audiobooks to listen to. We will all be practicing our patience together, since there will be a lot of waiting and moving slowly.
You can also draw visuals of the steps or write a schedule so everyone understands what to expect. Some fun books to prepare for a flight are A Day at the Airport by Richard Scarry, Patrick Picklebottom and the Longest Wait by Mr. Jay and Gary Wilkinson, or the Lonely Planet How Airports Work Activity Book.
Don’t share any secret surprises that you have purchased to entertain your child on the long car or plane flight – keep them a surprise until you’re on your journey!
Pick up some new books for your child to discover (or to listen to on a screen-free Yoto Player) and keep until they are needing some new entertainment on your trip.
Practice some self-care to reduce your own travel stress and anxiety! Calm Parents = Calm Children. Even if you experience your own emotions around travel, it is important to be calm on the outside so your child will follow suit.
Also, a reader recommended the Yoto Travel Kit for long car or plane rides.