Travelling with children

•  Keep baby essentials organized

Pack a separate self-sealing bag with the essentials your children need each day — a stack of wipes, a change of clothing and some disposable nappies. If you have more than one child in tow, prepare a separate bag for each child. This way you won’t have to search through suitcases to put outfits together when dressing the troops every morning.

•  Save empty washing-up liquid bottles

If you’ve travelled with children before, you know the mess they can create. Prepare yourself for the inevitable by saving an empty (but unrinsed) bottle of washing-up liquid. Fill the bottle with water before you set out and tuck it away in a leak-proof, self-sealing plastic bag, along with some paper towels or face washers. Use this cleaning kit to wipe faces after snacks, wash hands after bathroom stops and clean up spills and smudges in the car and hotel room.

•  A mini plastic carrier

Young travellers will enjoy keeping small personal items — such as coins or tiny toys — in a carrier they’ve made themselves. All you need is an empty film canister or pill bottle and a key ring with a plastic spring-lock clip that attaches to belts or backpacks (the clips are sold in hardware shops and many discount and bargain shops). Help them by cutting two holes near the top of the canister to accommodate the metal ring, and then let them decorate it.

•  Map fun for little navigators

One way to keep children busy on a road trip —and teach them about geography as well — is to help them follow your route on a map. While planning the trip, cut out and colour photocopy the portion of a map that corresponds to your route for each day of travel. Attach the segments to a clipboard, give the children some washable markers and get them to chart your course and check off towns and landmarks as you go. If you need directions, you might be able to get some help from the back seat.

• A backseat snack tray

Little appetites always seem to get bigger on car trips. This fun way to dish up snacks may be exactly what you need to keep the children satisfied. Thoroughly wash an empty plastic or polystyrene egg carton with warm soapy water (for short journeys and dried foods use a clean cardboard one). Fill each compartment with a different treat — cheese cubes in one, breakfast cereal in another, dried fruit in another. When the back seat crews are ravenous, simply pass the carton around.

•  Double duty for fruit and vegetable bags

Onions, capsicums, citrus fruits and other fruit and vegetables often come in mesh bags. Once you have eaten what’s in them, save the bags for a day of outdoor fun. Mesh bags are ideal for taking toys to the beach, or anywhere else that gear is likely to become sandy and dirty. At the end of the day, just put the playthings back into the mesh bag and rinse the whole lot out under a hose. If you can’t find a mesh bag, take a plastic bag and punch holes in it — but only enough holes to allow the water to run out.

•  Self-service

Family car trips can be a wonderful experience — and even more so when you’re equipped with self-sealing plastic bags in various sizes. With some of the uses outlined on page 250 in mind, try taping a few bags to the back of one of the front seats on a long car trip so that children can reach them to get snacks, dispose of rubbish or to access pencils and crayons.

•  Delicious pre-trip prep

A great way to prepare young travellers for the sights, smells and tastes that they experience on a family excursion is to have a living room picnic before you go, with foods that are likely to be encountered at your destination. While your intrepid gourmands are eating, take the opportunity to tell them about the history of the location, its geography and other interesting facts that they’ll hopefully retain once they get where they’re going. Or, better still, try to get them to help you prepare and cook the food, in the hope that being more involved in the process will make them more interested.

•  Spray-bottle play

 On a hot day, a simple spray bottle can be a godsend for young travellers. Recycle a couple of spray bottles from the cleaning cupboard, clean them well, fill them with water and keep them on hand, then use them to:

1.  Spray the kids while they’re sitting on a beach, hiking or walking in the city.
2.  Dress children in their swimming costumes and set them loose in a park or other public outdoor spot with a couple of spray bottles. Drenching one another — with parental approval — might be the highlight of your children’s trip.