If you've ever gone on a road trip with little kids, you know you have to keep them busy. It keeps them happy and the adults from losing their minds. We're heading out on a 1000+ mile road trip soon with our toddler grandchildren for the first time and want some activities to occupy them other than movies and video games. (These are absolutely fine in reasonable amounts, and we will definitely have those too!) Here's what I prepared for our upcoming beach vacation:
I used large index cards and punched a single hole through all of them. Using my Crop-A-Dial made this pretty simple. I added a binder ring to keep the stack of cards together. The index cards are a little sturdier than most notepad paper, and affixing them together with a ring keeps you from having hundreds of pieces of paper strewn throughout your vehicle. I used the cards that are lined on one side and blank on the other. I also decorated the top card as a "cover," but that's not necessary at all.
I used large index cards and punched a single hole through all of them. Using my Crop-A-Dial made this pretty simple. I added a binder ring to keep the stack of cards together. The index cards are a little sturdier than most notepad paper, and affixing them together with a ring keeps you from having hundreds of pieces of paper strewn throughout your vehicle. I used the cards that are lined on one side and blank on the other. I also decorated the top card as a "cover," but that's not necessary at all.
I added a set of new WASHABLE markers. (You don't want to find unexpected permanent "art" on your upholstery.) I also added some colored pipe cleaners, which are very cheap. Bending the pipe cleaners into shapes and making chains with them should keep the kids busy for miles.
I found some oversized, cheap pencil cases at Target to keep the kit together. They even have a vacation theme to them. What kid wouldn't want to doodle if they had this on a long road trip?
My daughter suggested adding a pad of Post-Its for each child too. She's done this before, and they were a hit. I still need to pick some of those up.
One last thing about road trips with kids: I like to hold back some treats and activities for times when you can tell the child has about had it with being on the road. Pulling a small surprise out of a bag really perks them up and usually keeps a meltdown at bay. I'll probably give the kids the art sets after we've ridden for awhile, and I'll probably hold the pipe cleaners out until even later so they're "new" when the kids need a fresh activity to keep them occupied.
Examples of other things I'm packing are some new books, sticker books, child binoculars (which we'll use at the beach too), an I-Spy card game (similar to travel bingo), small treats like Smarties, and the Barrel of Monkeys game.
I hope this post gave you some ideas. Safe Travels!
No comments:
Post a Comment