Hi Everybody.

I'm looking for ideas on how to get the kids involved in planning & the family vacation.

Things like:

• Letting a school-age child do research on the Interent about where you are going and then share with the family.
• When traveling by car, asking the older children to help plan the route using a map.
• Go to the library and check out book about the places you'll be going and have them share.
• Have children decide what to bring and make a list: toothbrush, soap, an extra pillow.

give the children several different possible vacation locations have them do research and then vote on your favorite one as a family

My parents would let us help "navigate" when taking road trips. They would also let us pick one place along the way (on the route of the road trip) that we wanted to stop. So with three kids, we each got to pick one special place to stop and see (one time it was some kind of giant ball of yarn! another time, we stopped and saw the memorial in atlanta from the bombing in the early 90s, and I believe my sisters requested the Metropolitan Muesum of Art.

 It was a great way for us to do what we, as the kids, wanted to do on trips!

We havent been on a vacation in a while....but I would definitely check out books and let the kids see where we are going, and what they might like to see. I would also have them involved in packing and getting ready. Deciding what clothes are appropriate for the trip...Bathing suits for the beach or jackets and sweaters for the mountains. Stuff like that!!

I would have the children do a top 3 trip destination list. See if there are matching places on everyone's list, that helps make the selecting the location phase go quicker.

I would then let each member of the family get to plan one activity during the trip. Be it a restaurant type, activity, attraction, etc.

Hope that helps! The paper, how cool! 

all awsome  thoughts !!!!!  You could have them start by each submitting   ideas on what they think would e ideal trips   see how many are similar or could be combined in one place then take it from there  Fantastc thinking momma!!!!

We haven't been on a vacation in a long time.  I may have to try out some of those ideas with my girls.  Especially the little ones so they feel more included.

My dad always involved us in vacation planning. Both of us got to choose something that the whole family did on the vacation. One trip we might get to pick a special restaurant to eat at or a site to see. When we went to NYC, we each got to pick a show to go to. My dad always did preliminary research and gave us options to choose from, that way we always chose something realistic and in the vacation budget. It always added to the excitement because we got to feel ownership over the vacation and we always knew that at least one part of the trip would be special for us.