Comments on: Summer Survey: Share Your Favorite Tips for Traveling with Kids

By: Laurie

Laurie — Wed, 15 Jul 2009 02:15:16 +0000

As much as possible, we plan for the drive to be fully part of the vacation. This means that we don’t just consider the number of days at the “destination” but we will increase the overall drive time in order to make it more fun and less tedious (and this often means less time at the destination but we’ve found it works out all around). We usually try to stop every 2-3 hours and will look up local attractions or other points of interest. We’ll spend anywhere from 30 minutes to four hours at a stop. If we’re in for a long haul to begin with, then this means we’ll incorporate an overnight (or two) into our drive but, again, we try to give the overnight it’s own purpose rather than just crashing into a motel bed at 11pm and waking back up to be in the car at 7am.

I know that trips can’t always be this flexible, but the first step is to start thinking outside the box about the drive.

By: Quinn

Quinn — Tue, 14 Jul 2009 19:02:02 +0000

I posted on my children’s favorite activity during our recent car trip, but you’d need a MacBook for it.

http://insidethewhitepicketfence.blogspot.com/2009/07/back-seat-boredom-buster.html

By: Kim from Canada

Kim from Canada — Tue, 14 Jul 2009 02:39:26 +0000

We play the alphabet game all the time. Taking turns we name items that start with each letter of the alphabet (animals, food, etc.). Another alphabet game is a hunting game where you have to spot the letters of the alphabet on road signs, starting at A – you’d be surprised how hard this can be sometimes.

Or, depending on age, the geography game where someone starts off naming a geographical place and the next person in line uses the last letter of the place to name another place – and so on.

Name ten things that you are thankful to God for.

We’ll also make up a story together by each person adding a sentence in turn – start with ‘once upon a time there was a…’ and each person can take the story in any direction. Very imaginative stuff with this one – can be quite funny.

One more – the colour game. Name 5 (or more) things that are purple, or green, etc.

Happy travels!

By: Organizing MOmmy

Organizing MOmmy — Tue, 14 Jul 2009 02:08:23 +0000

I created a kid’s travel game that is not too hard to keep track of the pieces:
http://organizedeveryday.blogspot.com/2008/06/tackle-it-tuesday-new-kids-travel-game.html

Also, I have heard of packing each kid a “brief case” full of fun things to do–including snacks, paper, “junk” and maps to follow where the car was going. I also laminate sheets that can be reused, if you trust your kids with dry erase markers??

Hope you have a fun trip..

By: Chosen

Chosen — Tue, 14 Jul 2009 01:30:56 +0000

Ahead of time make several “travel bingo” cards – that are all differently arranged, where instead of numbers/letters, there are squares with things like a “cow” and a “red barn” a “blue semi truck” etc- all kinds of random things that one might see while traveling, then the kids are watching and have some friendly competition. Also play the alphabet bible characters game. Starting with A everyone says a Bible character name until no one can think of anyone else with that letter and then move on to the next letter- could play it like “horse” if you are the person who can’t think of a charcter you get a letter.
Just some ideas

By: Mrs. Oliveira

Mrs. Oliveira — Tue, 14 Jul 2009 01:02:19 +0000

I don’t have any children of my own but some of my favorite in car games as a child were the license plate game. There are two versions of this 1. Look for plates from all 50 States. 2. Look for a plate number that starts with A then B then C and so on.

Another favorite was A.P.B. (All points bulliten, you know like the police use)
Someone gives a description of a vehicle Exapmple: A green pick up truck. A mini van with a headlight out. Everyone keeps a look out for the described vehicle. First to find then puts out the next A.P.B

Two words MAD LIBS!

Another favorite was the mystery stop. We would be told we would be stopping somewhere the only information we would be given was a time (40 mins) an exit number or what have you. At the stop would be something to get us out of the car (ice cream, a surprise lunch at McDonalds, a park with super cool playground equipment) either way it was something to look forward to and a reason to get out of the car and stretch

By: Erin

Erin — Mon, 13 Jul 2009 23:29:07 +0000

Pipe cleaners kept my crew busy for HOURS on our last trip. They had so much fun trying to make different things. When they would start running low on imagination, my husband would challenge them to make something and that would get them going again. I was amazed at how long they entertained the kids.