Family Theme Park Tips for parents of multiples
by Alicia
(San Antonio, TX)
A great way to keep arguing and fighting to a minimum while visiting a theme park is to have a game plan. All kids like to be in charge sometimes. They like to have a chance to make the rules. One great way to aid this is by making small pieces of paper with numbers on them, the number of children you have.
For instance, if there are five children, make five pieces of paper numbered one through five. Place the numbers in a hat or box and have each child draw a number. Then, take a map of the theme park you will be going to and label all the attractions with a letter or an animal name. Assign a number to the corresponding letter or animal name of the attractions. After each child draws a number, announce to them which attraction is to be theirs.
Now, here's where parental imagination kicks in, and you have a couple of ways of moving from here.....
1 - You can play an Eye-Spy game with this, where the child who drew number one goes first and gets to pick an attraction. Whatever the corresponding letter to that attraction is will be the clue for the Eye-Spy game. For instance, if an attraction is labeled with 'L' then the child must lead everyone to the 'L' attraction, all the while looking for things that start with the letter 'L'.
-OR-
2 -The other way to move forward is to have some fun using the animal names. Again, the child that draws number one will go first and will pick an attraction with a corresponding animal name. Now it gets funny. The child leads everyone to the attraction, all the while acting out whatever animal he/she got assigned. For instance, walking like an elephant with swinging arms as a trunk.
Be creative and encourage all the children to go allowing with the others' ideas for animal walks or answers for Eye-Spy. Not only are you encouraging sharing of time and taking turns, you are also helping children with associations of letters and animals which is very important for cognitive development. You will also be surprised at how much fun you will have, too!
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