Travel games for Toddler

I dread going on long trips with kids in tow. We have driven across the country at least once a year for some time now and have learned a few things about traveling with children. Here are some tips to make road trips with toddlers and preschoolers easier.

To keep a bit of sanity.

Road Trip Games & Activities:

• Cheap Car Entertainment: Get a bunch of cheap toys (stickers, figurines/dolls, trinkets, magnifying glass, noise makers, etc). Individually wrap them before hand so part of the fun is unwrapping them or put them into a nifty Travel activity box or bag {we made this one for a friend and it might give you some ideas}.
• Make a felt activity board: Do you remember those flannel-graphs from Sunday School classes decades ago? Why not make your own to bring on your trip. You can make stick figures and dress them up, or pretend to create a new and better car or bug or alien! Use you imagination.
• Make a map of your journey: Create your trip map and track it with the kids. You could add a “treasure map” component by rewarding checkpoints along your trip. As you reach certain points they can get a toy/snack. This teaches them map skills while also occupying them with toys and the anticipation of the destination. We printed our map off of Google maps and inserted it into a plastic sleeve. A dry erase marker wiped off of it nicely and it was nice to have a retort to, “are we there yet?”
• Mini-white board: Color with dry erase markers (these can stain your carseat cover or kids clothes) or with the new Crayola wipeable crayons (these don’t stain). Take a CD case and replace the cover with white paper. You can store a tissue, or better yet, a dried out diaper wipe – they are more sturdy – to wipe with inside the case. It is an instant mini-white board. Another adaptation, use a hand held mirror to color on. Magnadoodles are great too!
• Books on CD: Take some books on CD or better yet, read to the kids aloud {CDs take up less space}. One thing we did was take ribbon and tie it through a book with a slip-knot. Then safety pin the ribbon to their carseat. Then they had their book to read. After our next stop the kids would swap books. Having the book tied to the seat eliminated (or decreased the complaints) of “mommy I dropped it”.
• Photography on the Move: Let them take pictures of what you are driving by with a disposable or better yet, a digital camera (if you trust them with it).
• Doctor on Call: A Box of Bandaids and a rubbing alcohol pad. Let them play “Dr”. My preschoolers love the way the evaporation feels on their skin! They can use it to disinfect their seats while they are playing.
• Make a jar of tiny treasures (paper clips, candy, hairbow, button, penny, ring, key, etc.). Fill the jar with rice, wheat, dried lentils, whatever, and glue the lid onto the jar. Have the kids find the items by turning the jar.