The tales from our trip just keep on coming! Going to Fairhope was going to be a six hour drive with one husband, two boys, and two dogs. Although it was worth it to see my grandparents, I was really dreading the distance!
We don't have a DVD player in our car (in which I am now thinking about investing), so I searched my favorite inspirational place, pinterest, to gather ideas. This also helped me feel a lot better about our trip. One blogger had to plan for a move across the COUNTRY with her three little ones!
The first great idea I found was at The Dating Divas where you will also find the link to print all of their great goodies. Although this was designed for a couple taking a road trip, it worked perfectly for my little guys. I printed the trip markers on green just to make them more fun (but really because I had run out of white card stock!) and picked out four cities we would go through along the way from Huntsville to Fairhope. I tied black ribbon above their seats and used little clothes pins to attach them. At each place, they found the appropriate card and got to turn it in for a prize.
For the first prize, I created binders for them. Jackson, my four-year-old, really got a kick out of this one. Brady enjoyed the little stickies that I included! I used some scrap booking items that I got at a yard sale to make their covers.
The first page was a map of Alabama. I googled it and transferred the image to a Word document to make it the correct size. As we passed the cities, we used highlighting tape to mark them off on the map. By the end of the trip, Jackson decided he was an "expert" map reader and was directing Daddy on where to go!
The other pages I found at Gluesticks. She has a ton of great ideas, because she was the mom traveling across the country! I used the same stickies for them to mark what they found. Brady really got a kick out of the letter page, where they had to find the letters in the alphabet on signs and other places as we drove. I began by handing them the stickies as they needed them, but that got annoying, so I stuck a bunch on the back of the previous page for them to use.
For the other prizes, I picked out snacks that we don't normally have at the house to give to them. This was probably a mistake, because my boys are obsessed with food and just bugged me the whole time for more of it. I also found a cute snack holder in the Target dollar bins to use for trail mix.
I picked out nutritional food to have on hand in addition to the food prizes, because my husband has this really bad knack for not stopping unless we need gas. I even packed the potty seat in the back just in case he had the notion to skip bathroom breaks!
On the way home, I just reversed the cards and removed all of the stickies for them to play the games again. Instead of food items, I tried to find other things to give them. For example, Jackson already has a Leapster Explorer he got as a gift. I found a Star Wars Leapster game at the Goodwill for $1, but it was for a different kind of system. Wouldn't you know it, my mom and I stopped at another thrift store and found a Leapster for $4 that also included another game! You can't beat an entertained set of boys for $5 (Brady got to use the Leapster Explorer.)!!
What great ways have you found to entertain your kids on road trips?
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