40+ Tips for Road Trips with Toddlers/Pre-schoolers

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 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.
• “I spy” Jar: 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.
• Balloon Challenge:  Give the kids balloons and see if they can blow them up themselves, or tape a punching balloon to the seat in front of them.  Let them swat or kick at the balloon – assuming it won’t irritate the person in that seat or harm the upholstery.  If you don’t want an inflated balloon, give the kids some crayons and a balloon.  See who can put the most crayons into their balloons.  Obviously if your children are to o young to play with balloons or the only adult in the car is driving, skip this one.
• Bubbles?  Blow bubbles out the window or at the kids – you don’t want to do this too often as things can get sticky, but it is all washable – and it can double as bath/bubble wash that night at the hotel.  One less bottle to bring with you!
• Goop (aka homemade silly putty):  Homemade putty is great for a non-residue playdough.  You can use it to create shapes, to stretch into snakes, to imprint the bottom of their sippy cups, whatever!  Be creative!
• Personal Light Show:  Each kid has a flashlight {or got one in their cheap entertainment bag}.  The kind with different colored lights is best for the longest play.    A great way to entertain them once it is dark out – assuming you couldn’t get them to go to sleep.
• Catalog “shopping”:  Toy magazines – these keep my kids entertained for hours.  You can even let them cut out pictures of the things they want and make a “wish list” collage with a couple glue sticks, if you are feeling adventurous.
• Desperate times call for desperate measures:  DVD and a portable player for when you are desperate.
• Other Random Games like “I spy”,  the alphabet game or license plates, etc.  This site has a list of a dozen or so.

Road Trip Art Projects:

• Body art:  Use washable tattoos or have the kids create their own by drawing on themselves with washable markers.  It is a great way to entertain them and sure to get lots of laughs!  Light colored markers wash off the carseat covers easily (like yellow, light blue, pink, etc.).  We had some stains with the black and dark blue markers.
• Aluminum Foil:  Foil animals and statues can be made and re-made.  We use it to bunch and mold into shapes.
• Puppet Show on Wheels:  Make paperbag puppets.  Tie the crayons/markers to their carseats with string so they can’t loose them if they are dropped.
• Sticky Sticks:  Use Sticky Sticks to mold imaginary creatures, trace letters or make a road on a book for your matchbox cars to drive on.
• Always a hit:  Pipecleaners.  Make into jewelry, animals, springs, braid, etc.
• Fingerprint the suspects:  Use a washable ink pad to make finger print creations.  Inspired by Draw Thumb People.  Let your kids make finger prints and transform them into a variety of creatures.
• Board Game Bag: If your kids enjoy board games, here is a site that explains how to make your own board game bag.  They use it for checkers and Tic-Tac-Toe, but it can be adapted to use for “Make a Match” or Bingo

Road Trip Snacks:

• Portable food:  Boxes of raisins, string cheese, crackers, grapes, apple slices, juice boxes,
• “Surprise” Mix: Nuts, M&Ms, dried fruit, granola, goldfish crackers, pretzels, gummy fruit snacks, etc.  Use your imagination and go crazy – the more diversity the better.  They get a scoop of the mix and it is different each time.  Half the fun is picking out what they want to eat out of the mix first!
• Fruit roll-ups or fruit leather:  You can make edible tee-pees or pretend they are blankets for your dolls, etc.  Bring cookie cutters and let them “stamp” their food!  Edible fun is always preferable on a long car ride!
• Marshmallows + pretzels:  These are great to stick together.  Make a snake of pretzel, marshmallow, pretzel, etc.  Make an edible spider (give your marshmallow eight pretzel legs), etc.  Eat your creations when you are done
• Pepperoni sans the pizza:  Pepperoni slices are not super healthy, but my kids enjoy them and they are a source of protein on a long carb-packed trip.
• Drinking games:  To limit juice intake (so you don’t have to stop ten times for potty breaks) Nicole from Activity Mom has a great tip: Play Letter Drinking game!  “When you find the letter T you can take a sip”.  This definitely limits the chugging of fluids.

Road Trip Must-have items:

• Storage space:  Bring LOTS of ziplock baggies.  They are great for everything!  A permanent marker to label things isn’t a bad thing to have either.  I know my kids want to eat “their” snack or keep track of “their” toothbrush.
• Easy wipes:  Diaper wipes are a road trip necessity (even if your kids are potty trained!).  These are great for cleaning faces and surfaces, even as a form of entertainment if you are desperate.
• Just in case:  A first aid kit with tylenol (for both kids and adults).
• a few dishtowels for spills and with a clothespin they become great bibs
• Don’t jump! Bottle bungees can be used to contain sippy cups, toys, books, snack bags, etc.  I’ve also created a pulley system to pass things between people.
• Spill-proof cups:  Sippy cups work great  – even if your kids have grown out of them.  The squeeze bottles are good too, but if they are dropped still can loose a great amount of liquid and the last thing you want to do is hunt down liquid during a roadtrip!
• Painter tape:  The kids can play with it, you can use it to label things and it can be used to cover outlets in hotels.  Painter tape is better than masking tape as it is removable without harming the surfaces it was on.
• Cups NOT for drinking:  I use plastic cups for snack service.  They can be easily held by a child or stored in a cup holder when not snacking.  No liquid allowed in these!

Things for your kids to play with at your destination:

If you are arriving somewhere that doesn’t have toys and you have limited space in the car, check out these simple play solutions.

• Is there a cardboard box?  Box = tunnel, house, decorate it, etc.  We have also used a rubbermaid tub.  Packed it with out belongings and let the kids decorate it with those clingwrap stickers once we were at our destination.  It is a great pretend house, pool, cage, whatever!
• Blow it Up!  Beach ball or other inflatable ball – I like that they are cheap so we can ditch them for the way home.  We have also used punching balloons.
• Instant Paint: Shaving Cream - This is great as it is instant finger paint on almost any solid surface and cleans up easily.  Kids are starting to get cranky at grandma’s?  Give them a pile of this on the table and let them have fun smashing and smearing.
• Surely you have a sheet.  Sheet = tent, dress up, bouncing things, etc.
• Portable store:  If you are staying at a hotel that provides those little note pads {or throw some post-it notes in your suitcase}, you have the makings of a general store.  The kids can price all the furniture and luggage.  My kids use paper to create currency as well.  Don’t be surprised if you have to buy back your toothbrush.

Random Tips For Keeping Your Sanity Traveling with Preschoolers:

• Be prepared for a mess:  Cover your seats with a sheet, or if you are going to the beach (as is the destination of many of our road trips) use the beach towels that you’ll need when you get there – this means all you have to do is unhook the car seats, shake the sheet out and you suddenly have a clean car again!  Also saves having to pack the towels or the “play sheet”.
• Take along a toilet:  If your kids are potty trained, put a disposable diaper into the bottom of your portable or toddler potty.  This will save you from having to use the nasty gas station bathrooms.  The diaper in the potty will soak up the urine and limit spills till you can find a place to dispose of the waste.
• Be prepared:  Pack the night before and leave as early as you can.  Hopefully, the kids will sleep through most of the morning!  If you are able, maybe drive through the night.
• Stopping slows you down:  Try to limit your stops, but when you do stop plan on stopping for at least an hour so the kids can burn some energy.

Road Trip with Kids Resources:

• Moms Minivan has tons of things to do with kids in the car {or minivan} including free printables.
• Road Trip Tips part one and Road Trip Tips part two here at Kids Activities Blog.
• Our link-up of some of our favorite traveling with children tips.
• Road trip tips from Better in Bulk.
• Road trip story from My 3 Boys.
• Road trip memories animated by Holly’s Animated Life at June Cleaver Nirvana.
• If your road trip is ending in a camping experience, then PLEASE stop by the KOA Campfire Community that we co-lead.  There is fun AND information.  You can also get any camping-related questions answered.

Have any other tips?   Add them to the KOA Campfire conversation HERE.