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A holiday is double the fun with friends&mdash;or is it?
There are certainly benefits to travelling with friends and their children. For one, everyone&rsquo;s social needs are met. The kids in the group can bond with their peers, while the adults can spend quality time catching up with one another. And when it comes to attractions, especially theme parks, the more the merrier, and the chances of qualifying for group discounts are high too.
However, tensions can arise due to the different needs and expectations of each family. To avoid misunderstandings, have an honest discussion about your needs and wants before the trip. It will guarantee your trip&rsquo;s success, while ensuring that your friendship remains intact.
<h2>Say &ldquo;No&rdquo; To Mealtime Squabbles</h2>
A mother of three who travelled with her best friend&rsquo;s family observed &ldquo;slight tension&rdquo; between the families when it came to mealtimes. &ldquo;We are more lax in terms of snacks and healthy eating while on holiday,&rdquo; she says. &ldquo;Maintaining the holiday mood and keeping the kids happy is our priority.&rdquo;
On the flipside, there are families who are fastidious about their food choices, either due to allergies in the family, or because of general health concerns. Do find out about one another&rsquo;s eating habits (early meals or late?) and preferences, to see if you can meet halfway.
It&rsquo;s also useful to check on food budgets&mdash;if you are a budget-conscious parent travelling with foodies who are not averse to splurging on a meal, you may want to visit places with a range of food choices, or dine separately to keep everyone happy.
<h2>Take A Stand On Screen Time</h2>
A mother with children under 12 recalls a recent holiday with close friends that hit a sour note because her friends&rsquo; teenagers were preoccupied with their gadgets for much of the trip, resulting in her children clamouring to use gadgets as well.
&ldquo;In future, I would discuss ground rules at the start, even before agreeing to a trip. But it&rsquo;s potentially tricky. If my friends reveal that they are relaxed about gadget use, am I going to say, &lsquo;Oh, then we shouldn&rsquo;t travel together&rsquo;?&rdquo;
One way to avoid the gadget dilemma is to choose destinations that promote offline bonding for everyone, suggests a parent who has travelled with different families. &ldquo;In outdoor settings, it&rsquo;s natural for children to interact with nature, and to play old-school games such as &lsquo;catching,&rsquo;&rdquo; she says.
If a trip involves long rides and plenty of downtime, gadget use may be inevitable. Some parents have no issues with their children using gadgets for as long as they like, as it frees the parents to relax and unwind. Conversely, other parents may have strict rules about gadget use for the entire family.
You could set a timer for your children to let them know when they have to surrender their gadgets to you. Alternatively, if you prefer that your children stay off gadgets as much as possible, talk to them about your family&rsquo;s stand, and let them know why you feel strongly about this. Be sure to bring along books, games, and other materials to keep them occupied&mdash;when your friend&rsquo;s children see how much fun you&rsquo;re having, they may be tempted to join in too.
<h2>Spend Time Apart</h2>
When travelling in bigger groups, some minor frustrations are to be expected. A common issue is that some families love to get an early start and cover many attractions in a day, while others prefer to travel at a leisurely pace.
With different personalities in the mix, and especially when younger children are involved, it is best to be less ambitious and agree on one or two major activities to do together each day. Be sure to schedule time alone for your family as well, so you can indulge in activities that your travel companions may not enjoy.
&ldquo;Separate accommodations at the end of the day is one way of making sure that everyone has a private space to rest,&rdquo; says a mum. Or, if the budget permits, you can rent a larger holiday home with cozy spaces for everyone to retreat to.
<h2>Share Responsibilities</h2>
If someone is paying for the group, be sure to keep tabs on shared expenses. Thankfully, with apps like PayLah!, splitting the bill with your Singaporean friends is now a cinch, even when you&rsquo;re abroad.
When out, take turns to chaperone the children. If not, one parent may end up watching over all the children for the entire trip, while other parents remain blissfully oblivious. It&rsquo;s best that an adult is always present to supervise the children, even in safe spaces&mdash;other children have different influences and they may behave in a manner that you disapprove of.
If you are sharing a holiday home, take time to discuss cooking and cleaning arrangements, so that someone doesn&rsquo;t end up feeling like he or she is doing all the work. A simple meal plan&mdash;when to eat in, and when to eat out&mdash;can help to avoid mealtime confusion.
At all times, be proactive and take the initiative to run the laundry, load the dishwasher, or take out the trash. For best results, get the children to chip in too.
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Travelling With Another Family? Here’s How To Avoid Holiday Conflicts!

Do you have concerns for your child’s English Language proficiency? Be better prepared for a good head start in 2018.
Experts revealed that preparing your child for school has several benefits such as building confidence in them and also reducing stress on your child.
As such, does your child have any learning gaps that are preventing them from being better in English?
<h3>Learning gaps that your child may be experiencing</h3>
1. They have difficulty in organizing thoughts and ideas
Many children face challenges in organizing their ideas and moving from one idea to the next with a logical transition. Some of them also face difficulties in analysing clues in a given text and interpreting the text effectively.
2. They are unable to speak well in front of unfamiliar audience
Most children can speak well with their parents and among their peers, but not all are confident to express themselves naturally in front of unfamiliar audience. For example, some children get emotionally hijacked and perceive oral examination as a difficult hurdle to conquer.
3. They are often disengaged during learning
A child’s brain is like a sponge: don’t discount the memory work. Often, children are capable of picking up new vocabulary words and are very eager to “show off” to their parents about their new learning through daily living.
Unfortunately, when learning is disengaged from real-life events or highly dependent on rote memory, children may find it difficult to appreciate the meaning of words and lack the practices of creating ideas from words.
<h3>So how can you help your child close his or her learning gaps in the English Language this holiday?
</h3>
1. Encourage your child to practise critical thinking and share ideas
Children who are open-minded and have alternative ways of looking at problems are more capable of organising ideas logically and effectively.
They are not easily stuck in the past experiences or rigid about ideas.
This is called critical thinking &#8211; an essential skill that enables children to write convincingly in compositions regardless of the varied essay titles and to fully understand texts of different context in comprehension examination.
To develop critical thinking, your child must believe that thinking is fun and want to be good at it. Just like how you had practised basketball or any other sport, you get better at critical thinking with intentional practice.
2. Provide your child with opportunities to practise public speaking
A great presentation does not happen by accident. It is planned, rehearsed, then delivered with flair. Provide your child plenty of opportunities to learn and develop good presentation skills.
Public speaking is a skill, not a talent.
3. Engage your child with real world topics to expand vocabulary and improve creative writing
In educational settings across the world, there is a growing belief in using concrete, real-world problems to engage and motivate young minds to come up with innovative solutions.
Use real world events and happenings such as news articles from newspapers to engage your children.
<h3>No idea on how to close your child’s learning gap?</h3>
Let <a href="http://www.elloquence.edu.sg/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">ELLoquence</a> give you a hand!
<img onerror="kspReplaceCdn(this)" decoding="async" loading="lazy" class="wp-image-50494 aligncenter" src="https://www.kiasuparents.com/kiasu/files/u133359/ell1.jpg" alt="ell1" width="700" height="380" /> 1. ELLoquence provides necessary practices for your child to build thinking
Whether it be studying a comprehension passage or critiquing each other’s composition writings, we invite our students to be:
<ul>
<li>CLEAR We challenge them to be clear by asking for explanations and examples.</li>
</ul>
<ul>
<li>ACCURATE We encourage them to highlight related key facts using different colours to form connections within a text.</li>
</ul>
<ul>
<li>RELEVANT We invite them to raise questions or topics that are pertinent to the discussion. </li>
</ul>
<ul>
<li>LOGICAL We think through the details of the topic from different angles, and encourage our students to make logical connections and challenge assumptions.</li>
</ul>
<ul>
<li>FAIR By making sure they consider other people’s perspectives when drawing conclusions, we weave in the life-long skill of empathy into their thinking processes. </li>
</ul>
Through consistent practices, your child will be capable of presenting facts and narrating emotions in their writing through the correct choice of words and sequence of events.
By applying critical thinking, they can learn to make inferences from the texts and explore alternatives and recognise assumptions. These skills are very useful to your child who needs to tackle higher-order thinking questions in Paper 2 of the MOE examinations.
The ELLoquence curriculum has been designed and tailored for Singapore-based students and are aligned to the Ministry of Education (MOE)’s syllabus.
<img onerror="kspReplaceCdn(this)" decoding="async" loading="lazy" class="size-full wp-image-50495 aligncenter" src="https://www.kiasuparents.com/kiasu/files/u133359/ell2.jpg" alt="ell2" width="700" height="563" srcset="https://wp.kiasuparents.com/kiasu/files/u133359/ell2.jpg 700w, https://wp.kiasuparents.com/kiasu/files/u133359/ell2-640x515.jpg 640w" sizes="(max-width: 700px) 100vw, 700px" />
2. ELLoquence gives confidence to your child to become a better speaker
At ELLoquence, we equip your child with the basic skills of making a good presentation and provide your child with ample opportunities to exercise such newly-acquired skills. 
Whether it is through a project work or sharing of research findings, we equip our students with:
<ul>
<li>STEP-BY-STEP PROCESS We empower our students with the processes on how to plan and prepare a presentation.</li>
</ul>
<ul>
<li>EMOTIONAL AWARENESS We help our learners become more aware of their heightened emotions, thereby reducing nervousness and fear. </li>
</ul>
<ul>
<li>CHARISMA We help your child gain rapport with their audience through a variety of techniques, including gestures, eye contact, and an appropriate use of humour.</li>
</ul>
<ul>
<li>COMMUNICATION SKILLS We build on your child’s confidence by helping them to be clear about what they want to say and how they prefer to say it.</li>
</ul>
Through such intentional practice, your child will be able to deliver their thoughts and feelings clearly and convincingly, in any context. Through consistent practices, your child will be able to speak more naturally and confidently in front of unfamiliar oral examiners during the MOE examinations.
<img onerror="kspReplaceCdn(this)" decoding="async" loading="lazy" class="size-full wp-image-50496 aligncenter" src="https://www.kiasuparents.com/kiasu/files/u133359/ell3.jpg" alt="ell3" width="700" height="467" srcset="https://wp.kiasuparents.com/kiasu/files/u133359/ell3.jpg 700w, https://wp.kiasuparents.com/kiasu/files/u133359/ell3-640x427.jpg 640w" sizes="(max-width: 700px) 100vw, 700px" />
3. ELLoquence engages your child with real world learning
Students in ELLoquence can gain access to real world events and happenings, drawing on some 80 real-life themes to engage themselves. These themes range from ‘Self and Community’ (e.g. sports, friendship) to ‘Global’ (e.g. climate change, technology).
Through such a rich contextual approach, your child can pick up grammar, vocabulary and language skills much better than learning via boring textbook drills.
What is more, ELLoquence give our learners the opportunity to apply their new knowledge by participating in speaking and creative writing exercises!
<h5>Conclusion</h5>
ELLoquence English Learning Centre is confident in helping your child improves his or her language proficiency within a short period of time.
What can you do to let your child have a good head start in 2018? Let your child come onboard ELLoquence today!
<h3><a href="http://www.elloquence.edu.sg/contact/#REGISTRATION" target="_blank" rel="noopener">&lt;Exclusive Offer ONLY For Members of KiasuParents&gt;</a></h3>
<h3>If you are still unsure whether this works for you, we are offering 2 free trial lessons to readers of KiasuParents!</h3>
Take advantage of this promotion, visit our <a href="http://elloquence.edu.sg">website</a> or contact us 8742 2100. You can also drop us a message!
Terms and conditions apply.  For timely updates, tips and information, do check out our <a href="https://www.facebook.com/elloquence.sg" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Facebook</a> page.