Earlier this week I shared with you the nightmare of our worst road trip ever. And although I cannot guarantee foolproof results, I have learned a few ways to save our sanity and even created some good-old-family-fun on those endless highway stretches.
Living hundreds of miles away from family has forced us to pull out all the creative stops in order to survive hours in the car with our darlings. Motherhood is filled with bright ideas that often flop, more often than I care to admit. But this one - this one is gold. Your holiday travel plans will thank me.
The Envelope Game:
Saving The Sanity of Road Tripping Parents One Hour at a Time
Before a long road trip, I come up with simple - let me strongly emphasis simple - games and activities. I write each one down and put that slip of paper in an envelope.
Once we’re in the car, I grab a pencil and write down a time to open each envelope based on the time we’ve left and when we hope to arrive at our destination. I usually plan to open one every thirty minutes(ish), but I will often make the times random like 9:33 or 11:17, just because that seems more fun, right?
It is important to use pencil for two reasons. (1) You can adjust the time as needed. Maybe lunch takes longer than expected or there’s an extra potty stop. Maybe the kids fall asleep (!!!) or one game takes up more time. (2) I reuse the same envelopes each road trip. No sense in making extra trash, yes?
And that’s it. The anticipation of opening each envelope helps quiet the constant stream of questions and neediness that often come from the backseat. Here are some ideas that go in our envelopes, and yes, I often use the same ideas trip after trip after trip. I mean, come one, does Would You Rather ever get old?
Would You Rather?
If You Could? (See picture below.)
Madlibs
Everyone pick a favorite song and let’s have a dance party
Twenty Questions
Create a holiday or summer bucket list
Drawing Challenges: Draw a water park, a tree house, a pretend animal, a treasure hunt map, a robot, a silly monster, etc.
Scavenger Hunts
ABC Hunt - Work through the alphabet and find each letter out the window (For older kids, find something that starts with each letter.)
Number Hunt - Same as above, but we look for each number out the window, usually 1-10.
Audio Books - Give me all the audio books!
Podcasts - I wrote a blog post about podcasts for kids here.
Book Time
Tell Jokes - I check out joke books from the library.
Where’s Waldo or I Spy books - Again, I check these out from the library but don’t show them until the car ride.
Child’s Choice - Example: “Andrew gets to pick what we do for the next ten minutes!” Or parent choice!
Map of the USA - I print out maps of the USA, and we play lots of games with this. We map out our route, color the states we’ve been to (see picture below), find states where our family and friends live, or just color for fun. Older kids might like a license plate game, but our kids aren’t old enough for that yet.
My Mommy Sent Me To The Store/Zoo - A classic. “My mommy sent me to the store to buy something that starts with the letter….” For younger kids you can say the color or give any description to help in this simple guessing game.
Snacks - This card is the best! The kids quickly learn that SNACK TIME is written in one of the envelopes, so they can’t bug us for snacks every 5 minutes. I will usually write something like “Have a snack and then 30 minutes of quiet time/book baskets.” We use these containers and make hefty snack platters that will keep them happy (quiet) for awhile.
Road trip bin - This is a plastic bin we bring in the car filled with activities. This bin only comes out on road trips, so none of these games/toys get played with at home. I’m always adding things, and it is a good place to throw cheap, random toys that will excite them for a short time (Happy Meal toys, prize box junk). Here are some favorites activities that have held up and entertained through the years:
Wikki Stix Playset and Alphabet Cards
Cheap cookie sheets for magnetic letters/numbers or coloring
Highlight Magazine
Notepads and Stickers
Coloring Books/Word Searches
Change times as needed! You can see I used marker my first go-around. Live and learn.
We did NOT play the license plate game as suggested on this map. We just colored states we’ve each been to.
These cheap cookie sheets are great for magnets but also for coloring.
Well, there you go. The Envelope Game. My greatest offering to the parents of the world. May your holiday travel be a bit more peaceful and dare I say, fun.