I thought some of you might be planning road trips with your children this summer and thought I’d put together a list of fun activities you can do to keep the kiddos happy.
We have taken countless road trips with our children- usually ranging from 2-10 hours long. My girls are 6 and 7 now but we have been taking trips regularly for several years now. Our first big trip was a few years ago when we drove from Sacramento to Palm Springs and then to Disneyland. That was a loooonnngg haul and I planned and prepped and made huge car kits for the kids with Disney themed treats and games and coloring and toys.
Big mistake!
To this day we still have crayons in the little rails of the car and puzzle pieces and other things that are too small to vacuum out and get lodged in to make me absolutely crazy. I see lots of activities with crayons and legos and such for kiddos on pinterest and I do want to warn you that I don’t allow any small pieces in our cars anymore. Not after the great car trashing of 2012 courtesy of Mom’s lovingly packed car kits. I think some of these things are still really cute and worth making for the hotel room and such. Or maybe your children are not as messy as mine and you will have much better luck 🙂
These days I tend to roll with lots of snacks and again things that don’t crumble into 8 million little crumbs in the back seat. We like licorice, sliced apples, mini pretzels- (the entire pretzel goes in your mouth not like chips where little people bite it in half and a shower of crumbs hits the seat), peanut butter sandwiches, lemonade and so on.
The main entertainment for the little people is usually the DVD player. Most people have DVD players built into the car but we actually have an old school portable DVD player. The girls each pick one or two movies before we leave (they must agree on it so plenty of time is allowed for this major decision) and on a super long trip I might stop at Redbox locations along the way to get something new we haven’t seen before.
And since there are two kids and Mommy and Daddy don’t necessarily want a Barbie movie marathon, we have this little splitter that allows two sets of headphones to connect to the DVD player and everyone is happy.
So here are some fun ideas for keeping the kids busy this summer:
3. Easy Car Organizer for Kids
4. Activity Trays- made with Cookie Sheets — note: we usually stop at a Dollar Tree on trips and might pick up a few little pool toys or something. You can grab black posterboard for $1 and make something like this for the kids to play with in the hotel room too.
6. Printable Car Games– Scavenger Hunt, Bingo and more
7. Mad Libs
10. Play-doh Muffin Tin Activity
11. Matching Activity for Toddlers
13. Countdown Arrival Activity
14. DIY Car Pulley System– for snacks and activities
And if you are staying in a hotel with a microwave, this little soap cloud is a very fun thing to make for the littles. They will LOVE playing with this in the tub!
And here is a simple idea we did last summer when visiting Grandpa Joe. There weren’t many toys at his house, but we did make this sprinkler which the kids had a great time with!
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