Tips for Traveling with Toddlers
“I feel stuck” my toddler spoke up from the back seat of the truck. “Yes” I replied with a smile, “we all feel stuck”. And that conversation happened about five hours in to a seventeen-hour drive from Ohio to Florida. Actually, it’s more like a 20 plus hour drive if you count the many bathroom breaks we took, but it was worth it! At the end of the drive back home, the little fellow was saying, “my body hurts” and gosh was that the truth for all of us. But again, it was worth it to be able to play in the sand and the sun.
No doubt about it – it’s a long drive and difficult to do even without little ones in tow. But the following ideas helped us to enjoy the drive as much as possible. I hope that some of these ideas may work for your family also. Feel free to comment if you have other ideas.
1). Special Traveling Food We took Puffs and Sesame Street Alphabet Cookies (found in the baby food aisle), along with cheese sticks. These are foods that we typically don’t buy so it was a special treat. It’s important not to feed your little ones a lot of sugar during the car drives – it’s hard enough on them without giving them junk food. (Now me, on the other hand, needed a few peanut M&M’s to get me through)
2). Make frequent bathroom stops with a good attitude from all. Oh my. . . the bathrooms we saw. A few were not good. But most of them were very clean. We only stopped at the following gas stations: Circle K, Pilot, and Love’s. These gas stations usually had clean bathrooms. Some of them were very well-maintained and I always said thank you to the cashiers when they were especially clean. Most importantly, I am thankful for the good attitude that my husband had when making stops at least every hour (which added on so much driving time). He never complained but kept it light-hearted and kind.
3). Electronic leapfrog learning pads from the library I didn’t even know that the library had these. We made sure they were all charged and that I had figured out how to use them before we left. They still needed to have parental supervision but were an overall good distraction
4). Super Simple Songs, Bumble Nums, and Alphablocks The super simple songs can be found in English and Spanish. Bumble Nums are great for counting and teaching teamwork and perseverance. The Alphablocks are good for teaching letter sounds.
5). Top Christian Songs for Kids We enjoyed “Listener Kids” that has some of the top Christian songs for kids animated. Our little guy enjoyed these and it helped me keep my focus on Jesus as well. Win – win!
6). Favorite animal and blanket Preferably a favorite animal that can be put in the washing machine after the vacation! We also took the little potty-chair and we were happy we did.
7). Library books that teach about each state that we traveled through It was fun to celebrate each time we passed into a new state. Noticing that Florida has palm trees and Ohio doesn’t.
8). Look for water towers and cell phone towers “I found one!” became an often-heard phrase. Anything to pass the time of a seventeen-hour drive.
9). Stop at the hotel Even though it costs too much, even though you won’t get that much sleep – it’s worth it for everyone to get even a few hours of decent sleep.
10). Sing together and sing loudly sometimes for fun! One of my favorite memories is my husband and toddler and me singing the ABC song . . . loudly and more than once! Don’t wait till you get to your destination to make good memories.