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Summer time means two long road trips for the boys and me. Long like 18 hours in the car over 3 days, long. It’s an exhausting trip, but ever since I started splitting the drive up over 3 days, it’s surprisingly gotten a lot more manageable.
Last year I relied heavily on iPads that ended up being tossed aside after about an hour and mostly drove me crazy with the repetitive noises for hours on end until we stopped again. 200% not the way to travel. That extra tough decision of stopping again vs trucking along with high pitch beeping coming from the back seat 😩
It’s 👏 the 👏 worst 👏
This year, I decided to try and be proactive and stocked up on some simple busy bags that I could stick in a box and put between car seats for Brixton (5) and Colston (3). They were an absolute game changer for this trip. Keep scrolling for a full list of everything we packed for the road, hotel, and visiting great granma!
This is part one, but is easily the most exciting part and, while it does require some prep work, is so easy to do! I made most of these at the beginning of the summer. This gave the boys a couple weeks to try them out and see how they worked before we got in the car with them. It also gave me a chance to tweak anything that wasn’t working how I planned 😀
This bag was probably the easiest one I made! I purchased this activity bundle from Kristin’s (Talkin’ With Twang’s) TPT store way back in December. All I did for this bag was print them out, laminate them, then cut them in half and add a binder ring to the corner. Put it in a zipper pencil pouch along with a dry erase marker and a washcloth and called it a day!
Maybe I lied and this was the easiest bag to make. I added velcro to each end of colored craft sticks. I took a set of shape flash cards and pulled out one of each. Added the flash cards and craft sticks to the bag and it was ready to go!
After some trial and error, the best way to do it is cut a velcro dot in half. Add the “pokey” side to the top of a craft stick, and then add the soft side to bottom on the opposite side. It makes it easier for the shapes to hold.
This was another super simple one — are you seeing the trend here?? 😉 This is a favorite activity of Colston’s (3.5 years), so I knew it was a must-include. The letter matching game is from Target’s Bullseye’s Playground from a couple years ago. I searched the website to see if it was available and didn’t see it, but I’m pretty sure it was sold last year too. I also had these number match cards that I found online. I’ve searched and searched and cannot remember where they came from (so if you know, please let me know so I can give proper credit!) Simple concept: find the matching letter/number, stick a paperclip over it! Cards and paper clips all went into a bag, and this one was done too 😄
I used Dab and Dot markers to make patterns on our Super Jumbo Craft Sticks that matched our mini colored clothespins. I did a variety of AB, ABC, AABB, AAB, etc patterns. Really whatever color I grabbed, I made a pattern with. Their goal was to match the clothespins to the dots. Hidden math AND fine motor game 🙌
This was a really fun one to do in the hotel too. I could grab one bag and all three boys could play at once. Y’all. Game.Changer.
There’s not a whole lot to say about this one. It’s another Target Bullseye’s Playground find from a couple years ago. I took the whole set and put it in a bag for ease. This was mostly for Everett (20 months), so I preloaded a couple by wrapping the yarn around one hole and tying a knot in it. This prevented him from being able to pull the yarn out and getting frustrated. 🔑 pro tip for keeping some peace when traveling 😆
This one was made on accident really. Someone threw in these paper clips after a Dollar Tree trip. They busted open in the bag so I had to find a use for them. I took a 2.5 inch circle hole punch to some construction paper, wrote 1-20, and laminated them. They would pull a circle, identify the number, then put the correct number of matching paper clips on. Hindsight, this activity isn’t a car activity. We managed to keep the paper clips mostly together, but I pulled this one out on day 3 after a close call 😬
This was an idea that the incredible Katy from PrekWolfpack shared on instagram. These alphabet straws are an absolute favorite for Brixton (5). I made a set of pre-k sight words a couple months ago, so I stuck those in the bag along with the letter straws. He picked a card, made the word, then would repeat the letters to me and I’d tell him the word. He would repeat the word a couple times, spell it out a couple times, and then pick a different word.
This was the perfect activity for Brixton and I to do when the other boys were sleeping. It took him several quiet minutes to find and build each word, and then once he spelled it out for me, was happy to continue quietly repeating it.
This game has moved straight from our travel kit right to the diaper bag. I took a set of flash cards and attached them all with a binder ring. I had a set of clothespins with the number on one side (for Colston) and the written word on the other (for Brixton). They counted the objects on the card and then matched the clothespin to it. Sometimes they’d pull the clothespin first and then search for the right card after. Either way was fine with me. I loved that they took the idea and modified the game to what worked best for them in the car.
These eight bags were the real MVP’s on keeping my sanity intact. There were enough that no one really got bored with any one, and the variety kept them feeling like games vs forced learning while confined in a car. I still have a few other tricks that I pulled out at stops to help us along the way that I’ll be sharing later this week!
Do you have any other ideas for keeping kids entertained in the car? We have the same drive coming up in November, so I’m open to any and all new ideas!
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