This is a partnered post with Smucker’s. All opinions are my own.
Road Trip – two words almost guaranteed to strike fear in a parent’s heart. Between the sibling squabbling, the screaming and the complaints of “Are we almost there yet?” it’s almost enough to make parents want to stay home. Over the years we have had our share of adventures. From the kids’ constant car sickness to their attempts to wake each other up when anyone fell asleep, I learned the easiest way to keep the kids content was to keep them occupied. We’ve spent a lot of time traveling this summer and even have a mother-daughter trip planned to Kentucky this week. Here’s my four easy tips to keep kids engaged on a road trip.
1. Have a surprise bag for each child. Before every trip I purchased inexpensive toys, books and activities for each child and hid them in individual bags. Once an hour, when the kids were bored with the first item, I would pull out another and place the other activity back into the bag. The kids were thrilled to receive surprises and I was thrilled to keep my sanity. Some of our favorites were play dough, coloring books with washable markers, card games like Go Fish, and books on their favorite subjects.
2. Road Trip Games. We played the classic road trip games with new twists. Our favorite was the “ABC” game. We picked a category (like “fruit”) and took turns going around the car naming a different fruit. Since the kids would sometimes think they could get “out” of the game if they “didn’t know” an answer, we made a new rule that if someone couldn’t think of a word, they could have lifelines and other people in the car could help them. Surprisingly, the kids still enjoy playing this game, although the last time we played, we used “phobias” as our category. We had to have a lot of help from Google with this one!
3. Keep Snacks on Hand. Not only is this cheaper than stopping at convenience stores or fast food restaurants whenever the kids get hungry, you can keep healthier choices on hand. We stop in Walmart before a trip and stock up on Smucker’s products, like their Smucker’s Fruit-Fulls blended fruit pouches or Smucker’s Peanut Butter. One of our favorite snacks is Apple Peanut Butter Dippers. To make them, simply cut up an apple, sprinkle with lemon juice to prevent browning and store in a plastic bag. Place spoonfuls of Smucker’s Peanut Butter in individual containers and use for dipping.
How do you keep your kids entertained on road trips?
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We do road trip games a lot and also pack a cooler. It’s the easiest way to avoid making a lot of stops for drinks!
I have never heard about game like road trips. It’s not only funny and easy but also engages all family! On the other hand it’s also a way of relax. When we go further, children are a little bored of the trip game.
We are big road trip game players. We even have road trip bingo cards…the kids love them.
Games, snacks and music are our go to ways to keep the kids engaged. Once they get tired of games we put on music and everyone sings along.
All great ideas! My kids get so bored though. I need a few surprise bags! lol
I want some apple dippers. 😉 We fly usually, but that’s not going to be happening for awhile now. Road trip tips are always good to read.
You pretty much read my mind. Thankfully our girls love to read and don’t get carsick… so we have a lot of books for car trips. Plus games and snacks.
What some great ideas, I like the sound of a surprise bag. x
We play a lot of road games, listen to great music and use the time to actually talk to each other.
We just returned from a 6000 mile road trip and granted my kids are teens so the entertainment factor is a bit different. One favorite car game is First Letter, Last Letter. The group picks a category, let’s say ‘Food’. The first person says a food name; the second says a food that begins with the last letter of the word the first person said. It’s fun.
We always take electronics and snacks on our trips! It seems to work well.
These are great tips to keep kids engaged on a road trip. They can get easily bored otherwise.
My kids and I love driving games! Always keep the fun going while getting to our destination!
We like road games. Snack are very important
I’m a big fan of surprise bags. I thought I’d stop after a certain age but my 8 year-old still loves them so we are keeping ’em. Thanks for the tips.
These are all great ways to keep the kids entertained. I pack snacks and make sure all the electronics are charged.
That is one thing I need to remember for the next time. Take electronics so it keeps them busy.
Books, games, and snacks are excellent suggestions for road trips. My mom used to let us “save” words we’d see along the way like “quick”, “X-ray”, and “zippy” when we played alphabet with street signs, business signs, and billboards. We loved going through cities that had alphabet streets.
I wish I would have read this before we took our Grandson on a long car ride. He kept asking…. When will we be there! UGH!
Snacks for sure. And now that the boys are teens they stay occupied with electronics and cell phones. I also keep them a part from each other so they don’t fight!
We play driving games, I Spy and in some situations we bring out the iPad. It all really depends on how long the road trip is. These are all good ways too