posted by Jessica Lynette on Family

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I love road trips with Paul and the boys – our children are great travelers and fun people to be traveling in a car {or plane!} with. We have a 28 hour+ round trip coming up and I thought I would share some of the ways we plan and prepare for fun road trips with young children.

1. Talk it up – excitement is contagious, so if you’re excited so will your children! Let them know where you’re going, what you’re doing – but do keep parts of it a surprise! In a mysterious voice let them know there will be some surprises along the way. {Then make sure to follow through with surprises!!}

2. Google or Youtube your destination with your child and discover points of interest together. Even if you’re not able to visit these places it will give them an understanding of what that specific city is known for. You could also look for books that talk about the location your heading to and bring it along to read together in your hotel or, if possible, right near the area the book mentions.

3. Print maps and create mile or State markers – a highway map that labels home and the destination {such as one printed from Googlemaps} will give the child a deeper understanding of where they are going and give them an opportunity to explore a map and will give them something to “follow along” on while driving. You could also print maps for the destination city – I have printed a map for the local transportation system in the city we’re heading to and the boys have had a blast looking at it.

I have seen some fabulous ideas for helping kids know where they are while traveling and the one I think I am going to do this trip is to tie a string between the drivers seat and the front passenger seat. Then I will roughly draw each state we will be driving through and attach them to the string, in the order we will be passing through each one. Then I will use a wooden clothes pin and draw each boy on one and we will move the clothes pins along the line to show them each time we enter a new state.

4. Search for fun playgrounds that will be on your route. This is the one I have been looking at. Also, you must check out this list of incredible playgrounds - if you live near or will be traveling near any of these WOW!! They look super fun!
{A stop at a fun playground could be one of those secrets you play up when you’re creating hype about the trip!}

5. Hide favorite toys – I know I have mentioned this before. It is one of my favorite secrets for keeping the kids entertained in the car. I have found that shiny, new toys for road trips cost money and, generally, only hold a few minutes of play time. So I have started taking some of their favorite play toys and stashing them away before we go on a trip. They are thrilled to be reunited with their favorite toy and, because it is a favorite, they actually play with it for a long time. It costs nothing and doesn’t add to the toy junk collection.

6. Print fun activities – spend a few minutes finding fun printable activity sheets for your kids to do in the car. There are some really cool things available out there for free for you to print. Even the expensive coloring books generally have free sample pages for you to print. My all time favorite {and the boys favorite!!} is Taro Gomi‘s art. We have printed and used all of the free down loads and I am wanting to create some of my own sheets for them inspired by his work. {since his books are currently out of our budget.}

7. Get some new audio books and music cds – the local library may have a good selection, friends might have some you can borrow or try downloading some from audible.com – seriously, I should get an affiliate link with them! I talk about them enough!

I’ll work on a list of favorite audio books and music, but would love, love, love to hear some of your family favorites!

8. Plan meals and snacks – this really plays into the “creating hype” category for my boys because they love food. Love, love, love it! They enjoy contributing their own ideas for snacks {“cheese strings and pretzel rods please!“} and are really looking forward to pizza bites and pigs in a blanket – both special foods reserved mainly for trips. When I do make the dough for the pizza bites and to wrap around the hot dogs they will both be active participants in that activity.

9. Pack minimally - Nothing makes a trip more stressful then lots and lots of stuff jammed into a car around tired people… well, nothing except for trying to find a needed item in the midst of lots of stuff. Planning {and list making!!} helps me be able to visualize what I need and cut out what I don’t need and taking only the necessary makes the trip much more peaceful.

So, how about you? What goes into the planning of a trip for you that makes the trip itself a richer experience for your family?
I still have time to implement some of your ideas before our trip!!

 

Tags: activity, children, family, organizing, travel