Road trips with kids can be tough. Driving to the grocery store to get groceries with children can be just as hard. Today, I want to share with you some free activities that can be done with your children while on these trips. These activities can be educational, eliminate boredom, and also help children look forward to car rides. (This is a picture of Will on our first trip to Disney world this past June)
Ever since Will was little he always hated riding in the car. I blame it on the fact that I drive a little car with tiny windows in the back but he likes to blame it on my driving skills. As he has gotten older it has gotten much easier to entertain him in the car. He reads his I Spy books or a lot of times, plays games on some sort of device. I have one rule though before he can begin his games on the tablet or phone. He must tell me one bad thing about his day, one good thing about his day, and something he accomplished in his day. When he was younger we used a visual magnetic board that I picked up from Dirt Cheap in Jacksonville, Ar. It had questions and for every question he answered he would stick the magnet on there. He had to fill the board prior to starting the game on the device. As he's gotten older the board became too "little" for him as a "big" kid and he began to tell me the list of things every day after school. When he was little it was hard to keep him entertained on drives to Florida, Branson, or up to the lake. Somedays there were meltdowns. It honestly drove me crazy until we began these fun car ride activities:
- I spy is such an easy one to do, you can use colors, letters, shapes, or objects.
- See who can spot an Environment Print sign the fastest. This means pick a place such as Walmart or a Stop sign and see who can find it first.
- Find letters or numbers on road signs, store signs, or license plates.
- Say the ABC's but include a word and the sounds each letter makes as you say them. For example, A Apple /a/, B Ball /b/, C Cat /c/, and so on. Attached you can find a Phonics chart with the words to each letter.
- Counting by 1s, 5s, and 10s.
- My favorite game as a child was "Out of State License Plate". This is a little easier for the older children but basically you look for a license plate that does not belong in the state your are currently driving in. This is a good one for those long road trips.
Other Ideas that do take some time to preplan and purchase are:
- Magnetic boards
- Coloring books
- Sticker Books
One thing I recommend NOT getting, I know from experience, is Flarp, slime, or bubble gum! Its no fun peeling it off children's leg hairs after they somehow manage to get it from the ground to their shoe and wrapped around their entire leg.
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