Not only did I have to schedule meals for him, I also had to schedule play and energy use time. Not quiet play time, as we were in the hospital and he was getting enough of that, but outside run around and be crazy time. When we are at home and everyone is awake, he is allowed to play inside and get loud to a point. When he has reached the point of being too loud, he can go outside and play in the yard, jump on the trampoline, go to the park with me, ride his bike, roller blade, and lots of other things to wear off any pent up energy he may have. That wasn’t the case at the hospital though.
One of the things I did for this was go outside in the grass and let him play. When I did this he would usually either “do training” which consists of him jumping around pretending to be a ninja, or pretend he’s training Spyro the Dragon. When he wasn’t doing that, he was pretending to do battle, which consisted of him battling bad guys.
We would also go for walks, which he asked to do often. We could walk around the block, or we could walk down four or five blocks and walk back. Not only would it help wear off energy just the way going for a walk does, but the first two blocks were always down hill. He would have to try to control his body from going to fast, literally, and it was hilarious to watch. Then of course the last two blocks it was all uphill.
Towards the end of the trip, when the things he had been doing the whole trip were getting old and boring, I started coming up with new challenges for him. “How long does it take you to run to that tree and back? Good job, now can you do it faster?” “How many times can you jump on one foot? How many times can you jump on the other one? You think you can do more? Ok, I’ll count again.” He absolutely loved these little challenges, and loved trying to break his own record even more. I loved that it got him out in the sun and got him moving, and even more, I loved that it was helping to wear off the excess energy that I could see building and he was more than willing to do it.
You may also want to read Scheduling Meals While Traveling and Scheduling Sleep While Traveling