Regarding kids in restaurants, whenever we went out to dinner with the kids, they were given a card with several topics that they were to use to do a restaurant review. They could take notes on the card. Reviewed were ambiance, service, timeliness, food selection and cuisine. When we got home, they would give the family an oral presentation on our evening. It was fun.
Oh, we home schooled for 13 years.
What a great idea. Keeps them busy while waiting for their food.
I always appreciated the restaurants with those placemats for kids that they could color on and the restaurant would provide crayons.
The same kind of concept works for kids while flying. Give them something to do. My kids were voracious readers to taking a book helped.