July 18th, 2007 5 fun ways to make it through a road trip Posted by Melitsa in Education, Good reads, play activities

A post over at play library reminded me about travel toys as we planned our trip. This long cross country trip with a full car didn’t leave much space for kid’s things and that would be a problem…. or not.

• One of the best pieces of advice I received was to buy a lap tray. We got ours from Walmart but they are everywhere. The oldest one used it for food, colouring, sticker books. Mum and Dad used it as well- bonus.

• I packed a clear backpack full of activity books, sticker books, colour wonder pens and book, mini cars and action figures, dot to dot, mazes, little plastic insects (lizards)magic paint mini books, paper, pencils and colouring pencils ( I had the sharpener in my bag). There were lots of mini books from the market (sent by Grandma for the long journey) or from the local dollar store.

The oldest dipped in and out all trip. He passed over stickers, cars and paper to the little guy. Big guy hauled it in and out of the hotels and really loved finding new things to do- some alone and some with us.

• DVDs- Mickey mouse was a runaway favourite.

During down time we even got in an Audio book. The Kite Runner-Fantastic book. That kept us hanging on the authors every word.

• Another great piece of advice was when we stopped we always tried to find a park so the kids can burn energy. We found some great places. Tired and played out they were happy to go back into the car seats for a long time.

• Post it notes- I saw this fabulous idea on a recent trip to Crater Lake. The car windows had a lovely display of pictures. The kids had drawn all sorts of things and then stuck them on the back windows. Easy clean up and compact. There were 3 different colours, so I assumed there were 3 kids in that van.

****What are you doing with your kids during those road trips? Why not leave a response below. Would love to hear your ideas.****

Melitsa Avila is a former teacher, mother of three boys and military wife who talks about living an intentional play lifestyle using practical and everyday play activities to do with the under 5s. She publishes related ebooks & newsletters. Melitsa is the host and producer of a weekly Early Childhood radio show: Raising Playful Tots bringing parents and carers together with Early childhood practitioners. Thanks for reading!

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