If the thought of a family road trip conjures up images of whining, sibling fights in the back seat or cries of “Are we there yet?”, think again. A road trip can actually be a great way to communicate better with your kids and even learn something about each other along the way.

Ways to make a car trip more enjoyable.

• Distractions.
  • If your home is anything like mine, it seems like there are more distractions than opportunities to talk to each other. Between the television, cell phones and electronic games, we’ve found more and more ways to not communicate. However, in the car, things are much different. Not only do you have a captive audience, but no distractions – save for a DVD player or other device you might have installed. Turn off the TV and radio, and talk to your kids. It might take a little while to get them warmed up, but after you do you may be surprised at what you learn.

• Broaden horizons.
  • A road trip – any road trip – can broaden your horizons and introduce you and your family to something new. Even the same weekly drive to Grandma’s house across town can be a new experience if you take a different route or add a new pit stop along the way. Take a few minutes before leaving to map out new directions or find a new place to stop that no one has been to before.

• Play games.
  • Games aren’t just for kids – get the whole family involved. Whether it’s car games, such as watching for out of state license plates or counting the number of a certain type of car, or playing 20 Questions, everyone can play. Or, for younger kids, sing a silly song together — either make up new words to a familiar tune, or sing a favorite. Playing games together can strengthen bonds and be fun for the entire family.

• Start a new tradition.
  • In our family, there are certain stops we always make, depending on which direction we are headed. These stops become part of the journey and make the time more enjoyable. Try adding a new tradition to your road trips, such as collecting a certain type of souvenir, like post cards, or taking a photograph in the same spot each time you drive by and make a scrapbook. You and the kids will come to enjoy these special traditions that you all share.

I don’t mean to brag, but I have been through my fair share of doctors appointments with my kiddos. Between the surgeries my son has endured and the fact that my husband comes and goes with his military deployments leaving me to deal with everything on my own, I know quite a bit about the best way to make the appointment easier for the kids. After all, an appointment with the doctor can be incredibly stressful for kids, what with all the people poking and prodding you and asking a bunch of questions.

In an ideal situation, I would stress the importance of only taking one child at a time to the doctor, but since my situation is usually far from ideal I”m writing this with respect to taking a younger child to the doctor with an older sibling in tow.

Always tell the truth. If my kids are going to get shots, I tell them so and I also admit that it’s going to hurt. I also tell them that it’s important for them to get the shots and then I promise them a lollipop or ice cream afterwards. Yes, I bribe my kids, but shots hurt, right? When possible, like when flu shot time rolls around, I let them watch me get my shot first and then let them follow suit.

Let kiddos answer questions. This won’t work for babies, but toddlers can certainly answer some of the doctor’s questions. For example, if the doctor asks me, “Which of his ears hurt?” instead of answering his question I’ll divert it to my son and say, “Tell the doctor which ear hurts.” This makes him feel a little more in control of the situation.

Bring distractions. We’ll bring toys and snacks with us, and I always have a pen with me so the kids can scribble on the sheet paper the medical staff pulls over bed the kids sit on for their exams. When all else fails, I tell them stories or we sing silly songs while waiting for the doctor. I truly think that the worst thing you can do in this situation is to insist your child sits quietly while waiting for the doctor.

Become a favorite. I appreciate what our doctor does, so we’ve brought cookies before and really made an attempt to get to know the staff. I think this has helped a lot with getting us in and out quickly, and that’s incredibly helpful when you’re lugging a couple of ill kids around.

Medical appointments are a necessary evil of parenthood. Okay, maybe not evil, but not much fun nonetheless. With a little bit of prep and a lot of patience you can make these appointments much less daunting.

When you’ve got kids, you’ve got toys. With the holidays, come more toys. While this is a busy time of year, it’s worth setting aside a few hours to sort through some of that stuff that has accumulated to make room for… more stuff!

I have given away many toys over the years, as my older boys have outgrown or lost interest in them. It feels good to recycle and give less fortunate families a brighter Christmas. For several years, I thought our family of four was complete. Fortunately for our recent addition, baby #3, I did save some of our nice, classic toys (to pass on someday to our grandchildren, or so I thought!).

We still have our train table and huge container full of Thomas and Brio trains, tracks, buildings and more. Wooden trains are classic, something to pass down to the next generation. I recommend hanging on to them even when you’re kids have outgrown them, to give to your grandkids someday. Giving or loaning them to family members is another option but if lending is what you intend to do, be clear about your intentions.

Other classic toys worth storing away include wooden blocks, shape sorters, building sets such as Lincoln Logs and Tinker Toys, certain dolls, books and wood puzzles. These toys stimulate creativity and things like hand/eye coordination.

Toys with sentimental value are also worth saving. Some classics change over the years but it can be fun to store away your or your children’s editions for grandkids or future guests to enjoy. I have the Fisher Price schoolhouse that I played with as a little girl, which was fun for my older kids to inherit and play with (and will be enjoyed by our 7 month old, I hope!). I wish my mom had held onto more Fisher Price classics, like the school-bus, dollhouse and farm. Fortunately, I saved the ones we bought for our older boys, so our little guy can play with them someday, too.

Classic games like checkers, Candyland, and Chutes and Ladders are nice to keep around (their look may change but the games cross the generations).

So what do I recommend tossing or giving away? Usually the toys that quickly lose their appeal for kids, particularly the trendy things that are “in” one year and “out” the next are safe to give away. Trendy things like character-themed toys and dolls usually won’t be missed.

Of course, the really junky, “no-name” plastic stuff that was made in China can be tossed (you may have tossed them already, due to health or safety concerns).

There are definitely some toys I wish I’d held onto but didn’t, like our older boys’ elaborate Playmobil sets. We were never organized enough to keep all the pieces together. Our youngest child would definitely have enjoyed these. If we do buy him well-made, expensive toys such as these, I will try to keep them in tact for future grandkids.

As my kids have grown older, it’s become clearer just which toys stand the test of time and which are best donated to someplace, or someone, else. I’ll be steering clear of the low-quality stuff with our new baby, if he’ll let me.

Babies love going to the beach. I was lucky enough to live by the ocean when my son was born, and now I live near a lake with a pretty man-made beach, but he loves that just as much!

Babies love the sound of the ocean waves, and they adore sand.

Tiny babies will love looking at and listening to the waves, and like to feel the sand with their hands and feet. Try filling a container with sand and water – make damp sand, or really wet sand – and let baby squish and feel the texture of the wet sand.

Older babies like to dig with their hands or a shovel, and might even be able to fill a bucket. Playing in the sand with a shovel is great practice for using a spoon, it’s essentially the same skill, and there’s no cleanup, like there can be with a spoon and food! Crawling over sand is a new kind of workout, and all the pebbles, shells and driftwood are very interesting. Just watch out none of it is mistaken for food!

Toddlers love sand toys too, and paddling in the sea, and exploring rock pools – closely supervised, of course. A pair of water shoes, jelly shoes, or crocs, or other non-slip shoes are a must to avoid slips and cuts on sharp stones.

Toddlers also like to find things buried in the sand – bury a small toy just below the surface for them to dig up. Build a sandcastle for them to decorate with stones, shells or seaweed. And sandcastles are just as fun to stomp on!

Eating sand happens – a little sand is generally not harmful, and will come out the other end. And whether baby eats sand or not, sand will get into diapers. Using a baby wipe on a sandy bottom will feel like sandpaper, so clean baby’s bum in the bath or sink.

Always protect baby from the sun. A sun hat, sunscreen (for babies over 6 months – never expose younger babies to direct sun), and an inexpensive beach umbrella will keep baby safe in the sun. Light, long-sleeved clothing is best, but not always practical, so make sure baby is well coated with sunscreen.

Visiting on a warm, but not a hot day, can be the most fun. The beach won’t be too busy, baby won’t get too hot, and babies don’t care about sunbathing anyway. There’s too much to explore!

So if you are near a beach, or visiting one on vacation, take advantage of a nice spring day, and head to the shore!

It?s one of the endearingly funny scenes in Shrek 2. Donkey is behind Fiona and Shrek as they travel to Far Far Away and every ten seconds or so he pipes, ?Are we there yet? Are we there yet?? The irascible donkey is undeniably hyper and eager to get to the journey?s end where a host of promising and exciting things await him.

Such is the heart and mind of the hyper child. My own 5-year-old, on any car/bus/train/plane/choose-your-conveyance trip, will ask incessantly after the first 30 minutes of the ride, ?Are we there yet? Is it far still?? It seems the worst combination can only be this: hyper kid and long trips.

But the conflict between high-energy kid and seemingly endless voyage can be turned into a lovely paradox: you can use the trip to feed, enhance, and sate high-energy child?s endless curiosity and boredom.

When my son was 2, although he could not yet read, he was keen on logos, signages, and colors. We would play games with signs along the way. ?What sign is that?? would be met with any of the following: ?A STOP sign!?; ?The post office!?; ?Pedestrian crossing!? When he was 3, he was beginning to master his letters. We would do spelling games with signs. ?Mama, look! S-T-O-P. Stop!? There were guessing games. ?I see something made of steel, standing on the corner, colored green, which firemen use as their water source in taking out fires. What is it?? Our son would search frantically, using directional cues (on the corner), color and material cues (made of steel, colored green), and allusions to his Elmo DVD?s (firemen taking out fires on Sesame Street). He would yell with glee, ?A fire hydrant!? Then we would switch turns, with him now describing a certain object with identifiable characteristics and location. It was a wonderful way to train him in following directions, distinguishing right from left, front from back, over from under, and the like.

Before he knew it, the trip was over and he had not noticed how much time had elapsed. In fact, time would seem not enough for all the guessing games he could still have played had the train not pulled into the station.

Now he?s 5 and on our trip to Austria last October, he survived the 2-hour drive from Vienna to Mauthausen with the best trip gadget of the decade: a portable DVD player and a film of ?Robots?.