More Travel Ideas

Since we essentially live in the middle of nowhere, the shortest drive my children (ages 2 and 3) have is about an hour; when we go to Southern Indiana to see Grandma and Grampie - it is 10 hours! So, I've gotten pretty good in the entertainment department...

Often it is just the kids and me when we make the 10 hour trek. I'm driving so I can't turn around every ten minutes to get something for them. To solve this problem, I put a large Rubbermaid tub in between the two back seats in our van. That way the kids can reach the toys and they stay much happier, they can also set their drinks and snacks on the table when they need their hands for something else. Occasionally a toy does fall (as you can see, the tub is overflowing,) but S and K know they will have to wait until we stop for gas to get that toy back.

Also on the toy front, we have toys that remain in the car all the time. That way they are special and it is a treat to get to play with them. (Remember, I live on an island where cars are illegal, so the kids only ride in the car about twice a month.) The favorite car toy we have right now is the Magna Doodle. It is a great toy that the kids love, and best of all I think they were $3.00 each on clearance at Toys R Us. Lola the dog and Arial the elephant (our swap stuffed animals) love the magna doodles too.One last thing: To make the trip shorter for the kids I get on the road at 5:00 am. (You read that right - 5:00 in the morning!) I get the car all warmed up, lift them from their beds, put them into their car seats and cover them with blankets. Often they will sleep until eight or so. (My daughter is still in diapers and my son sleeps in a Pull-up, so wetting the car seats is not an issue for us.) It cuts a few hours off the trip for them making the day easier on me - even if I do have to be up before most everyone else.

Contest - Entertaining the kids

We don't do a lot of traveling in the car. The longest drive that we've done thus far is 3 hours. It's not long but still long enough for a 6 year old to get antsy. So this is what I pack into her backpack: lots of snacks, books, a writing tablet, her pencil box with crayons, markers, and pencils, her Nintendo DS, and last but not least or iPod. Sounds like a lot of stuff but if you knew my daughter you'd know that all of this was necessary. She has a short attention span and need many things to keep her occupied.

On her iPod, we have the music that she likes to listen to, TV shows that she loves such as Suite Life of Zack & Cody, Hannah Montana, and Raven, her favorite movies, and audio books. Right now I just have the Harry Potter series but will be uploading Junie B. Jones and maybe even Spiderwick Chronicles.

Before we had the iPod, we had a portable DVD player. We lugged that thing around with at least 5 different movies every time. When the DVD player broke, we started using my laptop. Thank goodness for the iPod, it's smaller and takes up less space.

When we travel to Hawaii, we pretty much take the same things. It's a 5 hour flight so keeping her entertained is a little more difficult. On the flight, she prefers to write and color so I make sure there are lots of paper and coloring books. She has her own carry on bag with all of her ammo.

I realize that not everyone has a Nintendo DS or iPod but there are other options out there to keep the children entertained. There are lots of games that come in travel versions. Playing cards are also an option that will keep the kids busy. Keeping the children occupied and entertained on long road trips or air travel will not only benefit them but also the parents.

Travel Bags

Several years ago, our DVD player passed away. With several hour trips being taken almost every month up to the grandparents, it was a bit painful at first. It didn't take long for the kids to adjust though. We got books on tape, read Little House on the Prarie, and played card games in the car. Recently, I made the kids some "travel bags" (photos of the bags we also made for our swap partners) that help encourage their creativity and they've been really helpful to all of us. I stitched up some simple (and I mean SIMPLE!) little bags with a strap. Inside, I made a pocket with a few different small sections. Here's what has been the biggest hit in our bags so far:

little spiral notebook with blank pages
tiny markers/pencils/pens
card games (favorite one came from our spring Swap friends!)
little doll family set
bird identification book
finger puppets

We do alot of story telling, and the most requested ones are stories from our childhood where an injury was sustained, where trouble was had, or where something that involved loud shouting happened!

We haven't taken it on a trip, but we also like to have "conversation" and some of our favorite topics came from this box. Our little family is able to talk in a casual and honest way about lots of deep-life things. I hope that these things stick with them throughout their lives.
That's my two cents!

UPDATE

A lot of you were very encouraging to Michelle (aka Meg) when she shared her story of how she was planning to travel across the country to have a legal homebirth in CA. I thought you might be interested to know that her and her family have made their journey and arrived at their destination safe and sound. They are now guaranteed a CA birth!

The Prize

There are still eight days left to post your travelling tips and be entered into the June contest. Michelle (Meg) provided this prize, but I (Melissa aka Mag) will be mailing it out since she is getting very close to giving birth now. If you can't tell by the picture it is a mini-scrapbook kit with everything you need except the pictures, of course.

My best tip for travelling with kids is to remember to bring those snack catcher containers along so you don't end up with goldfish all over the car. Other than that we usually just bring a lot books and CDs. Some of our favorite music to listen to with kids includes The Curious George Soundtrack by Jack Johnson and Here Come the ABCs by They Might Be Giants--both are very kid friendly and don't drive my husband and I nuts.

Surviving the car ride!

I often hear parents talk about the dread they feel anytime they need to take a long car ride with their children. They rely on the DVD player to maintain some sense of sanity on the trip. We are very fortunate when it comes to traveling by car. Since birth our daughter(now 4 years old) has taken the 5 hour trip to visit our families and is a fabulous car rider! We do hear an occasional "Are we there yet?" but generally our car rides are very pleasant. We don't have a DVD player in the car, so what's our secret? Besides lots of practice riding, I'd say having special snacks and giving her some control over the ride are our secrets. She gets to choose what we listen to on the trip. Yes, five hours of listening to Dragon Tales Tunes and Elmo is a bit boring for us but she's happy and the ride goes by quickly. We've started checking out audio books from our library right before a long trip. On our last trip we all listened to the first Harry Potter book. We all enjoyed it! We also have a scheduled stop for gas and snacks that we make on each trip. She looks forward to this and is happy in the back seat for an hour after our stop eating her snack. We enjoy the car ride.
Some other audio books we've enjoyed are:
The Magic Treehouse
Rabbit Ears Treasury of Fables
Rabbit Ears Treasury of Animal Stories
Tell Me a Story
The Spiderwick Chronicles
The Waterhorse

Contest- What to put in the stereo!

Hi, I don't count to do one of the drawings since this is Meg (Michelle.) But, wanted to start us off and participate none the less. One cd I have found that I really like and am very OK with my kids listening to is Renee & Jeremy. On their site you can listen to some tracks and I bought our copy on iTunes. Other music we listen to is Folk music, and John Denver. John Denver is all about the nostalgia (Especially the song Country Roads and Grandma's feather bed) for me and the Folk music has some great songs that kids and parents can relate to. Usually our radio is tuned to NPR or the local Alternative music station. But, as the kids get older and sing along we are becoming more sensitive to what we listen to.
Another thing we are trying this trip is reading original fairy tales aloud. We bought a collection of Hans Christian Andersen ones. The local bookseller also recommended this book, called Hello Miss Piggle Wiggle. The tales in this second book are more old Fashioned, not old like Andersen's though.
Lastly we bought some toys that are new to the kids or have been pulled out from a long silence in the basement so they seem new. They include: a flat battery operated light brite, a big magna doodle, lacing beads, little figurines to act out adventures with, and some books. We also found a leapster on ebay that we are going to try. We will be in the car for a total of 85 hours this summer not including rest stops and eating, etc. Luckily, we have a built in DVD player that we use when the fighting gets to be too much. Some of these last things I have mixed feelings on. But, traveling the car that long, I think it is OK to do things that normally are limited or off limits at home. Looking forward to seeing what everyone else suggests. We leave Friday for the first leg of our trip straight to CA, 35 hours!