Our last post was the last of installment of our three part cross continent, North America road trip. We’re gonna rewind a bit with this one and talk about the biggest question we’ve gotten since we even started telling people we were planning this trip! It was all surrounding how we were going to do this trip with our three kids and keep everyone sane. We knew we were asking a lot of our kids (and ourselves) when we committed to driving from Alaska to South Carolina. We were so excited to see some amazing things and make some amazing memories, but we also knew that we were going to need a lot of entertainment for those long stretches in the car. So I came up with a plan: I filled a tub with activities, games, and toys that were appropriate for car rides and hid it all from my kids until day one of our drive. Each day they could choose if they wanted a toy, an activity, or a game and I would start our drive off with a new “something” for each kid. It worked amazingly well and I had enough things to last our entire drive. Of course, by the end of the trip, the kids had had a pretty good view of the box, so the surprise factor did wear off a bit, but they were still excited for something new each day. So, without further ado, here’s a list of the things I filled up our storage tub with that made perfect road trip entertainment for our kids: 1-tying fleece blankets
2 - binoculars
3 - How-To-Draw Books
4 - make a face sticker sheets
5 - Water Wow Books
6 - Highlights hidden picture books
7 - Needoh
8 - Scratch Art
9 - Water doodle Boards
10 - Etch a Sketch
11 - Would You Rather book
12 - Mad Libs
13 - NotebookI also just got them some little notebooks to use however they wanted. They could draw pictures or use as a journal for our trip. They got them towards the beginning of our trip and, unprompted, starting writing out all the wildlife we saw, with our 9 year old writing down where we drove each day and our 6 year old just drawing pictures of elk or squirrels or bison, etc…whatever we saw that day. It was super cute and I really hope it helps them remember our trip. 14 - DVDsWe definitely bought some dvd players for the car and all the cables so they could be linked to each other and to the cars sound system so they could watch the same movie whenever one was playing. I bought 5 or 6 new DVDs for the trip so that was a fun surprise for the kids whenever we brought out a new movie. One tip I have is that DVDs can be purchased for super cheap on eBay! I feel like with Amazon, eBay gets overlooked a lot but DVDs can get expensive on Amazon, especially if you’re buying multiple. You can get DVDs on eBay for a couple bucks a piece. Just make sure your DVD player can play blu-ray or that you’re not buying blu-ray if it doesn’t play them haha. Learned that lesson the hard way ;) 15 - Make your own stuffed animals
16 - Cats Cradle
17 - Aqua Toss
18 - Tangrams
19 - Magnetic board games
20 - Stuffed animalBefore we started our trip, I knew we were going to spend a night in Banff National Park so I worked in one of the “surprises” to be a souvenir from the park. They each were drawn to a stuff animal in the souvenir shop and we snuck back to buy them and they were able to get them the next day as a surprise. What kid doesn’t love a new stuffy to cuddle in the car? 21 - Fun treatsWe also had lots of snacks and treats that we don’t normally have in our cupboards at home. For one of the little “toys”, each of the kids got a little pea dispenser. They were halloween themed because it was around that time so they enjoyed it. I also got a couple little bags of dum dum suckers and other hard candies, not just for entertainment, but sucking on hard candies can help with car sickness, too. Our kids were absolute rockstars on our crazy road trip! They did better than I did on some of those days, haha. They are pretty good little travelers no matter what but it was fun to reward them every day with something new to play with and I know it kept morale up! Have questions about our trip? We’re always happy to answer! Or is there anything you’d add to this list?? Make sure to pin so you can come back to this post! Don’t forget to follow us on Instagram or TikTok for some of our day-to-day adventures and until next time, get out and explore where you live!
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AuthorWe're just a military family enjoying where we live, one PCS at a time. Follow us as we explore our current home, South Carolina, and beyond. The world is our backyard. Archives
June 2024
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