Today’s guest blogger is Lisa M. Cottrell-Bentley, author of the Wright on Time series. Lisa has been writing since she was a child, winning her first writing contest at age 9. She’s been writing professionally since 2002. Lisa is an active member of RWA and SCBWI.
Lisa and her daughters spent many hours searching for children’s books about homeschoolers, but found very few. So, they decided to create their own. As they discussed their dream storylines, the Wright on Time series took shape. While they haven’t found any mysterious devices yet, they have done lots of field research trying out many of the activities described in these books.
Lisa lives and learns while writing in southern Arizona with her husband Greg, two happy always homeschooled daughters Zoë and Teagan, and three cats. Her desire is for all people to live their own personal dreams, now and for always.
“7 Ways to Make this Winter’s Family Vacation More Fun for the Whole Family” by Lisa M. Cottrell-Bentley
Parents are finding vacations taxing and stressful these days, especially when their children are small. “Vacationing with children doesn’t have to be hard or stress-inducing,” says Lisa M. Cottrell-Bentley, author of children’s chapter book Wright on Time: Arizona, Book 1. “Traveling with children can make some of the best vacation memories you’ll ever have.”
Cottrell-Bentley offers the following tips for making family vacations more enjoyable:
- Use online resources to look up family friendly tourist attractions and restaurants before you get to your destination.
- Pack surprises for the kids. New audio books, books, portable video games (DS, PSP, etc.), journals with special pens, and other small toys. Go ahead and wrap them! It helps prolong the experience. The Wright on Time books are great for this! J
- Have a list of potential activities planned for each day, but be prepared to do none of them. Choose ones which you think your kids will like. This keeps things interesting, and assures that no one will be bored. It’s alright to only do one thing a day – drop off the items that don’t interest anyone and be flexible enough to know when even one activity is too much. Even kids appreciate days where nothing is a “have to”.
- Keep some activity choices a surprise and have your children help plan the rest. They want to be involved, yet surprises can be fun.
- Make sure the overall vacation has at least one activity planned for each person in your family. Don’t leave out Dad just because he’s not a kid!
- Take lots of snacks. This is the one area where you can’t overpack. Sometimes kids (and parents) are grumpy just because they are hungry. Make the snacks healthy ones – e.g. homemade trail mix, whole grain cereals, and water.
- Be sure to give everyone a chance to take some photographs. It’s nice to have pictures of everyone on a trip and the perspective of kids can be fun. You’ll quickly see things through their perspective when they are behind the lens.
Wright on Time: Arizona, Book 1 gives fun ideas for activities to do while caving with children. Each Wright on Time book brings the excitement of different states straight into the homes and hearts of children. At www.wrightontimebooks.com, parents and children can read about family fun things to do in all the states and submit their own findings for other people to know about. Games and puzzles for the states can be found, too, which make great printouts for long roadtrips.
Look for our review of Wright on Time: Arizona, Book 1 coming soon!
The Children's and Teens' Book Connection 