Travel worksheets for kids

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Steven Vote

Family vacations are where memories are made - and sometimes, where patience and sanity are lost. "Yes, you do have to ride in this (fill in the blank) car for another two hours." "No, you may not have that awesomest-ever ten-dollar tchotchke." And our personal favorite: "I thought you had the tickets." It's enough to make you long for the comfort of home. So before we hit the trail this summer, we asked the experts - our readers - for a little advice. The pages that follow are neatly packed with their tried-and-true tips for keeping family travel fun.

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All-in-One Binder

Sharon Foster of Kennesaw, Georgia, knows how to keep it together. Before a trip, she fills a three-ring binder with driving directions, hotel and campground reservations, coupons and discount offers for restaurants along the route, pictures and fun facts about the destination, pre-purchased tickets, a list of car games, and plastic pages holding entertainment CDs and DVDs. "It helps to have everything in one place for easy reference, " says Sharon.

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Mark Mantegna

Instant Lap Desk

"Every summer our family makes the 17-hour drive from Ohio to New Hampshire, " says Cincinnati native Amanda Nobbe, mom of a 3-year-old and a toddler. "We travel with cookie sheets and a plastic tote filled with playthings. Easily held on a lap, a cookie sheet can be used as a surface for coloring, playing with magnets and Bendaroos, or holding a snack. It's an inexpensive alternative to a car-seat lap desk, and when it's not in use, it fits in the back pocket of the seat."

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Mark the Miles

Before starting out on their first major expedition (an 18-hour drive to Florida from their home in Springfield, Ohio) with their 2-year-old and 4-year old, the Larsons hung little numbered tickets above each boy's car seat, one for every hour of the trip. "They were redeemed for wrapped treats they could play with or eat along the journey, " says mom Therese. "They loved pulling down the ticket when I asked in my conductor voice: 'Tickets, please!'"

Jennifer Guckiean of Alexandria, Kentucky, tucks treats into paper bags labeled with an activity, like finding a specific landmark or license plate, that kids must do before opening the bag.

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Marko Metzinger

Activity Pages

To keep her five children occupied on their many family car trips, Rashawnda Kemerling of Platteville, Wisconsin, favors a three-ring binder filled with clear plastic sleeves containing blank sheets of paper and simple games, such as hangman and tic-tac-toe. A three-ring pencil bag holds dry-erase markers. Kids can doodle and play for hours, then wipe the sleeves clean and start again.

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Personalized Trip Jar

Members of the Emerson family of Biloxi, Mississippi, each have a Trip Jar decorated with stickers and pictures from previous travels, to which they add money every month. When vacation time rolls around, they bring along the jars and spend the contents on snacks and souvenirs. This system not only offers everyone a lesson in budgeting, but the jars themselves make fun mementos.