How to make cross country roadtrips with children fun

Road trips can be tedious for adults, just imagine how bad it can be for a child who doesn't have a good concept of time or distance. Time seems endless, bathroom urges are more urgent, and choruses of "are we there yet" are likely. That doesn't have to mean that you have to avoid seeing the country from a car you just have to be creative and plan ahead.

After putting the dog into boarding, packing our clothes, food, toys, CDs, DVDs, and books my husband, daughter and I headed out on the first leg of a cross country drive from St. Louis to Tucson. To prepare for my four year old I bought a dry erase writing board, a couple of new books, packed some color books, blank paper and crayons, some "school" books, some pillows, snacks, a doll, blanket, and DVDs. Despite the fact that we left our house at 5 am, she did not fall back asleep once we were driving. While this was a surprise to me, she held up surprisingly well through the day. She finally took a short nap late in the day but awoke ready to go all over again! We made the trip an adventure looking for new trees, hills, birds, animals. We kept a count of the hours left until she entered the desert and talked about what kinds of animals and plants we would see there. We also talked about the people and places we were going to visit, the itinerary of the whole trip (cities), the geography we were going to see (desert, ocean, mountains). We read books, worked on numbers and letters, played find the letter games (like I spy), looked for colors and talked about how things were made. On our stops we did jumping jacks, ran in place, stretched and did twists.

Now that I have written this, it sounds like it was exhausting, but it really wasn't. All three of us had a great time spending quality time together locked in the car. There were really no distractions and no way for any of us to "check out" of spending time together (other than the occasional nap). I know that this kind of trip may not be for everyone but I think road trips, long and short, can turn into moments of great family bonding.

I am so grateful that we had this opportunity. My daughter has developed a deeper appreciation for nature, learned WAY more than I could have taught her at home and has been able to begin to see the value of travelling and exploring more of her world. What's more, after being locked in a car for 17 hours in one day, I feel closer to both my husband and my daughter. I think we all learned more about each other and had some seriously fun bonding time! Don't be surprised if the With My Child series has a book called "It's a Beautiful Day for a Road Trip" sometime in the future. :-)

Best to you in your travels, both near and far!

Emily A. Filmore
blog.withmychildseries.com
http://www.withmychildseries.com/