Family fun on the road
Traveling with little ones can be tough, so make it easier on you by packing all of their essentials in one easily accessible bag.
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It should include things like bottles, baby food, diapers, medicine and a change of clothes.
Depending on the age of the kids, have each child bring a small backpack filled with their toys and goodies for the ‘flight’. (Their school bags would do, actually). Before leaving home, load these in one big travel bag designated for the children.
When possible, pack their bags with some of the other things that you need, such as bottles, diapers and wipes. Even very young kids can carry a small backpack filled with their own diapers. This saves you space in your bag and makes the child feel like a “big” boy or girl.
During the travel, schedule extra time to stop at roadside attractions. Twenty minutes to observe artisans weaving, stopping at a roadside farm or even watching fishermen haul in a catch can enhance the travel experience.
Thank God for camera phones and selfies but still invest in a modern day instant camera along with some fun scrapbooking materials.
Ask the kids to take pictures along the way, and they'll have the instant gratification of immediately seeing pictures of their silly faces. Then they can use the snaps to track road trip memories in scrapbooks.
Stock up on packs of window cling stickers before the drive for affordable, creative and reusable fun. The kids will love turning the car windows into a giant sticker book, not to add that it will extract a smile from that bored police officer who gets to stop you.
On the road, boredom comes with the territory. Here is where family members who are creative and spontaneous will be called to save the day.
Play word games. You may also read loudly inscriptions on vehicles that you encounter. In Ghana, such words are colourful enough to entertain a car full of people.
License Plate Games can also be useful during long journeys. See how many different plates you can check off your list. Two groups can play who gets the most score in the following: commercial versus private or even how many GTs versus GRs, you see.
I like for everyone to have a sense of distance and direction when it comes to travel. Even if they are too young, show children where you are on the map and how far you need to travel to get to your next destination.
Make a trip clip board. A good travel map helps trace the journey, monitor the pace and identify landscapes. The map also shows the positional relations between towns and the special features of places.
I recommend creating a trip clipboard to hold printed directions to the motels where you plan to stay; these are especially handy if you should reach a city after dark.
Yes, even if you have a favourite GPS device or navigation app on your smartphone, a paper map is a must-have. You do not want to be driving through an unfamiliar area with a weak signal which is bound to happen when the kids are at their hungriest and/or crankiest so go a little old-school and bring along a paper map.
With self-owned cars, maintenance tasks that appear like chores could be designed to be fun. For instance, on rotational basis, each capable member of the family should check for water and oil levels each morning.
The washing of the vehicle itself can be shared on different occasions among members (with a prize for the best car wash.)
The whole idea is to promote family fun, don’t forget. The winner could win the front seat on the return journey back home.
Another prize could be the ‘Road DJ’ meaning the winner would be in charge of song choice on the road. (Though I personally believe that the selection of music should be the preserve of the driver).
Keep kids interested in the journey (not just the destination) by giving them some ownership of the trip. If they are up to it, let them be the overseer at whenever you top up at a fuel station.
It gives them something to do and also shows them that the family car is their responsibility to keep clean, too.
Sing your hearts out. Elevate car singing to a new level with in-auto karaoke. Download your family’s favourite songs and lyrics to an audio-playing device (even an iPhone) and have everyone take turns impersonating their favorite singers.
Bring along toy microphones, or keep it low-tech by singing into a hairbrush or your thumb.
• To be continued
The writer is a Communication and Tourism Specialist. Books he has authored include ‘Romancing Ghanaland- the Beauty of Ten Regions’, Tickling the Ghanaian-Encounters with Contemporary Culture & ‘Harmattan- a Cultural Profile of Northern Ghana.’
