We are getting ready to take a 22 hour trek from San Antonio to Utah in a couple days. We’ve taken enough road trips with our girls to know that how well you prepare can make or break you. Really, get creative enough and the time in the car just might be their favorite part of the trip. So I set about getting my Mystery Goodie Bags (shown) ready when my friend shared with me a few ideas she had found on Pinterest, of course. :-)
I love the ideas that Trish came up with on Prepared NOT Scared. The Travel Bag she created is very fun and such a great idea! I’ve printed out the car bucks with high hopes that it will help my girls be extra good so they can earn bucks to buy the gift bags that I’ve made. I also printed out some of the travel games. I bought a cookie sheet from the dollar store for each girl to use as a tray and made little magnets for them to play the games with. (I’m excited to have the trays also as a food tray.)
I painted the magnets, put stickers on them, and modge podged them to keep the stickers from peeling off. I got the idea from Ladybird Ln, she had some fun ideas for the car as well. I did two colors, one for each girl.
The easiest way I found to paint them was to do the sides first by holding the center and spinning it with brush while painting it. I then put them on a paper plate on the cookie sheet to keep them from moving around. It worked great!
Here are my girls travel bags that I found at the dollar store. I liked them because of the extra pockets on the front. I’m not putting a lot in them to begin our trip because they will have to earn their prizes and treats.
Here are the goods, I scored some fun travel games at a garage sale. (Have I mentioned that I love to garage sale!) :-) I bought some dollar store items, treats, and crafts. I think these things will motivate them to be good.
Mom’s Minivan and Jamie from DIY Home Sweet Home, also had some great ideas as well.
Wish me luck! What have you done on your road trips that have made them successful for the kids?
Aubrey
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{ 7 comments… read them below or add one }
we are going on a very long road trip with our two girls in a few weeks and I am totally with you on getting things from garage sales! I have lots of ideas for what the girls can use while we are driving around the country!
Oh I love this! We are set to make the same trip you are, just in the opposite direction :). I really didn’t have anything for them to do this time around and I paid for it. Off to the dollar store!
Love all the links too, thank you thank you.
The longest I have done with my kids is 15 hours in the car, one day only. Well, we did drive cross country with them when they were 2 years old and 6 months old respectively, but obviously that’s a whole different ball game!
They are currently only 5 and 3 years old, so the concept of earning treats doesn’t apply. They are still the age when the times they most need distraction and something wonderful are also the times when they feel bored and tired enough to act out, thus NOT earning anything!
For our latest car trip, I purchased plastic lap trays from Michaels with really deep cup holders, which were fantastic for holding water bottles and markers. I bought plenty of wonderful maze books. The Buki activity books are the best. They also really, really get into the Panini collectible sticker albums (also from Michaels). We did Playaway books on tape from the library too. My kids are “one and done” types so we have piles of artwork to recycle upon reaching our destination, but it works for us!
Wow Aubrey….you are one prepared Mama! I love this. Hope the trip goes smoothly. Safe travels…
Best,
Tina
I write about plane travel in my blog and I soooo wished I wrote about our car trips…..we travel so much I’ve gone pro!! I love pillow pets …. I pack a cooler bag full of food and treats….we never stopped for food once which saved a ton of money….I wrap small presents….sooo many things….I love your mystery bag….may just have to try that……
We keep our kids busy with audiobooks. They’re far more engaging than dvds and tv, and it gets them interested in tv. There’s lots of great sites where you can download original stuff, instead of the same old public domain stories like Red Riding Hood. This is a good one where you can download original stuff for free. http://www.twirlygirlshop.com/stories-for-kids
Neat! Thanks for sharing! I will have to try audiobooks next time now that my girls are getting older.