Planning for Vacation. Clipboard Included.
My kids function better when they know the day will have structure.
Every year, we take a family vacation right before the school year begins. It always works out — my kids attend a day camp for most of the summer and the camp shuts down a week before school starts so there is always a “gap” where we have no child care. Rather than wrangle the kids and their excitement right before school starts and juggle working, we take the week off and go somewhere new every year.
My trips got more ambitious every year. It started with a short road trip to Door County, Wisconsin. Then a multi-state driving trip to St. Louis, Nashville, and Memphis. Then… pandemic. We still managed to take a short trip to Galena, Illinois because it was a trip we felt we could safely make, not far from our home in the Chicago suburbs.
This year, we are headed to Minneapolis to visit my sister and brother-in-law, with some stops in Wisconsin along the way. My 9-year-old has been asking for about a week now, “Has the trip been planned out yet?”
After one of our first trips (even before we started these more elaborate summer vacations), I got tired of answering the question, “What are we doing next?” My kids have structured days at home, including “quiet time” and specific screen…
