What is a roadtrip post doing on a blog about getting outside? Well, sometimes you have to drive a long distance to adventure in new places! 🙂
Before I begin, I just want to emphasize that road trips with young ones (4 and under) can be difficult! And screens can really keep everybody saner, happier, and safer (as long as it’s not the driver 🙂 ). So if that’s what you and your family do, you do you! No judgement here!!
Part of our reason for not using screens (yet) on our 18 hour road trips (and shorter trips, too), is that we both enjoy road trips. That’s how my family traveled growing up. And sure, we got bored, but we had to deal. To this day, I still love looking out the window when we drive. I almost hate to fall asleep because I don’t want to miss something! My husband and I are also both geographers, so getting a feel for the places we are driving through fills our buckets! 🙂 It’s neat to see the way physical landscapes have formed and the ways people have adapted to the landscapes and changed them, for better or worse.
Our oldest is just about to turn 4, so our experiences are obviously with younger kids. So far, I have found ages 18 months – 2.5 years the hardest for road trips. The communication isn’t quite there, nor are the skills to turn individual pages in certain books, or to color in a rear-facing carseat.
With our few years of experiences and several road trips up to 18 hours long, here is what we found works for us. Would love to hear any tips and experiences you have as well!
MUSIC/DANCE PARTIES. This one almost always works. On one road trip back from South Dakota, we spent at least 7 hours listening to the same 4 songs. That was a little tough. BUT, the kids were happy and not screaming, so I’ll take it. We’ve taken CDs, bought digital downloads, or just scanned the radio stations. It all depends on the mood.
PODCASTS FOR LITTLES. Our oldest has just started to enjoy short audio stories. He may not catch everything in them, but he enjoys them! We’ve tried some audiobooks from the library, but we haven’t found any that are short enough. If you have suggestions, please share! Our favorite podcast has been “Little Stories for Tiny People.” I even enjoy listening to the stories!
STORYTELLING. Sometimes, our oldest wants us to make up stories. Again, this can be exhausting, but once you get in the flow, it’s not too bad. Many times it is simply making up stories about what we are seeing out the window. Or maybe something we saw earlier. We all take turns telling stories. There are also games you can buy to help with the story prompts, such as “Create and Tell Me a Story” cards.
LONG BREAKS. If our trip is over 5 hours, I expect to add up to 2 hours to the trip. This is a personal choice of ours. We aim to go for 2 hours or so, and then get out and RUN. Many times we simply stop on a gravel road and bike, run, look at rocks along the road, or search for a bit of wildlife (from deer tracks to frogs to dragonflies). The idea of stopping for so long may seem annoying, but for us, it is a lifesaver for everybody involved!
IN CAR ACTIVITIES. There are so many great posts out there on organizing cars and toys and activities to bring for a variety of age groups. I don’t have any tips on organization! Not my strong suit.. So in general, we keep it simple. They each have a plain, magnetic lunch box and inside contains a dry erase marker(for the lunchbox or the dry erase boards we buy at the Dollar Store), magnets, small notepad, crayons/pens, stickers, a car/train, and a few blocks (large legos, bristle blocks, magnetic tiles, etc.). Then up front, I carry a tote with activities and toys and hand them out as needed. Here, I have age appropriate books, coloring books, search and find books, more stickers, dry erase boards, Squiz toys, flashlights, glow in the dark bracelets, Spot It Roadtrip, magnetic scenes, and a few annoying, electronic toys that I find at garage sales (these are mostly for the younger one).
ALL. THE. SNACKS. I basically disregard any mealtimes when road tripping. That’s just what works for us! We pack fresh fruit, veggies, popcorn, fruit leathers, larabars, nuts, crackers. We try to avoid too much sugar because we don’t want sugar-hyped kids strapped in their carseats with no way out!
So tell me, how do you enjoy road trips with little ones? 🙂