Tomorrow we head out on a 17+ hour road trip with 2 kids. I wanted to make the ride fun, not just the way we get there, but a memorable part of the vacation experience. So, I looked through Pinterest for lots of inspiration, and thought of a few of my own. What I came up with are BUSY BUCKETS.
The plan is to hand them a new activity from their busy buckets every hour or two, not all at once because they would be bored within an hour. This way it keeps the suspense going & gives them something to look forward to. I also want them to have some time where they are interacting together, listening to music or me reading. playing games with us & just looking out the window, they don't need constant entertainment. Of course, we will supplement with snacks, DVDs & Ipad games here and there, but I am hoping to keep the electronic use to a minimal.
Here are some ideas of how We are making our road trip more kid friendly & fun filled. As soon as I get back I plan to show how I made all my DIY activities & share links to other helpful tutorials/resources, I just wanted to get the ideas out before we left :)
Busy Bucket
Lacing Cards
DIY Magnetic Chalkboard Rimmed Cookie Sheets
Plain Notepads with Colored Pencils or Pens & Stickers
Vehicle Graph on Clipboard (Chart how many kids see of each)
DIY Gel Sensory Boards (Write with fingers to make pictures)
Map of Trip (Kids can keep track of where we are & how far to go by tracing progress with marker)
DIY Hide and Seek Bottles (Love that the card has the hidden objects on it, for littles who can't read yet)
Edible Necklaces (Keeps them busy creating & then eating! Also I twisted a pipe cleaner & laced the yarn through, to make it easier to thread.)
Assorted Activity Pads (I LOVE Color Wonder markers, and so does any mom who has creative kids who like to express themselves on the walls, couch, siblings, ha! And other note pads that have games, connect dots, mazes are fun.)
Dry Erase Boards (Seriously, awesome, my son who is not a fan of writing took off & improved so much when he got these, he actually wanted to write in his free time & my 3 year old LOVES them!)
Found these Foam Squishy Beads at the Dollar Store (Didn't seem to be too messy, here's hoping!)
DIY Letter, Number, Shape Sticker Matchup (For my younger child I just had the stickers colored with shapes & letters be exactly the same as on the toilet paper roll, for my Kindergardener I did lowercase stickers, upper case letters & tally marks & numbers that they will have to find the "match" for.)
DIY Go Fishing Game
Clip on Reading Lights & Lots of Books!
Finger Puppets
How fun! Great ideas, Amber! You'll have to tell me which ones were the biggest hits. :) We're thinking about going east in the summer, so I'll have to remember these for that trip.
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