Road Trip Sanity Saver DIY

Last summer I drove 360 miles with 4 kids ages 2, 4, and 5. It took us about 8 hours to get from point A to point B. In that time, they entertained themselves with coloring books, old fashioned road trip games, handheld game devices, chitterchatter, wild guesses of where we were going, and lots of snacks. It was good. It was noisy. It was fun. However, they are kids. their attention span is still *maturing.* I knew there would be a lull in the road trip fun and games, some boredom and bickering, despite our best efforts. And there was. Luckily, I did some research:

1. Moms Minivan has 101 ideas of fun things for kids to do in the car and they are organized by age group.
2. We Are That Family has a great list of travel tips  in her post Driving With Kids.
3. Simple Mom has 7 ideas for screen-free travel with kids.
4. Tip Junkie has a great list of fabulous bloggers who have written similar posts on traveling with kids.
5. Five J’s has a simple word game to help pass the time.

I then scoured my craft shelf, and, based on the supplies I had on hand, I constructed my secret weapon to combat forever-long-car-ride-boredom: Travel Chalkboards for kids: These worked perfectly for that moment when the coloring books got old, all the songs were sung, and the pre-K conversation had no where else to go. SuperMama just whipped these babies out and WHAM! *silence* Then giggling. Scribbling. Creation. Imaginations at work. Easy peasy to make with black craft foam sheets (i cut 8×10 sheets in half), green yarn, sidewalk chalk, and a hole punch:   Seriously, if you’re planning a road trip beyond Joe Pool Lake, take a few minutes and whip up these sanity savers. You can thank me later {wink}.