Tips for Traveling with Kids

My husband and I spent a month or two on the road every year, with our growing kids in tow, traveling to Gem and Mineral shows, and Native American communities, all part of our work. With long hours spent on the road, I developed many ways of keeping the kids comfortable, healthy, and occupied. Homeschooling became car-schooling!

To prepare:

I cleaned out the glove box and storage compartments. I purchased cheap shoe bags which, attached to the backs of the front seats, hung almost to the floor. I also bought lightweight trays designed for breakfast in bed, with a washable surface, folding legs and a lip around the edge, so crayons wouldn’t slide off. I stored magazines, slim books and informative pictures, "bits" of learning, in the front seat door pocket, ready to pull out in moments of boredom.

For our travel soundtrack, we complied lots of silly songs, sing-along tunes, and up-beat dance music to get our bodies moving. We called it Seat Dancing, gesticulating wildly while in our seat belts, which was lots of fun! Playing that fast music, we’d bounce in our seats, swinging our arms and nodding our heads, until the stiffness of sitting too long would leave our bodies.

I packed an inflatable ball (I had one that was a globe) and a frisbee. These active toys took up almost no space, and we could even play catch in the car with the inflatable (being careful not to annoy the driver).

Individual scrapbooks or large blank notebooks were purchased for each kids. Individual sets of art supplies, pencils and paper were put into folders or containers for each child. I did this all for myself too.

Each traveler had a checklist. Kids each filled a small backpack with whatever they could carry, packing a few treasures or loveys they wanted. At each overnight stay, we made sure not to leave behind any pillows, blankets, or stuffed animals!

Safety:

Car seats and seat belts were secure and ready. Bandaids, ointment and other simple first aid went into the glove compartment. Water bottles were a different color for each person. Safety rules were created as needed, by mutual agreement, throughout the trip.

Entertainment:

As often as possible, I put choices into the hands of my children.

Shoe bags each had four rows of small cubbies, which held crayons, playing cards, boxes of juice or soy milk, modeling clay, road maps, small books, rolls of drawing paper, baggies of Legos, and small toys like finger puppets or miniature animals. From their seats, the kids could reach into the shoe bags for whatever they wanted. During stops, while everyone was out of the car I might sneak something new into a shoebag pocket, a treat or toy or colored pencils, for them to discover later.

The trays with legs could perch over a child's lap and car seat. They were easily folded and stored on the floor when not being used to make clay sculptures, draw pictures, build with Legos, play cards, or eat lunch.

Six Games You Can Play Anywhere includes family car games. We loved playing One-sentence story (or one-paragraph, story), and also Good, Bad and Ugly Advice, both explained in this article. Here’s a good list of car games the whole family can play.

Mad Libs can be created at home before you go, or purchased in book form, for various ages. To make your own, see Games That Teach Parts of Speech.

Physical Exercise:

Getting enough exercise is always a challenge on a road trip. Seated tasks (like eating) usually happened while driving, so when we stopped the kids could be physically moving. Every time we stopped for fuel, we started with some stretches and then the kids did jumping jacks or ran laps or relay races. In early morning or evening, they chased each other down hotel corridors and across hotel grounds. When our kids were little enough to still be crawling, we even got down on all fours to chase them ourselves, back and forth across our room; we might put on the radio and dance instead of watching TV. If we did choose to stop for a meal, we tried to make it a picnic, at a local park or beach, so the kids could run around and play. Sometimes taking a ten-minute detour would get us to a beautiful spot instead of putting us at a roadside rest area full of traffic and travelers. Away from the highway, the frisbee or ball would come out and all too soon it would be time to get back into the car and put some miles on.

Learning On the Go:

Mapping

Each child was invited to trace our journey on their own map. Every state has welcome centers with free maps and guide books. Just ask for state maps at the information desk! The kids each had a highlighter marker to keep track of our route and color in the names of favorite places.

Writing and Reading

Each child had a scrapbook (I had one too!), with empty pages to be filled with paper souvenirs like admission ticket stubs, museum maps, hotel stationery, menus, road maps, bits from guidebooks, postcards and more. Adding handwritten words and hand drawn pictures made each book truly unique. These scrapbooks were part travel journey and part diary, filled with precious memories. An afternoon or evening rest at a hotel gave us time to work on scrapbooks and write poems and songs.

Write postcards and letters to family and friends. If you have an address at your destination, ask family members to write letters to the kids, which can be waiting for them on arrival. That often prompts a letter in reply!

Before and during the trip, read books set in the areas you are visiting. One family with a 13yo daughter planned to travel to Arizona, and took along a couple of mysteries by Tony Hillerman set in the Navaho Reservation. As they drove through “Indian Country” they listened to one of the books on audio and captured the feeling of the land they were traveling through. A trip to San Francisco might be the perfect place for a teen to read the classic mystery, The Maltese Falcon by Dashiell Hammet, while young children might enjoy a Nate the Great or Magic Treehouse book set in San Francisco. I also recommend the 21 Activities for Kids series that includes histories of California, Texas, NYC, Washington, D.C., and Boston, and other titles on famous figures and more, all with plenty of hands-on activities that the child can pick and choose.

Art

We adorned the impersonal hotel rooms with drawings and wildflowers. We’d stop on the road side to pick deep blue cornflowers and bright white-and-yellow daisies, or we might detour to the local dump where no one ever minded that we picked flowers. Using crayons or watercolors, we painted a picture that we taped around an empty can or bottle to make a vase for the flowers.

We also pressed these wildflowers, sticking them between pages of a big book to flatten and preserve (I used guidebooks or any other books kept in the car). Later, the flowers could be gently glued onto a drawing or collage, or pressed into a small picture frame.

Math and Geography

When the kids traced our route on a map in brightly colored markers or highlighters, they also computed how many miles we had traveled and how long it took. they might also figure out the time and distance planned for the next day. If we wanted to visit a local attraction, we might compute the additional time and distance that detour would take. There were plenty of opportunities for math on the road beyond computing distance, time, mileage, of where we had been and of what lay ahead. My five-year-old learned to multiply by fours when he became fascinated with big trucks and wanted to figure out the number of wheels on a tractor-trailer which had enormous tires in sets of four across.

Museum displays often included geography and math (where and when was this found or made?), with maps and timelines in many exhibits.

Sometimes we made up songs about where we had been and where we were going, singing about the state we just left and one we were entering, or about the sights we had seen the day before or hoped to see soon.

Social Studies and more

Travel is a natural course in social studies and geography. Each state we traveled through had its own history, terrain, food and culture. Every stop was an opportunity to learn about that place.

• Talk to local residents and ask them what to see and where to go. What’s their favorite park or campground or restaurant? We found many great spots this way.

• Find a local museum that tells the history of that place, and perhaps the natural history of the area.

• As you drive through an area, brainstorm questions about it. What do you want to know about the desert? Or about thunder storms? Or about that lake or park? Write down the questions so you can find out later.

Observing, wondering, and asking, can spark discussions on climate, terrain, and geological formations which have changed over time (canyon walls, mountains, bodies of water), which add science to the travel experience. It can also lead to conversations about different cultures, customs and people.

All subjects can come together in the scrapbook and writing projects (poems, songs, letters and postcards sent to friends), where you can write about what you see, do and learn, illustrate your experiences, and more.

Books and materials:

Blank scrapbook, 40 pages 10” X 10”

Lonely Planet Kids Travel Guides and Books, for ages 9-12, series includes books on NYC, Washington D.C., the National Parks, global travel, Create Your Own Travel Journal (although I prefer a blank scrapbook), and more.

Lonely Planet Explorer’s Nature Journal for ages 6-8.

KidsDiscover Magazine has issues on the Grand Canyon, the Everglades, the Mississippi River, U.S. Landscapes, and more on geography, social studies and history, with issues on American historic figures, Plains Indians and Southwest People.

Tray with edge and legs, bamboo

Portable watercolor set (use it outdoors, by the edge of a river or lake)

Colored pencils with built-in sharpener in the cap

Links:

Mommy Poppins lists family and kid-friendly activities in major cities, and also anywhere in the USA.

Kid-friendly activities and hotels in 12 different states.

Mindfulness Exercises Kids Can Do in the Car (to help keep everyone sane!)

Games you can play in the car.

20+ Car Games for Family Road Trips

There is no educational experience like travel!