Summer time is upon us, which means that road trips are as well! As a child, I remember sitting in the back seat, reading sign after sign on the way to our destination and wondering the age old question — “Are we there yet?” And, honestly, as an adult, I often feel that same way. It seems I haven’t grown out of that road trip boredom! Why not break the boredom with these quick and easy travel activity bags for kids?
With a little bit of careful planning, packing, and a couple of surprises, you can keep everyone fairly well occupied and keep the boredom at bay.
Before road trips I always like to pack up little activity bag for each kid, filled with fun goodies to keep them occupied. This year I even let them create their own bags!
Supplies needed:
- plain canvas bag
- fabric markers or fabric Cray-Pas
- stencils
- clothes iron (to set your drawings)
I asked my children to draw something which reminded them of traveling, such as “Where are you going?”, “How will you get there?”, “What will you do there?” Both of my kids eagerly got to work drawing!
When they were finished we were all quite pleased by the way they turned out. They had drawn boats, cars, and maps!
And, since they made them themselves, each will know whose is whose and hopefully not forget them somewhere! After they made their activity bags, I filled them up (in secret, the surprise makes it more exciting!) with things like:
- notebooks
- pads
- crayons and pencils (the crayon tin and round colored pencil holder are great for travel!)
- clipboards
Or destination themed books and stickers.
And travel games like etch-a-sketch, travel pinball, and mini mazes. Small “sticky” rubbery toys, like the spiders pictured below, are always a big hit, and can be found in the party section of many stores or online. Anything magnetic, such as the magnetic robots pictured below, are great for travel because they are less likely to slide away.
Aside from the “surprise” goodies, I always pack up our handmade travel toys too. These included magnetic peg dolls, tic tac toe, and a travel felt board.
A well packed travel activity bag can truly make or break a road trip! Little fun surprises, fun games and new tiny toys will keep the kids from becoming bored — for a little while!
If you are looking for more ideas, give the countdown paper chain a try! Travel Bingo and 20 Questions are always favorites of ours. And, when the games and toys have reached their limit, we always love listening to audio books. You can find some of our favorite audio books here!
Happy and safe travels!
