Travel with active boys by car has been known to cause premature gray hair and high anxiety. Before you risk losing your mind, prepare ahead and organize how you’ll manage the time in tight quarters.
Given the current economic situation, people are tightening their pocketbooks. Travel is one luxury that many people are cutting back on. If expensive airline tickets prevent you from getting away, you might consider a vacation by car. As a child, we drove everywhere so I can tell you from first-hand experience that it can be fun and it’s definitely memorable. One added advantage of car travel is the wonderful family bonding opportunity. Sure, by the end you might not agree, but when you look back in a week, a month or a year, you’ll remember it and so will your children.
The food situation can be a little daunting with boys, so what I do is pack special bags for each child (including the oldest child; the husband). I throw a few bonus goodies in there that I might not ordinarily. I do not include sugary things whatsoever, as why make active boys crazier? I do bring sugary things, only I keep them with me as bribery tools. I also try to limit beverages so we won’t have to stop as frequently. I pack carrots, crackers, granola bars, cheesy thingi’s, apples, teddy grahams….there’s no shortage of food. I also usually make peanut butter and jelly sandwiches so we have have. You never know when someone might scream, “I’m starving!!!”
What to do? Each child also brings a backpack with activities such as books, crayons, paper, an mp3 player if they have one and a new item such as a little car or a package of hockey cards (depending on their age of course). When all these goodies become boring and the echo of boredom starts to get on my nerves, I resort to a video. I might bring a new one or something I know they either really like or haven’t seen in a long time.
Once the video is over, I will plan and play fun games with them. We like this game where we pretend they are on a television game show. I am the host and they are the contestants. I break into this schpeal where I welcome them in my host voice and we laugh a lot. Then I ask them questions from categories they pick such as math, drawing, science or spelling. I keep score of how many correct answers. Nobody wins, but we have a good time.
When planning our drive, I always consider a route that enables us to make stops along the way. We’d stopped at haunted mansion once, at a factory for a free tour and a local park for some exercise works fine as well. It helps to break things up.
For great road trip games and ideas visit: http://www.momsminivan.com/
For a good list of necessities: http://www.activitiesforkids.com/travel/travel_hints.htm
Good route ideas: http://travelwithkids.about.com/cs/cartrips/a/cartripsgreat.htm
Whatever you do, have fun. Family travel is the opportunity to create memories that will last a lifetime.
