Friday, May 08, 2009

Super Size Saturday - ROAD TRIP!!!

I'm excited to read the tips that you share with me today! Please don't let me down. Regardless of your family size, if you've ever taken a road trip with children, or went on a road trip as a child, please share your tips for a successful road trip with children.


  • License Plate Game
  • ABC Game (find the letters)
  • I spy
  • Audio Books
  • Set $ amount each a.m. for treats at gas stations (but this was before we changed our eating plan and before we had 9 children - back when we had 4 and .25 each would buy a nice treat).
  • Atlas to highlight as we travel
  • Backpack with markers, coloring sheets
  • Cheap $ store toys and activities to add to backpack each day when needed
  • Carrot sticks are great traveling snacks
  • Dried apples are great traveling snacks
  • When we are organized we've found picnic lunches at rest areas are a great break on a long travel day....when we aren't the Golden Arches serve the same purpose
  • Slug Bug (but this can get out of hand)
  • Leave early in the a.m. to have time to swim at night

What about you? Do you have some tips for eating on the road? What about non-messy snacks? What do you do to make the hours go faster? What are some of your favorite audio books for travel? What else can we do to make the thousands of miles on the road a fun family memory to be cherished and not simply an evil to endure? Do you have a top 10 list of things to avoid on a road trip with children? I'd love to hear your thoughts. Write a post (or link on you've written in the past), come back and sign Mr. Linky so we can all read your thoughts.

Super Size Saturday Archives/Purpose

Super Size Saturday Guidelines

Super Size Saturday Schedule - 9 May - 4 July

Choosing Joy!
©2009 D.R.G.

~ Coram Deo ~
Living all of life before the face of God...

12 comments:

Michelle said...

De'Etta, one thing we did (can't remember if I included it in the post that is linked) was to let the kids choose postcards from neat places we visited. The kids glue them in their travel journals and then write a paragraph/page, etc. about our visit. The olders enjoy reading about our adventures when they were little.

Grapes, raisins, homemade trail mix are all good travel foods.

We'd try to get hotel rooms with mini fridges. We'd make a run to a grocery store or super Walmart to buy fixings for pbj's and buy roasted chicken for dinner.

Michelle said...

Oh, just remembered something else. If we had to eat out we'd look for a Cracker Barrel. We found them to be family friendly and playing checkers near the fireplace gave Matthew the much needed excuse he needed to get up and burn off some energy.

Kristine said...

http://www.visionforum.com/boysadventure/productdetail.aspx?productid=35460&categoryid=20
The travel time goes much more quickly when we're following Jonathan Park on his adventures! :)
All my kiddos listen intently (DS 12, DD 9, DD 7, DS 4).

DeEtta @ Courageous Joy said...

I apologize. Something messed up with Mr. Linky. When I fixed it - I lost the links. I can't find them to relink you. ::sigh::

DeEtta @ Courageous Joy said...

Great tips, Ladies. Keep em coming. We've never done Jonathan Parks....I'll check it out.

I always had older kids load the Mp3 players....guess it's time to learn a new trick. LOL

DeEtta @ Courageous Joy said...

Postcards are a great idea...travel journals will work. I have some blank sketch books here that will do the trick - if I haven't given them away already. LOL

Liz in OK said...

Hank the Cowdog, for sure, or Adventures in Odyssey cds. Or a nice long book, something like The Jungle Book or a Narnia or - even better - something with different voices for the different characters.

I remember a particularly long trip when we resorted to reciting the states, in alphabetical order, backwards. I think that was after a contest to see who could do the alphabet backwards the fastest.

We stick with stuff that's just crumbly rather than sticky for snacks: pretzels, goldfish, peanuts. And the mini-can drinks or juice bags at rest stops because they're smaller & you don't have to stop again so often!

One child counted all the mile markers from Missouri to Tulsa once - you don't want to get that started, believe me.

DeEtta @ Courageous Joy said...

Oh, Liz, Mike started this one year in WA and we listened to it from WA - MT......the excitement did build in some as we neared Hardin....but I've thought I'd throw myself out the van if THAT game ever begins again on a long trip. ::snort:: Maybe 10 miles out.....

Michelle said...

Each child had a bag attached to the seat in front of them. Included in the bag was their travel journal, their own map w/ highlighter, cd/mp3 player, auto bingo and other travel size games: checkers, battleship, parcheesi, sorry, etc.

Chastains said...

Not sure if my post is super relevant. I don't even want to think about top ten things NOT to do. It IS harder traveling with a baby, though teenagers are awfully whiny sometimes.

Unknown said...

Oh, I didn't add a list of what to do or not to do in my blog.... Sorry... However, here are some things we do even just for driving three hours to Brett's folks:
~I use snack baggies to pack popcorn, pretzels, dried fruit, and whatever the kiddos fav snack is at the time
~Kiddo has a dry erase board that he draws on, plays games on, etc...
~We make sure to keep a cd of kiddos favorite songs on it.. since he loves old country ballads its pretty easy on us! lol
~I created an ABC game where we took turns listing animals or objects that we see. I would start with A (aarvark or animal) and then let the kiddo take 'b' and so on
~"I spy" is a hugely successful game for us!

I think that is it for now! As we start tripping more, I am sure I will be able to think of more things... haha!

Lois said...

One thing we've always started out with is family devotions. The non-driving adult will read a passage, or each of the kids will take a turn, we pray (driver always keeps his/her eyes open:) and sing a hymn. (The acoustics in a moving car are great.) We've also started a Bible memory verse bee (melt-down). Everyone in turn says a verse from memory (with reference, if you're really hard-nosed) No one can say one that's already been said. Our last trip's game lasted about an hour.