Guest contributor: Barbara Beavans
I seem to travel a lot in my car with my kids. We have found that the difficulties, which we like to rename “adventures” have led us to some amazing experiences. These adventures include food, where to spend the night, and what to do with boredom. My goal is to have a positive trip which includes fun, family time, and (being a true home school mom) some education thrown in for good measure.
When planning one of our trips I usually start with the final destination. Where are we going? What are we planning on doing there? In our family’s case, this is often some sort of musical event. There is quite a spread in my kids ages (19, 17, and 12). Before my youngest was ready to participate in the older kid’s activities I would try to plan something for him to do whilst the older siblings were otherwise occupied.
This might take the form of games, parks, or children’s museums. The options do depend on what is available in the area that you are visiting. If the kids need to be in the same location, I try to make sure that everyone has an opportunity to do something truly special for him or her so that everyone will have a special event which caters to him or her in particular.
The next step is planning the route. If we have been to the location before and it will take more than a day to drive there, I try to take a different route each time. This allows us to see and experience different things every time. I am a member of AAA. A visit or call to AAA gives us great maps and tour books. Other options are the internet and your local library or bookstore. I try to find the most interesting stops in each area that we will be driving through. These stops may include historical homes, museums, parks, or even caves. It doesn’t really matter what it is. There is always something interesting on the way. These stops allow us to stretch our legs, see scenery that is new, and experience things in person. I often will make note of multiple stops. I try to include directions and hours of operation (if applicable). We don’t always make it to all of them, but it gives us the option. Travel times are not always predictable. Traffic jams and construction happens so what looks like it should work doesn’t always. I usually have major goals in mind. The kids are included in the discussion when they are old enough.
My kids are not raw, but one of my kids has a bunch of allergies (wheat, corn, strawberries, food colouring, among others) and we are predominantly vegetarian so the “quicky” stop at the golden arches rest stop is not much of an option. The internet is an invaluable tool for dealing with food issues. I will look for vegetarian and raw food restaurants and health food stores along our route. Some of the stores are not much more than vitamin stores. I look for stores that sell organic produce as a clue that they are more than your neighborhood vitamin shop. We have found many gems and interesting surprises this way, along with a few misses. Some of the restaurants are such gems that my kids have requested that we make a point of stopping there again on our way home.
Entertainment (with that extra bit of education thrown in for good measure) while travelling in the car is the next step to a successful road trip. Audio entertainment is my first step to take care of this quite necessary part of a fun trip. In the olden days, when the kids were much younger I would get the kids a favourite book on tape as well as a favourite musical tape. When they were little, they each had their favourites that they would like to hear over and over again. When the repetition reached the point where I thought I might go crazy if I heard If You Give a Mouse a Cookie for the 100th time I got each child their own Fisher Price tape player which had a volume control so that they could not accidently damage their precious ears. We eventually moved on to CD’s as the technology evolved. Each child had their own small “things to do” backpack. I would fill it with things like paper, washable markers (I avoid crayons in hot weather as I’ve had too many crayons melt into the car on very hot days), coloured pencils, little Dell activity books, WIKI sticks (bendable sticks that can be molded into different shapes). I didn’t get anything expensive and I didn’t let the kids see the contents of their backpacks until they were actually in the car on the trip.
As the kids got older I started renting books on CD from recordedbooks.com. I choose books that we can all listen to together through the car’s CD player. Books are selected for their educational value (I just can’t help my home-schooling mom instincts). I try to shift topics so we alternate subject matter so each child has a book that speaks to her or him. I actually figure out the number of hours that we will probably be driving and then rent enough books to fill that time (recordedbooks.com tells you how long each book is).
This system has allowed us to listen to a great deal of classical literature that my kids might not have read on their own. If we encounter a part of a novel that I believe that the kids might not fully understand, I can stop the CD for a discussion about the difficult section.
Lastly, I have discovered Knowledge Cards. These are decks of cards that cover many subjects from presidents, biology, animals, states, constellations, books, to historic landmarks. We use these when we stop at restaurants. We bring a deck in with us and take turns holding a card up and trying to guess what it is (or the answer to the question on it). Then we read the information contained on the back of the card. It’s not a competition and I don’t expect them to remember the information. I am often surprised at how other people in the restaurant like to guess the answer along with us. The idea is to keep it fun, not a drill.
People are often surprised that our family enjoys being together in the car for several days. The key is flexibility. If you need to stop and stretch your legs and get out of the confined space then stop. Some of our family’s favourite memories come from these trips. We’re all together sharing memories that will live with us forever. You can’t get much better than that.