How To Turn A Long Distance Car Trip Into An Adventure

By Katharine Grubb

We were all wearing masks and mustaches to keep our identities a secret. My oldest son tracked the speed of our minivan as we cruised down the Interstate. My older daughters read signs looking for “code words” on billboards. My youngest son made checklist of sports cars that he saw, believing they could be “the bad guy”. And my youngest daughter drew a picture, of a princess most likely, but that princess was on a mission to uncover the secret plot. We were the Mustachioed Seven and we were a group of super heroes on a mission, not only to drive cross-country from Massachusetts to Oklahoma, but also to stop our archenemies from taking over the world.

It was not, as one might think, an ordinary packed mini-van on a 3-day road trip. It was, in fact, an adventure. And it was worth the extra planning to make it memorable for my family.

I admit. I had enough to do preparing for the trip: all the laundry, packing, cleaning the house, buying snacks, preparing the car, booking hotel rooms, and tending to the other million little details. But I found that the time I invested in planning the fun, the more excited the kids became, and the more memories that we made.

You can make your cross-country trip exciting too. All you need is a little advance planning and enthusiasm, and your children (especially those four years old and older) will look forward to being stuck in the car for hours. Or days.


Getting Started

Consider a theme for the trip. You aren’t just a family packed into a mini-van; you are a big boatload of pirates. Or you’re going on a jungle safari. Or you’re riding a magic carpet. From your choice of theme, pack hats, bandanas, masks, toilet-paper tube binoculars, and eye patches. Then as you collect activities to do in the car, stick to the theme. None of these have to be expensive; in fact most of ours were handmade.

Assign vacation names. During our Angry Birds road trip, we all had bird related names. Mine was Duchess Chachalaca and I took great delight when my children addressed me as such at rest stops. We also made nametags and wore them everywhere. The names have become such an integral part of our vacations that once we put it on the calendar, what will your name be this year?, is our next question.


Collect Media

Have a DVD player in your car? That’s great, use it! But remember that passively watching a movie doesn’t really promote family togetherness or encourage people to enjoy the scenery or stimulate creativity. Watch DVDs sparingly, when your family is the most tired or cranky.

Check out books on CD from your local library: Elementary age kids would enjoy The Magic Tree House series, Little House in the Big Woods, Stuart Little, A Cricket In Times Square. Older kids would like Fairy Tale Detectives, Sarah Plain and Tall, Holes or The Chronicles of Narnia. Ask your librarian for books that may fit your theme. Audiobooks take up hours and are more mentally engaging than a movie.

And don’t forget the music! Check out what CDs your library has to offer. You may find the perfect soundtrack for your adventure or an obscure musician that you really love.

Do you have an iPod jack in your car? Download podcasts that everyone can enjoy. No iPod? Burn a CD of your favorite songs. (We like to stick to the theme. During the Angry Birds drive, all our songs were either about traveling or birds. It was awesome!)


Plan to Keep Hands Busy

Moms everywhere know that busy hands are less likely to get into trouble. So on our road trips, each kid gets a customized binder (with their vacation name on it, of course) filled with printed coloring pages, mazes, crossword puzzles, etc. If you can, print out two work pages per hour you’re in the car (and don’t forget the trip home). Three-hole punch the bottom of a gallon size Ziploc bag and put the bag in the binder. The bag had hold pencils and crayons. The binder is kept in the children’s carry-on bag with other activity books and personal items.


Promote Communication and Play

You’re trapped in a car with your family -- take advantage of it! Plan to play together.

-Play old car trip standards: The ABC game, Slug Bug (which should be modified to TouchBug, of course), license plates list, etc.

-Tell stories. Someone starts a story (possibly related to your theme) (“Once upon a time, there were five pirates who were sailing across the ocean in search of an island that held their treasure. When suddenly a big whale overturned their ship! Then . . .” ) Allow each family member to add something to the story.

-Ask questions of each other that get people talking like:

• Who do you really admire?
• What three foods could you not live without?
• What do you think is creepy?
• What are the three happiest moments in your life so far?
• If you had a million dollars what would you do?
• What animated character do you most identify with? Why?
• Would you rather not have summer or not have winter?

Do an Internet search for more questions and take them with you. Not only are you finding out more about your family, you’re also killing a lot of time!

-Estimate: Ask each member of the family to guess these things:

• How long will it take to cross the next state line?
• How much money will it cost us to fill up with gas?
• How many cows will we see in the next fifteen minutes?
• How many McDonalds will we see in this state?

Record everyone’s estimation. The one who is the closest to being correct gets a treat. The “loser” has to sing “Happy Birthday” as loud as he can at the next rest stop.

-Play Mad Libs (plenty of printables online!)

Just because your body can’t move, doesn’t mean your mind can’t be active. Talking and playing together will make the drive go by faster.


Encourage Down Time

This is when you can get back to individual computer games or iPods, Daddy can have a little peace, and Mom can get some shut-eye. After a rousing game of Slug Bug, everyone will need a little breather. You can’t get out of the car, so it’s okay to check out mentally for a while as long as you come back later to enjoy the rest of the adventure.

So, as you prepare the car (don’t forget hand sanitizer and extra toilet paper), put a little thought into making your trip adventurous. You’ll be happy with the memories that you make and your whole family will have a great time.

Summer Ideas - Part 4

By Katharine Grubb

Counting pennies this summer?  Or are you looking for things to do in between day camp and the week at the beach?  Here’s a lengthy list of activites for you and your preschooler. All require little preparation and little expense and are just right for ages 3 and up.  

1. Which friends on Facebook live out of state or out of the country? Ask them to send you a photo, then find where all of them live on a map or globe. 
2. Create a summer playlist from your music collection. Pick up to 15 songs that your child isn’t familiar with and then play the “soundtrack” all summer. 
3. July 29th is Rain Day. Take a walk in the rain. If it isn’t raining, learn the Singing In The Rain song. 
4. Build a tower with uncooked spaghetti and marshmallows. 
5. Put on a puppet show for family and friends. 
6. Blindfold your child, then have them smell household items like soap, oranges, garlic or vinegar. What can he guess right? 
7. Go to Storybird.com and write a story using provided illustrations. Publish it for your friends. 
8. June is Country Cooking Month, so make fried chicken or biscuits and gravy for supper. 
9. June 1 is National Go Barefoot Day. Have a barefoot race around the house. Paint with your feet on the driveway. Splash in mud puddles. (Then come in the house, wash up and get a pedicure!) 
10. August 6-12 is Exercise With Your Child Week. Put on that Wiggles DVD or hook up the Just Dance Game and work up a sweat with your little one. (If it’s a nice day, go run around a track together!) 
11. June 4 is Do-Dah Day, A Salute To Silliness. Make funny hats and funny faces and video tape yourselves. Then post it on Facebook for all to see. 
12. June 10 is National Ice Tea Day. Make a big pitcher, sweetened just right and drink it on the porch or the deck and listen to the world go by. 
13. Don’t forget the summer solstice!  If there’s ever a day to stay up late, this is it!  Make homemade ice cream, put on that bug repellent and invite friends over to stay up until the sun goes down. 
14. June 23rd is Great American Backyard Campout Day. Put up a tent in the backyard and try not to get scared when all the lights go out. 
15. July is National Blueberries Month!  Try blueberry pancakes or blueberry muffins or make a pie! 
16. July 24th is Cousins Day.  Make a family tree showing all of your and your spouse’s cousins. Then, contact your children’s cousins for a outing or send them an email with funny photos. 
17. Are you a child of the ‘80s? August 10 is National Duran Duran day! Start a new Pandora station or dig out your cassette tapes and dance. 
18. August 20 is National Cupcake Day. This, of course, dictates what you’ll eat for dessert tonight. (Maybe supper too!) 
19. August 30 is National Toasted Marshmallow Day. If you have a fireplace, make your own s’mores. If not, roast them over the back yard grill. (You can also use your broiler, but it’s not as much fun.) 
20. Surprise someone you love with a picnic lunch. Your local librarian? Your spouse? Grandparents? 
21. Create a paper airport for your fleet of paper airplanes. Practice flying them and record which fly the furthest. 
22. Check a Knock Knock joke book out of the library and memorize a few. 
23. Rainy Day? Movies and popcorn. Don’t make the movie the most recent release on Netflix, choose an old Disney Classic or something from your childhood you loved. 
24. Create an obstacle course in the yard. Video your child’s progress through it.
25. Water fight!  Add in balloons, spray bottles, water guns or cups. Then, when you’re done, wash the car.

Need more ideas? Do a search on Pinterest for preschool activites. And don’t forget to take lots of photos -- you can have an amazing summer with your child and spend very little money.

Part 4 of 4 - Check the last 3 Thursdays for previous idea posts!

Summer Ideas - Part 3

By Katharine Grubb

Counting pennies this summer?  Or are you looking for things to do in between day camp and the week at the beach?  Here’s a lengthy list of activites for you and your preschooler. All require little preparation and little expense and are just right for ages 3 and up.  

1. With hand-drawn invitations, invite your neighbors over for a meal that your child helps prepare. 
2. With a calendar, count how many days until Christmas. 
3. Build a fort under the dining room table.  Eat lunch there, tell stories. This is especially fun during a thunderstorm.
4. Find your home on Google Earth. 
5. Check out a book from your library about easy science experiments, then try some, like mixing baking soda and vinegar. 
6. Recycle plastic jugs for bath or beach toys. 
7. Go to a garden center or nursery, and look at all the flowers. Take photos of your favorites.
8. July 28th is National Day of the Cowboy. Play cowboy for the day. Wear hats and bandanas, ride your stick horses on the lawn and eat baked beans off paper plates. Sleep in sleeping bags in the living room. 
9. Is there any construction going on in your area? Walk or drive over and watch for a little while. Then come home and read a book or draw a picture about construction.
10. Make a daisy chain. 
11. For the princess in your house, give a bubble bath, a homemade facial and paint her toenails. 
12. Draw an outline of your body on butcher paper, then label all the parts. 
13. Check your local library for free or discounted museum passes. 
14. Make a worm farm. 
15. Collect garden snails. 
16. Bake a loaf of bread from scratch. 
17. Host a Pirate party. Have your friends come over for lunch, a treasure hunt and running through the sprinkler. 
18. Blow bubbles. 
19. July 15th is National Ice Cream Day. Make your favorite flavor of homemade ice cream or go to your local stand. 
20. Eat watermelon. June 21-24 is Seed Spitting Week. Have a seed spitting contest and then plant the seeds that are left. Do this again on August 3rd, when it’s Watermelon Day. 
21. Send email, with lots of photos, to family members who live far away. 
22. Make sock puppets. 
23. Go to a local baseball game. 
24. Identify all the trees in your yard. Or, if you don’t have a yard, the trees in your neighborhood.
25. Explore your world with a magnifying glass.

Need more ideas? Do a search on Pinterest for preschool activites. And don’t forget to take lots of photos -- you can have an amazing summer with your child and spend very little money.

Part 3 of 4 - Check back next Thursday (and the last 2 weeks) for more ideas!

Summer Ideas - Part 2

By Katharine Grubb

Counting pennies this summer?  Or are you looking for things to do in between day camp and the week at the beach?  Here’s a lengthy list of activites for you and your preschooler. All require little preparation and little expense and are just right for ages 3 and up.  

1. Play War with a deck of cards. 
2. Play Candy Land, and every time you land on your favorite color, eat a handful of your favorite snack, like popcorn. 
3. What state parks are nearby? Visit one for a hike, lunch and maybe a little wading.
4. Take photographs all summer of your family and friends, and then make a scrapbook called People We Love.
5. Try a new recipe, like homemade tortillas or gazpacho. 
6. June is National Candy Month so, make homemade candy.
7. Plan for a weekly play date with other moms in your community.
8. Play hide and seek.
9. Grow tomatoes.
10. Make homemade playdough.
11. Make homemade musical instruments, and play along with your favorite songs. 
12. Make sugar cookies.
13. Visit your local playground or drive across town and visit one you’ve never been to before.
14. Create a Word Notebook. Every time your preschooler reads a word, write it in the notebook. You can also collect words from magazines and paste them there.
15. Practice counting to 100. 
16. Practice counting by 2s. 
17. Practice counting by 5s. 
18. Practice counting by 10s. 
19. Get out the tape measure. How tall is everyone in your family? How tall are your child’s favorite toys? 
20. Play Go Fish. 
21. Print dot-to-dot pages from the computer. 
22. Try a new fruit or vegetable every week. 
23. Gather all your legos, Duplos and K’Nex together and build the biggest structure you can. 
24. Visit your local fire station. 
25. Find an easy book on George Washington at your local library. Read it before celebrating Independence Day.

Need more ideas? Do a search on Pinterest for preschool activites. And don’t forget to take lots of photos -- you can have an amazing summer with your child and spend very little money.

Part 2 of 4 - Check back the next 2 Thursdays (and last week) for more ideas!

Summer Ideas

By Katharine Grubb

Counting pennies this summer?  Or are you looking for things to do in between day camp and the week at the beach?  Here’s a lengthy list of activites for you and your preschooler. All require little preparation and little expense and are just right for ages 3 and up.  

1. Check out your local library and sign up for storytimes, special programs for kids, reading incentives and activities. It’s almost always free! 
2. Take a neighborhood walk and look for shapes, colors and textures. 
3. Each week of the summer, choose a specific animal - say, elephants. Read elephant books from the library, download elephant coloring pages. Search Pinterest for elephant art projects.
4. Collect pretty leaves and flowers from your yard. Glue them to a paper and display them.
5. Your kids are up early anyway, right? Take them outside and ask them to listen to different kinds sounds.  What do they hear?  How many different kinds of birds? 
6. Choose an “Author of the Week” and, on your library day, check out all of the books by that author. In between reading books, look up a biography of that author. Start with Eric Carle, Lois Ehlert, H. A. Rey, Margaret Wise Brown, or Rosemary Wells. If you run out of authors, ask your librarian.
7. Make popsicles.
8. Stay up late and identify constellations. 
9. On another night, collect fireflies. 
10. Identify cirrus, cumulus and nimbus clouds and look for them everyday. 
11. Grow marigolds.
12. At the grocery store, look for all the letters of the alphabet.
13. Choose a mode of transportation each week - for example, trains. That week, read books about trains, watch videos, color pages, get out that train set you forgot about and set it up in the living room. The next week is airplanes or trucks or race cars. 
14. July 10 is Teddy Bear Picnic Day!  Host a Teddy Bear picnic at your home.  Invite all your friends over for cupcakes, teddy bear games and fun time together.
15. Who in your family has a birthday this summer?  Instead of a card or gift, make them a video birthday greeting.
16. Play dress up with your kids. My favorite dress up game? Cinderella. Before the ball, we clean the house! 
17. Check your local newspaper (or city website).  Often cities have free concerts, fun runs, parades or other events for the public.
18. June is Audio Book Appreciation Month, so make lunchtime listening time. From your local library, check out books on CDs. Ask your librarian for age-appropriate materials and then make a habit of listening while you eat lunch.
19. Pack a lunch and go on a Coin Toss adventure. Go for a walk, and every time you come to an intersection, flip a coin to tell you which way to go - use common sense in dangerous places, though!  Walk until you get hungry, eat and then come home. 
20. Add music! Try a children’s Pandora station or check out CDs from your local library and make a certain time of day music time.
21. Make jewelry with colored pasta and yarn.
22. Check out any local churches who host Vacation Bible School. Many of these programs are free.
23. Talk about color.  Can you draw a picture in which you only use warm colors like orange, yellow and red?  What about cool colors like blue, green and purple? 
24. Do a search on Pinterest for kid's art. What do you have around the house? 
25. Cut up a magazine and look for words. Glue them on paper for a collage.

Need more ideas? Do a search on Pinterest for preschool activites. And don’t forget to take lots of photos -- you can have an amazing summer with your child and spend very little money.

Part 1 of 4 - Check back the next 3 Thursdays for more ideas!