Here are some of the great ideas I found and used:
I was a little stumped for the twins that are 19 months old. I didn’t have too much time to prepare something, so I just made them each a small bin of baby toys. I also brought along their blankies, and the ipads were a HUGE lifesaver with them; those seemed to entertain them for quite some time.
For the 4 bigger kids (ages 3,5,7, and 10), I used my friend Christy’s idea of filling a backpack with new activities and treats for the kids.
Here are some of the things I included in their backpacks:
- Sticky Mosaics
- Box of crayons
- Stickers
- Small, blank notebooks
- Mad Libs
- Book to read
- Comic book
- Amazing Marker book
- Coloring books
- Small activity books (with crosswords, word finds, color by number, etc.)
- Dover sticker books
- Wipe-Off books
- Fruit snacks & Fruit by the Foot
- Tube of M&Ms
- Package of large Smarties
- Ring Pops
I also put these wonderful printables from Living Life Intentionally in each of their bags. I laminated them and included in each pack a dry-erase marker and a small pack of kleenex.
And who doesn’t like to play the license plate game while on a long road trip? I put one of these printables in each pack as well:
We also incorporated 2 other things into our road trip that I found on Pinterest – Car Bucks and “Road Trip” Countdown.
The kids earned Car Bucks for good behavior while traveling. We then let them decide if they wanted to turn them in for a souvenir or earn more on the way home and then spend them at the Lego store. The Lego store won. You can decide how much each car buck is worth and for what kind of behavior you award with them.
The “Road Trip” Countdown was a visual for the kids to see how far we had traveled and how far we had left to go. At each of our stops (which was quite a few traveling with 8 people), we wrote down our location and the time and then pinned it up on our line.
The kids were really well-behaved on the trip and handled the long car ride nicely. They loved the backpacks and were so excited when they opened them as we started our trip. Daddy said that next time he wants his own backpack!
If you’d like even more activities, check out the post – Games & Activities for When You Have to Wait
I LOVE IT!!!!! Daddy’s request made me laugh out loud!!!! Man, you make road tripping soo fun! I’m adding some of your other ideas to our next trip 😉
Thanks for the idea Christy! It worked great!
Oh my word! Those are such great ideas!!! I especially like the timeline one. We usually pack a box of toys or two…ones they don’t play with often (this time the girls picked potato head and bristle blocks). My son packs his own backpack. After lunch I’ll let them watch movies. You can read about our trip here. http://themessexposed.blogspot.com/2012/10/unplugged-and-on-farm.html
Next time I’m going to try some of your traveling tips!
Thanks for stopping by Kristy! I hope you can use some of the ideas!
Blessings!
These are some great ideas! It sounds like you were well prepared 🙂 Thanks for sharing at Favorite Resources.
Thanks for hosting the link up Susan! The bags worked wonders!
Blessings!
Wow! This is perfect! We’re taking road trip in a little over 2 weeks and I was looking for stuff like this! Thanks for posting!
I love the visual Roadtrip Countdown. And the Outer Banks :).
Great ideas! I have a love/hate relationship with long car rides and the kids. It can be difficult to actually do it but the memories that you create are truly unforgettable. Here are some more suggestions to pass the time in the car with 7 games that require no equipment http://growingplay.blogspot.com/2015/11/car-rides-and-kids-7-games-to-play-no.html