The secret to travelling with school-age children

When travelling with children, it can be a challenge to keep them in good spirits the whole time. Here a few secrets to keeping your children happy en route to your destination.

Whether you're flying, driving or taking the train, it's important to prepare for the trip. Everybody, including you, should get a good night's sleep before it's time to leave. In order to accomplish this, you might want to involve your kids with the packing and organizing the day before.

It's a good idea to talk to your kids about where you're going, how you're going to get there and how long it will take to reach your destination.

Obviously, you'll need to remember to bring identification, train or plane tickets or a map. But when you travel with school-age children, you need to think about things you can pack to make the trip fun and exciting. While you won't be able to bring drinks into the airport, you can pack virtually everything else that you'd take along on the train or in the car.

And while it's important to pack enough food, your kids can only eat so much. Here is a list of fun activities you can bring along for your kids: books to read, travel-sized games, sketch pads and pencils, word searches or connect-the-dot books, tablet, laptop or other electronic gadgets your kids like, and their favourite toys and music.

If you're going to be traveling for several hours (or days), then it's important to offer new things to do when patience is wearing thin. Try to distribute new toys every few hours instead of all at once. And before you leave for your trip, you might consider reading about car (or train or plane) games you can play with your kids.

You also don't have entertain your kids around the clock. You might actually be surprised what they'll come up with on their own, whether it's singing along to the songs on the radio or making up new games about the sights they encounter. Finally, being stuck in a car together might also lead to some really good family conversations everyone will remember for a long time.