Travel Tips

Any time you travel with kids, it is good to think ahead. If you plan some activities and snacks for at least the time spent in the car, the trip usually goes a little smoother.

Things to consider:

1. How long will we be in the car each day? Depending on the age of kids, you might want to pack some goodies so they get something new every 30-60 minutes.

2. Have you looked at a map and thought about where the possible stops are? How long between stops? (good for everyone to get out of the car every 2 hours to stretch legs and move around a bit)

3. Do you have a beach ball or Frisbee or something else small that can be thrown around at a rest stop to encourage moving around?

4. Choose smaller size cups for preschoolers so you don't have to stop and find bathrooms quite so often. You might also try freezing water bottles 1/2 full so that all of the water isn't available early in the trip either.

5. For extra long trips, you might want to consider getting a portable DVD player and taking some favorite movies. (our rule of thumb was that the kids could pick a movie if we would be in the van for more than 3 hours at a stretch)

6. Older kids might enjoy doing some letterboxing on the way or at your destination city.

7. Car games - to keep dice from rolling around, put the required number of dice into a small clear plastic food storage container. Shake to "roll" the dice and set it upside down so you can see through the container what numbers were rolled. 

8. Give the kids a map so they can follow along. If you know ahead of time the stops you will make, you can mark those on the map and the kids can connect the dots at each stop.

9. Contain it!  Having lots of activities in the car to keep kids busy is great, but a hundred flying projectiles could be really bad if the car came to a sudden stop. Consider the items you are allowing kids to bring with them and consider a container with a lid so the activities that are not currently being used can be put away and contained.

This blog by Tip Junkie has some great ideas as well.

In the car

Traveling with kids on long journeys requires some preparation to make it go smoother. Here are some ideas that I hope will help.

General tips

1. Instead of giving things out all at once, have a stash of travel activities that you dole out every 15-30 minutes. Inexpensive toys can often hold a kid's interest for 15-20 minutes before even the simplest thing gets old. (remember to plan a different set, or repack everything for the trip home).

2. Snacks. In your stash of activities, include snacks. Small pieces are often a better choice because it takes longer to eat. A snack size baggie of trail mix will take longer to eat than a breakfast bar that is chomped down in  4 bites. You might want to avoid chocolate just because it's messy (however, M&Ms in a trail mix usually go over pretty well with minimal mess). Snack size baggies of grapes, mandarin oranges, apple slices (dip in pineapple juice and they'll last a week in the fridge without going brown), pretzel sticks or carrot sticks with single size tub of peanut butter.

3. Be sure each child has a place to set their toys/trash when they are moving on to the next activity. We use the snap on lid boxes that have a handle on the lid. They are small enough to be stepped over, but big enough to store a lot of stuff. 

4. Travel currency. When going on long trips, we (parents) decide how much money each child is going to get for spending money on the entire trip. We divided that by how many days we will be gone. We use poker chips to equal $1 each (each child has a different color chip). Each day the kids get the set amount of poker chips (make sure they have a coin purse or container to keep them in). If they want candy at a convenience store, they hand over a chip. If they disobey, hand over a chip. When we get to the actual destination (tourist spots, Grandma's house, whatever) they can spend whatever they have on keepsakes. If they don't have the "cash" to buy what they want, they don't buy it. They must earn it first. If they spent it on candy and sodas instead of eating the healthier snacks and water that we brought along, then they do without that "must have item" at the gift shop.

5. Keeping a record of where you were...postcards. As a scrapbooker, I like to journal what we do each day so that I can scrapbook the trip in chronological order when we get home. To help with this, I buy a postcard at each stop (wherever we spend the night). At the end of that day, I journal what we did in that location (spent driving, where we stopped to eat, amusement park,...) and then I actually mail it home (remember to take postcard stamps with you). When I get home or shortly thereafter, I have a day-by-day record of what we did. 

Little ones

1. Crayola Wonder markers. These markers are fabulous! They only write on the special paper. They can be dropped on the car seat or floor, used purposely on the door or window, or even a sibling, and they don't leave a mark other than on their special paper or coloring book.

2. Magnadoodles. These draw and erase toys are flat and solid enough to not need a table to set them on. 

Older kids

1. Games - Pack a game box for long trips. Think of things that can be played with just what you hold rather than what is laid down on a table (1-handed solitaire, travel bingo - buy or print your own with a different card for every member in the car, window cling tic-tac-toe)

2. Dice Games - you can even take dice games in the car if you use a "dice holder" to do the rolling with (you don't want those little things flying all over the car). 

3. National travelers - print an alphabetical list of all 50 states. Make your chart so that each state (or it's abbreviation) is in a box on a grid leaving plenty of room to make marks inside the box). Each time you see a license plate from a different state than where you, put a hash mark in the state's box. 

4. Map it. Print out a map for each child in the car and give them a highlighter. You can circle the day's destination with a red pen and each leg of the trip, the child highlights where they've been (but the red circle tells them where you're going).