Road Trips with Kids
By Tara Kyle
Family travel is a big, big concern for many of you -- it's one of the most popular topics Wendy gets questions about. So for Mother's Day, I wanted to spotlight a great site I came across the other day, MomsMinivan. (Thanks to Luggage Online for their list of 50 Best Travel Sites You've Probably Never Heard Of).
A former schoolteacher and current stay-at-home mom, Laurel Smith built this library of tips after covering thousands of miles on the road, first as a child with her family, and now as a mother with a brood of her own. The site has a great store of articles, including a list of reader-submitted recommendations for preventing or easing carsickness (continue on for the reader-submitted carsick stories at your own risk!); I also suggest that the Orlando-bound check out Laurel's take on "doin' Disney" (Laurel's easy way to save money and time for rides? Brown bag your lunch).
Another great thing about MomsMinivan is that beyond all her helpful information, Laurel has actually features a lot of FREE ways for you and yours to pass the time. The printable car activities section has worksheets for old favorites like bingo, the license plate game, and scavenger hunts. Laurel also directs you to sing-a-long song lyrics and printable coloring pages.
Got any kid-friendly travel tips of your own to share?
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As a frequent road tripper - and often with the grandchildren from ages 3 on up, we have a rule about no electronics when you travel with us. At first they groused about it, but they actually now love it - we play all kinds of games, make up stories, talk about when their parents were little, and more. Great bonding time!
Carol White
www.roadtripdream.com
Posted by: carolwhite | May 12, 2007 at 12:51 AM
Hi Carol,
I'm with you. My kids, age 5 and 3, have never used any electronic gadgets in the car and never will. We sing songs, play word and number games, invent guessing games, etc. Thanks for sharing your Web site with us.
Wendy
Posted by: WendyPerrin | May 12, 2007 at 10:14 AM
Since my daughter does have some favorite cartoons, I go to the websites of those cartoons and print out the multitude of games and coloring pages that are available. Sites like pbskids.org, noggin.com and nickjr.com have loads of offline children activities that you can print. We've found them to be great entertainment for her on airplanes.
Leian
http://www.childofleisure.com
Posted by: leian | May 13, 2007 at 07:53 AM
Hi Leian,
Thanks for the tip. We're big fans of pbskids.org too. How old is your daughter?
Happy Mother's Day,
Wendy
Posted by: WendyPerrin | May 13, 2007 at 12:34 PM
50 best travel sites is missing TripConnect.com, a travel advice social networking site. I write the family travel blog on the site where there are several posts on traveling by car and ways to see Disney on a budget.
Best advice for road trips: Don't overpack. You can pretty much pick up your day to day necessities at your travel destination.
Links:
TripConnect: http://www.tripconnenct.com
Road Trips w kids: http://blogs.tripconnect.com/famly/2006/06/toddler_103_tra.html
Family Travelers: http://www.tripconnect.com/tripconnect/FamilyTravelers
Posted by: ikesacolick | May 17, 2007 at 11:32 AM