Road Trip Activities
For the last few months we’ve been on a little electronics fast and it has helped the dynamics in our home BIG time. We’ve actually never been big on screens - usually we’d do an hour or so in the afternoons for some downtime, but it seems getting rid of even just that in video games and really being more intentional about TV time has been really nice! I shouldn’t be SO surprised because you hear it all the time - but I guess I just didn’t realize how it was negatively influencing us until we took it away and things have been so much better. Those first few weeks were rough, but it’s been night and day since. Now, we’re getting ready for a long day road trip and I am panicking a bit; worrying about too much screen time in the car. We are going to do some movies, but we’re aiming for lots of fun games and activities to help pass the time. It’s been forever since I did a blog post so I thought it’d be fun to share some of the things we’re bringing in case you need some on-the-go activities too.
For this trip we’re organizing a bunch of things in these portable drawing cases from IKEA. I love how they’ve got some hard space for drawing, reading, snacks, ect. But, you can store lots of things inside. Since this is a longer trip, we’re still bringing an extra bin of books/activities because I couldn’t fit everything inside these, but I think they’ll really help keep the clutter down. Here are some of the things we’re doing for our kids.
8 YEAR OLD TWIN GIRLS
Sticker By Numbers - we went with Birds and Animals for this trip which is no surprise since they're still looooving animals
Story Telling Dice - If you haven’t seen these, you just roll all the dice and then tell a fun or silly story using the icons on the dice for inspiration.
Highlights Activity Books - we’ve had some of these books for a long time and I got them from Costco but I linked similar ones.
Kindles - We have headphones so they can listen to their audio books and also a few other downloaded books they can read along the way.
Sketch Books - These are our favorite ones and they get a lot of good use out of them. We’re bringing along The Good and the Beautiful bird drawing book too.
5 YEAR OLD BOY
Dot-To-Dot - my little guy is really into these and it’ll be great practice for him for numbers 0-100. I really liked this particular one because it starts easy and then progressively gets harder so my twins will be able to do some of the harder ones.
I-Spy Books - my son is obsessed with I-Spy and Where’s Waldo so we’re bringing a few books and other related items as well. We got a big box set of both from Costco so I just linked one book on Amazon.
Travel I-Spy Card Game - we’ve had this for a while and just keep it in the car so it’ll be great for a longer trip too.
Write On Wipe Off Construction Book - another hidden picture and activity book. I think he’ll like this the very most.
ALMOST 3 YEAR OLD BOY
Busy Book - This isn’t my favorite busy book, but I was going for simple, sturdy and no prep. Lets be honest, home-made ones are so much cuter. But, my little guy will never know the difference. We used these ziplock bags and double sided tape to store the pieces in so its more fun to take on and off.
Mighty Trucks Dot Book - The book is super cute and is for dot markers BUT those are too messy for the car, so use these stickers because they are the best for little hands and fine motor.
We will also bring him a small bag of cars and he’ll get some use out of the other things for all the kids below.
ALL
Brain Quest - We’ve used these for every grade so we’re bringing along our Kindergarten and 3rd Grade cards.
Guess in 10 - this is the best game and one that I like to play with the kids too. And, you guessed it, we have animal themed, but there are lots of different themes.
Multicolored Writing Tablets - these are the best because they come with lanyards for the pen so it doesn’t get lost!
Melissa and Doug Puffy Sticker Activity Books - they’re most excited about the Pet Palace
Travel Tangrams - I am worried we might loose some of these pieces, but I do love the book it comes with because it has simple colored puzzles for my 5 year old and has black and white challenging puzzles for my twins.
Coloring Books - We have a bunch of random ones, but my girl’s love this one I got them for Christmas and we still have lots of pages left in our Blooms one from when we did our Botany unit so we’re bringing that along. My little boy’s favorite is color-by-number Dinosaurs.
Sticker Books - We had this truck on and space one on hand so I threw these in there.
Books - We’re bringing a handful of books to read and swap out. It’s nice because we can store them in our RV and rotate out or normally I may not bring so many. We’re currently reading this illustrated children’s version of Pilgrim Progress as a read-aloud and loving it. I’d highly recommend this for a long road trip! This and this is our favorite National Park books that we also like to bring along.
I think that’s about it! For our scripture study, I also uploaded our Red Headed Hostess materials onto our iPad so can study in the car. I don’t think we will have a lot of down time in our RV so I thought it might be a good way to get in a little gospel study along the way. We are also bringing our Nature Notebook and Birdwatching Notebooks, but I think we will use those more in the National Parks. My sweet little girl packed a bunch or bird seed and is hoping some birds will come visit her. :)
If you have any questions, let me know! Happy Summer!