Since I have been traveling, I thought I would share a few ideas that you might be able to use on a trip of your own. After all there are still a few more weeks left of summer!
Make your own dry erase tote from Stubbornly Crafty:
Make an antibored kit. Gather small items your kids would enjoy and place them in a painted and decorated Altoids tin. Idea from Instructables.
Printable Bingo cards from While He Was Napping.
Make a marble maze game as seen on Serving Pink Lemonade.
When my family takes a trip, I try to have a car bag filled with things the kids enjoy. It would be best to have a small bag for each child to help cut down on fighting. Here are a few ideas for entertaining your kids on your next family trip:
- Small toys your kids love - small plastic animals, cars, etc.
- Electronics - Ipod, portable DVD, gameboys
- Coloring books, notebooks, crayons, markers
- Magnadoodle, Etcha Sketch, etc.
- String/yarn - cat's cradle, friendship bracelets
- Snacks - remember chocolate is messy and melts!
- Magnetics with a (metal) TV dinner tray so your kids can build on their own travel table. Plus the dinner tray works well for snacks and coloring! I bought some a few years ago for my kids when we were heading on a road trip and they helped a ton! I bought mine at the check out stand at Walmart for only a few dollars each.
- Books
- Crossword puzzle, Wordsearch or Sudoku books (make sure your child doesn't get car sick!)
- Travel sized games - Target & Walmart have these in their game sections, but check the dollar store too!
- Deck of cards, dice, card games.
*Keep in mind your children's likes, ages, gender and the duration of the trip. Any other ideas you want to add to the list? Let me know what you do to keep your kids entertained!
We have a string of beads that we hang from the "ceiling" of the car during longer trips. There is one bead for every 30 minutes of the trip, and every half hour they get to move a bead from one side to the other. This way the kids always know how much of the trip is left and don't need to ask "are we there yet?" or "how much longer?" They really look forward to moving the beads and everyone gets to participate as the back rows of seats passes the beads over to the middle row of seats.
ReplyDeleteWhat a fun and clever idea I have never thought of before. I guess instead of asking "Are we there yet?" it would be "Can I move the bead yet?" Sounds like a fun family tradition. Thanks for sharing!
ReplyDeleteAllison
I packed a couple of small balls for each child to play with at the airport. It's fun to see how they can engage the other bored adults and get them to help retrieve misguided kicks! I used cheap 2in diameter stuffed balls that I got for $6/dozen on Oriental Trading. You could throw one of them as hard as you could and still not harm anyone. I only allow my kids to kick the ball on the floor and they must stay in a less crowded area.
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