Our first family trip of the year is right around the corner. We’re headed to beautiful Lake Tahoe for a weekend of play and romping around outdoors. No security checkpoints to worry about or luggage to check in. We will, however, spend about 4 hours on the road. To prepare, I thought of 5 things for Malia to do if she decides not to nap the entire time.
- Board Books: She loves to read through her favorite books. Her current favorite is Dumbo. She loves the parts where Dumbo is with his Mommy. So I like to have 4-5 of her favorites on hand for her to look through as we drive. I ask her plenty of questions about the book “Where’s the baby?” “Is there a bird in the picture?” “Find me the letter “A”‘.
- Sing-a-long: We love songs in our family (though we’re not American Idol material). The songs that top the toddler billboard are “Twinkle Twinkle Little Star”, “I’m a Little Teapot” and “Itsy Bitsy Spider”.
- Mystery bag: I have paper bags filled with her favorite snacks, STICKERS and little toys from the $1 bins or from the toy box. The snacks alone should buy me some time.
- Bubbles: I have bubbles handy for the rest stops. After a quick bathroom break, we walk around, stretching our legs and blowing bubbles. She tends to dump things out of their containers as often as she can so this is limited to an outdoor activity.
- Ipad Videos/Music: As a last resort, I have the iPad ready with videos and music for her to play with. She’s on a Little Mermaid kick right now, so that will be loaded and ready to go.
And no worries, Little brother hasn’t been forgotten. He’ll have a stack of toys to play with, along with his own stash of snacks and milk.
This should last for the 4 hour ride. What are some of your ideas for road trip activities?
Time the road trip through nap time? My go to solution. Hah
Betcy – oh how I wish. That works for the little man still, but my daughter? Not so much. She does the complete opposite of what I want her to do these days. 🙂