Baby Your Babies

Put sunscreen on everyone before going to the beach so that it has time to soak in.  Once you arrive at the beach, dust everyone with baby powder to help keep the sand off.  When it’s time to head home, use more powder and any sticky sand brushes away easily.

Baggin’ The Toys

The best way to pack up sandy toys for their trek home is to deposit them into a mesh laundry bag and give it a good shake.  Keep any excess sand from finding a home in your trunk by placing the mesh bag into a canvas laundry bag.

Book Your Trip

At the end of every vacation (or a few times throughout), buy a postcard and write down all of the exciting things that the family did.  Place this postcard in a special vacation photo album.  Even more exciting is to mail the postcard home to the kids.

Chart The Miles

Purchase a world atlas or a large world wall map.  Each time that the family takes a vacation, highlight the roads taken (or the general flight path) on the corresponding maps.  When the children are older, they will have a record of all of the wonderful places that they have visited.

Mapping The Route

Pick up some extra maps and have children use a highlighter to track your progress from one destination to the next.  Have children try and estimate how long it will take to arrive at the next city or town.

Now Hear This

Borrow audio-books from the public library or download stories from the internet so that children can listen to their favorite stories during the car/plane ride.

Paper Plate Bingo

Before leaving on vacation, have children decorate the center of a paper plate with pictures about what to expect on their vacation.  Cut the outer rim of the plate (2-3 inch slits) into as many sections as you want and write the names of provinces or states (depending on your route) on each section.  As corresponding license plates are spotted, color in the tabs of that license plate and then fold the tab back.  The first player to turn all tabs back (or the one with the most folded tabs at the end of the trip), yells ‘Bingo!’.

Pass With Ease

We all know that we should never turn around to look at our children in the backseat while we are driving.  But, most of us do this anyway.  To avoid having to do a complete turn around, ensure that the youngest (and/or neediest children) are seated in the backseat diagonally to you.  This makes passing items much easier, not to mention safer.

Road Trip Art

Along with toting a basic art bin in the vehicle for road trips, there is the potential for art to be collected along the way.  Pick up brochures, maps, restaurant place mats and hotel stationary to create drawing canvases, memory scrapbooks, or collages.

Road Trip Games

Step back into the past and away from technology and have the family participate in old-fashioned travel games.  Play ‘I Spy’ or ’20 Questions’.  Have the whole family duck their heads under every overpass and lift their feet as you pass over railway tracks.  For longer drives, try:

• Travel Alphabet – Everyone begins by looking for something that begins with the letter ‘A’, an apple tree or an animal. Then move on to barn and cow.  The game ends when someone finds a ‘zipper’ or a ‘zero’ on a sign.
• License Plate Bonanza – The first person to collect license plates from ten provinces/territories or states is the champ.
• Add ‘Em Up – Have children add up the numbers on license plates. Have younger children look for numbers between one and twenty on license plates.

Sanity Saver

Although many may disapprove of this, many a parent have found portable DVD players to be sanity savers on long trips.  Be sure to purchase the headphones so that you are not stuck listening to the movies for the entire trip.  Or, download movies onto a tablet or phone.

Surprise Bags

Wrap up small items that the children haven’t played with for a while or, wrap up inexpensive items purchased from a dollar store (mini decks of cards, mini-flashlights, crossword/puzzle books, etc.).  As children get restless, allow them to select one road surprise to open.

Treasure Chest

Pull together a collection of child-safe toys and household items that children can dig into whenever they get restless during a road trip.  Include toys from fast food restaurants, dollar store items, and the kitchen timer.

Trip Tote

To prevent kids from fighting over toys in the car, decorate a canvas bag for each child.  Before leaving the house, allow them to pick out the toys that they want to take along for the drive.

Window Art

Purchase a set of window markers and allow children to draw pictures on car windows during trips.  Remember to bring along window cleaner and paper towel to clear the ‘canvas’ during each rest stop.