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Epic Summer Road Trip!

amien1

amien1

I do enjoy a good exclamation point!
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Dec 14, 2015
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I think I posted awhile back about our Epic Summer- Yellowstone, Mt. Rushmore, Badlands- six-state Road Trip!!! We leave NEXT Saturday morning!!! We're all super excited!



Now my kids (6 & 9 yrs old) are pretty good road traveler's since we frequent the 6 hour drive to my mom's house at least every few months. We will only have one day of road travel longer than that (one of the last days on our way home) but I'm worried that all their usual activities will be old news by then! They both can watch the DVD player, play with toys, read/nap fairly well- but I'm want to do some other fun things since this is not just a typical trip over the mountains to grandma's house.

I was thinking of making up a few fun road games (scavenger hunt, license plate game, abc eye spy, etc.) Thoughts? Suggestions?
 
ABC game we play frequently. Just trying to find the alphabet.

The license plate game used to keep my brother, sisters and I busy. We had notebooks and would tally up all the different states we saw. I don't know why it kept us interested, but it did! I think we liked seeing the tally marks.

We also used to play "name that tune". We would flip through country music stations and see who could be the first to identify the artist and song. Just a little FYI - I hate country music to this day! LOL!

For my 3 & 4 year old I give them little mini white boards with a black erase marker. They like drawing and erasing.

I'm a little jealous of your road trip! Have fun!!!
 
Have fun! Maybe they'll sleep on the way home? Lol.

I printed off Liz's template with all the individual states and my son colored in which ones he saw license plates on. A little more interactive for him.
I've also printed off dot to dot and made activity books with new pencil crayons.
And little dollar store items to open at random times.
 
We sing! We have a sing-along road trip playlist. A friend of mine does this for every trip and even prints a songbook so the kids can sing along. She has themes too... related to where they're going (and a coming home Chicago themed playlist too). Thanks to our road trip playlist our kids can sing 500 Miles by the Proclaimers, The Gambler by Kenny Rogers, the Gilligan's Island theme song and Bust a Move... lol!
 
What an amazing trip!! You've got some really great suggestions so far! We've done a few of those, too! I'm making a list as well!
One that we do to pass some time is pick out a car on the road and check out the people in the car (without being stalkerish/creepy). Then we make up stories about those people and what kind of journey they are on. My DH is really good at this one and comes up with some pretty whacky stuff. We even make up names for them.
 
When we took our kids to Laguna Beach last year, I made each child a binder with activities and I had more fun doing them than they did :( I printed out the license plate game, MadLibs, scavenger hunts, etc etc. For my youngest I cut strips of magnets into small pieces and gluded them to pom poms for her to make numbers, a rainbow, etc. She played with that for all of 5 mins.

I asked everyone once we were all buckled into the car how long they thought it was going to take to get from our house to the hotel and whoever got the closest without going over could pick where we had dinner the first night. They did like this.

I garbbed each kid a bag of M&M's and had them guess how many of each color they thought was in there...they liked that because candy was involved.

They were head deep in their phone/iPod apps that I can honestly say I won't print out games the next time. I hope you have a different experience!!
 
I did this when traveling down to OBX a few times when the kids were little. We spent a day or two making little books and using metal rings to bind them. We used print outs from the web ... and had word search games, license plate game, made our own mad lib sheets, had drawing paper for doodling or playing hang man, had tic tac toe sheets ... stuff like that. They decorated a cover and helped put them together and maybe it was because they helped make the booklets they really did end up using them.
I love the ideas I see on Pinterest with little plastic boxes that have divided spaces ... and you can fill each one with little candies or treats. I would do a healthy snack one and keep them in a cooler and then a sweet treat one.

Good luck - sounds like an amazing road trip for sure! Can't wait to hear all about it and see your photos!
 
Scrapping with Liz said:
white boards with a black erase marker. They like drawing and erasing.
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I like that idea- we were already going to bring the dry erase markers so I can get two little boards for them to doodle on easy! Thanks!

bestcee said:
And little dollar store items to open at random times.
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That's another good idea! Thanks!

tkradtke said:
We sing! We have a sing-along road trip playlist. A friend of mine does this for every trip and even prints a songbook so the kids can sing along. She has themes too... related to where they're going (and a coming home Chicago themed playlist too). Thanks to our road trip playlist our kids can sing 500 Miles by the Proclaimers, The Gambler by Kenny Rogers, the Gilligan's Island theme song and Bust a Move... lol!
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That is awesome! While my kids would TOTALLY be down- my hubby is a buzzkill. He likes music, but doesn't really care much about it. He honestly would prefer to drive with it off- or listen to the kids' movie on the dvd player (we have the option to switch to our music up front & their movie thru the headphones in the back.)

IntenseMagic said:
One that we do to pass some time is pick out a car on the road and check out the people in the car (without being stalkerish/creepy). Then we make up stories about those people and what kind of journey they are on. My DH is really good at this one and comes up with some pretty whacky stuff. We even make up names for them.
Click to expand...

OMG! That is SO fun! We're totally going to do that! lol!!!

bbymks5 said:
They were head deep in their phone/iPod apps that I can honestly say I won't print out games the next time. I hope you have a different experience
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Awe man! That stinks- we did already talk about how many movies they can watch (1 each per day) and they don't have a tablet or ipod so I have that going for me at least! My daughter actually really likes to read in the car so getting her to look up & out the window sometimes is still tough! ;)

jenn mccabe said:
little plastic boxes that have divided spaces
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That's a great idea! We are thinking of putting the cooler right between their captain's chairs for easy access- maybe I'll have a 'snack approved' section on top for them!
 
amien1 said:
That is awesome! While my kids would TOTALLY be down- my hubby is a buzzkill. He likes music, but doesn't really care much about it. He honestly would prefer to drive with it off- or listen to the kids' movie on the dvd player (we have the option to switch to our music up front & their movie thru the headphones in the back.)
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That's too bad! We love singing in the car and we're probably one of the families that @IntenseMagic's family makes up stories about... lol!

Okay... if he likes listening to the DVD player... how about audio books? Maybe there are some kid ones that are set in the areas that you're going to... that way the kids could look out the windows and really imagine the scenarios that the book is talking about. Or audio books about the things they'll see in Yellowstone... I just found several podcasts that could be interesting.
 
It's 13 hours one way in the car to visit my parents. I put all devices in the trunk and the kids aren't allowed to have them right away (13 hours in the car in one day is a lot but 13 hours on a device isn't exactly "healthy"). So I tell them the soonest they can have a device is when we stop; however, they must behave in order to earn a device. I don't just pop the trunk and hand them portable brain drainers. But the longer they wait, the more time they earn. So if they wait 2 hours, they earn 2 hours' time. And they know that if they act up, then the first consequence is device removal.

My kids were 3 and 6 when we first made this road trip but I have flown with kids since DD was 2, and on a plane I've got to have "no yelling, no kicking, use your headphones" etc rules, so a car is actually a bit easier. Our first 13-hour trip, DS still napped so that helped pass the time for him, and DD loves to read so I just made sure she had a lot of books. And I brought DS's fave books too, which DD read to him. I also bought little toys from the dollar store--matchbox cars for DS, a coloring book and little my little pony figures for DD. Every few hours I'd give them a new toy. I also asked their help in making a couple CDs for the ride cuz I figured music we all liked would help everyone's mood.

I didn't allow them to have chocolate (my vehicle was barely a year old the first time we made the long trip), but they're allowed gummy candy and Skittles. They get candy at certain intervals, and whining for more means they lose the candy. (I don't normally take away treats but I can't stand screaming in my car.)

I didn't want crayons in my car but DD could have a few colored pencils. I also bought those "color magic" marker and pad sets. Not the crayons color wonder but the marker that looks clear but "reveals" stuff on the page. You can get them at target and dollar store. We also did mad libs, which got everyone laughing.

It might sound like I have a lot of rules, but I've never had a real problem traveling with my kids. I think that's cuz I set up expectations before we even get in the car, and I'm consistent. I figure that 13 hours in a car twice a year (there and back) helps them learn patience, and that's what I remind myself the first time one of them says "are we there yet???"
 
We love road trips! I bet you guys will have a blast. We bring lots of books but my youngest isn't reading yet so we bring all of the legos. He can play for hours with them!
 
We have gone on some very long flights and drives with our kids and use some of the things others have suggested already. Like Sara, we always include some small toys (figurines, trading cards or pokemon cards, small travel games, small lego kits) to give out periodically. I heard of one family who would wrap them all in scrunched up aluminum-foil to make it more like opening a present and slow the kids down. I don't think we actually ever tried that but it's an interesting idea.
 
I told hubby they should leave their devices at home, but he didn't want to hear it and it was a battle I wasn't going to fight :(

I loved reading on road trips...I'm an only child, so I had to entertain myself and getting lost in different books was the best.

amien1 said:
Awe man! That stinks- we did already talk about how many movies they can watch (1 each per day) and they don't have a tablet or ipod so I have that going for me at least! My daughter actually really likes to read in the car so getting her to look up & out the window sometimes is still tough! ;)!
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looks like an amazing plan! (of all the US house renovation and 'house hunter' type shows we see here Living Big Sky (in Montana) is my fave - will be looking fwd to seeing your pics and pages!)
 
We always had books to read in the car, maybe some activity books. But what we all liked was listening to audio dramas, mainly one called Adventures in Odyssey. They were made for kids but even my dad would get into the stories. This was in the days of cassette players!! (Although we'd upgraded to CDs by the time I was a teenager) No idea if there are similar things in digital today.
 
You have some great suggestions above, so I'll just say that I hope you have a fabulous trip. Looks like a super bunch of stops!
 
Not sure if your six year old is too young but he might like it because your 9 year old is.... We always got maps (rest areas have them for free a lot of times) Or you can buy, and they would have fun following along on the map. Highlighter to mark their way! We played games like who sees the sign for a town first. We did a trip every year that made us cross the Mackinac Bridge, the person who saw the bridge first took great pride in that! Another good thing is they are not asking you every 15 minutes questions of how far it is to the next rest area? To our next stop?
Also a great way for them to LEARN how to use a map!

We always did comics our kids love comics! A staple in our house was Archie but if you don't have access to hard copies you can get local............ http://archiecomics.com/digital-comics/
 
When I was little, I always had activity/puzzle books and always played the i-spy game. I wonder what sort of things come up on pinterest if you do a search there. Might be interesting.
 
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