A few folks have asked me how we did 52 hours in the car with a 6 year old and a 3 year old, to and from Colorado this summer. So, I thought I would type up some of our best tips/favorite ideas here, and share it this way. I am, admittedly, a planner. I either like to plan things down to the tiniest detail, or be completely spontaneous. Anything in between is just frustrating to me. This was an example of planning down to the tiniest detail. I planned it in a series of Word documents on my computer over the course of 3 years. We had a newborn when I started planning, and we weren’t anywhere near ready to pick up and drive 52 hours. But, I started dreaming and planning for the day that we could. It evolved into a very complete plan over those 3 years. So, if my planning sounds a little crazy detailed (haha!), that is because I had lots of time to dream, plan, and prepare. Hopefully all of that time planning can be of some help to you now.
First – we don’t own a DVD player for our car, and we don’t have tablets for our kids – none of the fancy technology stuff. I’m not against it. We just don’t have it, and haven’t generally felt a need for it. BUT, I knew this trip might be different. I knew we could get stuck in traffic somewhere and have a crazy long day in the car. So, I wanted to be prepared. Our wonderful friends loaned us their car DVD player and headphones for the kids to use. (Thank you, friends!!!!) My goal was to not use it until the trip home. I wanted our oldest to (hopefully) notice some of the changing landscape and scenery, noticing God’s creation and how beautifully different it can look in different places. I hoped that for the 3 year old, too, but she likely won’t remember as much from the trip as the 6 year old, and honestly couldn’t connect with what she was seeing in the ways that the 6 year old could. That goal (no screens for the trip out to Colorado) worked for us because things went smoothly with our trip, thankfully. I’ve seen a few jaws hit the floor when I say that we made it 26 hours in the car without screens. Here’s how we did it:
*If you are traveling with small children, the BEST $1 each that you can spend is on a dollar store cookie sheet for each child. Seriously. These things were amazing. My kids used them almost all day, every day, in the car. They used them as a lap desk for all of their activities, and a tray to eat off of. And, THEY’RE MAGNETIC!!!! AND, I could let my kids draw on them with a dry erase marker, and it wipes off! And, they have lips on the side to keep markers/crayons/toys/etc… from dropping on the floor. And, both trays fit, nested, in the seat back pocket. And, and, and…!!! BRILLIANT! Thank you, Pinterest, for this idea!
*I highly recommend having something to help them visualize where they are in reference to your destination. For us, I purchased little books that I found in the dollar spot at Target – they had a United States map on the cover, and then short little blurbs about each state inside the book. I purchased a set of small star stickers, and showed them where we were starting the trip, and where we were headed. As we crossed into each state, we made an event of it. We cheered! (YAY!) We put a star sticker on the state we had just crossed into! We read the little informational blurbs about the state! Yahoo! This was fun for them, but it also helped them to see that we still had a ways to go, and where we were, so we weren’t constantly answering the, “how much longer?” type questions. This activity was a big hit, and helped break up the car monotony with a little celebration every 2 or 3 hours or so.
*Surprises for the kids every couple of hours. One of the documents I had in my computer was a list of fun little car activities or ideas for helping the kids stay occupied. I came across an idea for surprises the kids could open during car rides somewhere online, and knew it would go over well with my kiddos who love surprises. It really doesn’t have to be fancy. I put mine in brown paper bags. But, I think the opening part was key – if I had just handed them something it would have been less exciting. Getting to open the bag and pull out their “mystery surprise” was like opening a present every couple of hours, and it made the item that much more exciting. One of my friends helped me with car ideas for the kids, too, and even bought some wonderful items for my kiddos to enjoy in the car! (You know who you are…thank you!!!!!) Some of the big hits were:
Melissa and Doug Water Wow painting pads
Usborne dry erase activity books
Magnetic toys that they could play with on their trays
Also, Invisible Ink Coloring Pads were a big hit! I don't have a picture of that one. Some of the surprises were new things. Some of the surprises were just items from our toy stash at home that I thought could work in the car. But, the surprises seriously MADE the road trip for our kids! They LOVED the surprises, and looked forward to getting in the car again every day to start opening surprises again.
*Park stops! I did some research on parks close to the highway that would have playgrounds. We tried to time it around when a lunch stop would naturally be, so we could take a bathroom break, have a picnic lunch (more on that later), and let the kids run around and get some energy out. Our first stop was a bust. I planned our stop at a Virginia state park that had playgrounds somewhere, but we never found them. It was a big park, and directional signs were lacking. After a while of driving around looking, we gave up and got back on the road. Because it was a state park, there were also fees for parking in some places. That wasn’t something I factored in. Next time, I’ll stick to town or regional parks. I also started giving the kids their lunch in the car before we reached the park, just so they could maximize running/play time to get that energy out. The second day, we stopped in the small town of Fairfield, IL. And, the third day, we stopped in the lovely town of Russell, KS. Russell didn’t have a whole lot in their town, but they did have an amazing and HUGE playground!!!
*The kids got one sweet treat towards the end of the day, at our last stop before reaching our destination for the night -- usually about 2 hours away. This helped get us all through that last push when we were just ready to be done with the drive.
*HOTELS! Kids love hotels! Kids especially love hotels with swimming pools and breakfast buffets! So, we booked hotels with both of those things. I also looked for hotels that would have dinner options in walking distance or super close by. I knew we would be so over the car by the time we got to each hotel. So, I looked up the hotels on Maps, and looked to see what restaurants were immediately around it. You can do pretty much the same thing with Google Street View. I even booked one hotel because I saw that it had a Chipotle close by AND a Costco gas station we could hit on our way back out the next morning. Win! After a quick dinner somewhere, we went back to the hotel and let the kids get some energy out in the pool, then went to bed and rested up for the next day.
*We had a little routine for our hotel mornings. We would roll out of bed, get dressed and ready, head down to breakfast, eat, I’d grab a couple of extra bananas to pack with lunches, and we’d head back up to the room. We’d turn on PBS cartoons for a few so the kids could be entertained while I made PB & J's, and packed lunches for the car ride. We'd then pack up our luggage (we had one shared suitcase that we all used, packed specifically for the road trip...this way we didn't have to dig out 4 different suitcases at each stop), and we’d be out the door and back on the road by 8 or so.
*Ningxia Red pouches! They were a part of our morning routine every day on our trip. We usually buy the bottles of it, but I knew they wouldn’t travel very well, so I purchased the pouches specifically for this road trip, to help boost our immune system as we did all of this traveling, site-seeing, had the kids in different church nurseries, etc… Everyone stayed healthy and well through the entire trip – praise the Lord! I had a box of sick supplies that I packed for the trip, just in case. I labeled it the, “I hope I don’t need this box” box. Thankfully, the I Hope I Don’t Need This Box Box stayed tightly closed for the entire trip.
*Expectations. This is the last thing I would add to anyone considering a long road trip with kids. Just expect that everyone is going to be really tired of driving at some point. Expect that the grumpies might creep in here or there. And, just try to prepare and plan as best as you can. But, when it comes down to it, be flexible, take deep breaths, pack lots of snacks, and enjoy the ride. The Very. Very. Long. Ride.
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