We’re hitting the road next week for a windy journey up the western coast of the U.S. into Canada. I’ll admit, I’m a little freaked out about taking a three year old on a two week road trip. So I’m going crazy pulling together a massive activity box full of stuff for her to do. Here’s a peek into what I pulled together and some advice that made things easier.
The first thing I did was steal one of the bins I’ve been using for art supplies. In the bin went:
- Scissors (regular and pinking)
- Paint brush markers (because The Babe loves to paint, but I thought that would be too messy)
- Glue stick
- Travel play house from 2HeartsDesire on Etsy (looks like she doesn’t sell this anymore but might on request)
- Twist up and homemade crayons because they’re less breakable than the basic Crayolas
- Drawing Dice (from a post a while back)
- Brain Quest Preschool
question book for a bit of academics in the box - Pipe cleaners and beads
- I Spy Bag from The Crafting Corner on Etsy
- Play dough and a few tools
- Washi tape
- Pencil and eraser
- Stickers
- Play dough and a few tools
- Water Wow water brush alphabet and number books from Melissa & Doug
- Dry erase markers
- Magnetic Pharaoh Tac Toe pieces (from my post the other day)
question book for a bit of academics in the box
and 
books from Melissa & DougFor the binder, I grabbed a bunch of clear page protectors to separate activities and a zipper pencil case. I then added a few strips of sticky velcro to one side of the binder and added her Ikea mini cookie sheet to the back. This will be her game, craft and snack center. I’d seen a lot of the DIY activity trays with a full sized cookie sheet, but I kind of wondered how those would be in an accident. The mini one attached to a binder felt a lot safer.
I took advantage of some of the great printables and fun ideas out on the Internet. I included in the binder:
A gorgeous art activity printable from Totschooling. Check out The Ultimate Art Skills Activity Pack.- A clipboard
- Mazes
My Crazy Family dry erase pages inspired by All For the Boys- Mandalas for The Babe to color since she’s really into coloring inside the lines right now
- A journal so The Babe could draw something for each major place we stopped (she’s not writing yet…)
- Road sign bingo from Enchanted Homeschooling Mom
- A drawing pad
- Super cute Road Trip Drawing Prompts from Picklebums
A gorgeous art activity printable from Totschooling. Check out 
My Crazy Family dry erase pages inspired by I also took some sage advice from some other mama friends who’ve been there, done that on long road trips with their families.
- Becky from Kid World Citizen has some insightful advice on trip timing and curing boredom. Check out her whole series A Week of ‘Road-Tripping” with the Kids.
- Adventures in Mommydom has a huge! list of great games to play on trips (both to buy and DIY).
- In case you’re waffling on whether or not to make the drive, MaryAnne from Mama Smiles has some advice after driving cross country in a mini-van with 4 kids and her husband.
Planning your next trip? Check out the Left Brain Craft Brain Road Trip! Pinterest board for even more fun activities and tips. Wish us luck and stay tuned for some fun posts from the road…
Great ideas. With my kids we added also ‘what next bag’, it contained instructions to listen to a talking book, play I-spy, sing a favourite song, count till we had seen 50 red cars etc.
Love the idea of “what next”! The Babe is constantly asking that.
Love how you can personalize the pages in the folder! I don’t have time to do this for our trip tomorrow…but next one for sure!
Have fun on your trip! Where are you headed?
These are FANTASTIC!!!! I love all of the ideas and am pinning it for later. Great post!
Thanks so much and thanks for your tips!
What great ideas! I love the tic tac toe activity.
Thanks! I’m a tic tac toe addict and love playing with my girl.
My kids love road trips! When my oldest 2 were preschoolers I prepared a similar notebook and tub. I placed an empty diaper box between their seats to hold their toys, books, and notebooks. I also like to plan snacks. I fill sandwich-sized ziploc bags (the type with the easy slide to open) with a serving of their favorite snacks. Then I wrote their names on the bags. When they asked for a snack I could just handover a small bag and not try to portion it out as we were driving. Thanks for sharing via Family Fun Friday.
That’s a great idea on the snacks. It seems like there’s a constant “I’m hungry!” on this trip.
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