With the official start of summer just a few days away, many of us are getting ready for summer vacations. Whether planning a staycation, traveling by plane, or hitting the road, if you are traveling with kids, it’s tons of fun but also lots of work. Since we got our summer started a little early and already took our first road trip of the year, I wanted to share a few fun and cheap ideas to keep the kids busy on the road. I’ll tell you how much they cost and whether they were a hit or miss. Since this road trip was thirteen hours of driving each way, we had plenty of car time.
I wanted to make it as much fun as possible for everyone while minimizing the screen time. I built excitement towards our car activities leading up to the trip and allowed them to decorate their own activity boxes. There were many activities for them to choose from so I’ll share them throughout the next few days. I hope this sparks some easy and fun ideas you can use on the road with your kiddos too.
Activity #1: Reading a new fun surprise subscription to a kid’s magazine!
Magazine: National Geographic Kids
Price: $12-15 for 10 issues
Hit or Miss: Hit!
National Geographic Kids Magazine Reading
Recommended Ages: 6 and up (This is the age recommended by the magazine, however one of mine is 5 years old and she enjoyed it just as much since she is already a reader. They do however, also have National Geographic Little Kids, recommended ages 3-6 which is $10 for 6 issues. I like that they get theirs at the same time and have the same amount of issues in store- something to consider if you have more than one school aged child).
How Long They Read: An hour+
Pros: Interesting content, learning fun, gift that keeps on giving each month.
Cons and Considerations: None found.
This activity was a complete hit! It was actually a surprise gift from their uncle and it arrived just in time for the trip. They received two magazines each (not sure how that happened for their first delivery but it was perfect). They oohed and aahed, giggled, and read to each other for about an hour. That is a definite hit! Fun and learning all at once! If making the investment, it’s totally worth it because it is the gift that keeps on giving every month!
Activity #2: Beading: Making Necklaces and Bracelets
Price: $6-10 total (Michaels Craft Store/Dollar Tree)
Hit or Miss: Hit!
Recommended Ages: 5 and up
How long they played: An hour+
Pros: Super engaging, potentially a longer activity, requires creativity
Cons and Considerations: Can potentially be very messy if beads start falling on floor and seats but the cookie tray worked well to keep it together.
Night time car fun with beading.
This was also a hit! We used a metal cookie tray as our activity “mat”. It kept the beads from going all over the place and it had plenty of room to place the materials. I precut different colored strings and gave them each a bag of beads. The five year old quickly organized hers in a little case she had from a previous toy (great idea!) and the older one followed her lead and found something to organize it in before we left. They were excited to make jewelry to wear for their outings. Since they’ve done beading before, I made sure to surprise them with some new exciting beads and fluorescent colored strings. I bought beads at the Dollar Tree as well as some interesting ones at Michaels Craft Store (using a 40% off coupon from the store app). This activity is reusable for home and future trips.
Activity #3: Sticky Mosaics Sticker Art Kits
Price: $1/kit (Dollar Tree)
Hit or Miss: Hit!
Recommended Ages: 5 and up
How long they played: 30-60 minutes
Pros: Fun, cheap, passes the time!
Cons and Considerations: None found.
This activity was fun and cheap! Yaay for mom! I got these at the Dollar Tree and the girls were excited to “bedazzle” their art. The kids can follow the pattern suggested or give it their own flair. This is easy and fun. It was such a hit that I picked up two more for the road trip back home with different designs. The second time around they decorated their art and then each other’s faces. This was fine with me! We have cute silly pictures to remember the occasion. That was part of the fun too!
Sticky Mosaics Sticker Art Kits
Sticky Mosaics Sticker Face Art
Activity #4: Puzzles
Price: $1/puzzle (Dollar Tree)
Hit or Miss: Hhmm….Neither
Recommended Ages: 5 and up
How long they played: 30 minutes
Pros: Interesting and great to pass the time.
Cons and Considerations: If pieces fall on the floor it can be frustrating but we did well using our cookie trays. As stated below, choose how many puzzle pieces wisely. We’ll do better next time.
Ok…let me explain. Puzzles are always fun for my kiddos but the girls really
Puzzles
wanted to try puzzles with more pieces than they usually do because it was a long road trip. This seemed like a good idea at the time but with the many stops that are often needed with small children (and adults who drink too much coffee 😉 we found the puzzles never really got done. This activity would have been much better had we chosen simpler puzzles. So for our next road trip, we will definitely include puzzles but with this experience in mind. So this activity still kept the girls busy for a while but they were not inclined to try it again during the trip and never really got to finish the puzzles.
Activity #5: Darice® Wood Masks
Price: $1.29/mask (Michaels Craft Store)
Hit or Miss: Hit!
Recommended Ages: 2 and up
How long they played: 15-30 minutes
Pros: Easy, fun, and cheap! What’s not to love?
Cons and Considerations: Can become a potential object a toddler can “hit” with but I’m happy to report we made it without any incident…at least on this road trip!
Darice® Robot Wood Masks
Darice® Robot Wood Masks
This was a fun, cheap find. I bought these at Michaels Craft Store and they had a nice variety. I let each child pick their own. Even our two year old was excited to color these. They used markers, crayons, and even did some stamping on these. After coloring they role played in the back for sometime. While some of these activities don’t take too long to complete, I wanted to have a variety of things for them that would keep it interesting. For a $1.29 that’s not a bad activity at all. We will definitely repeat this activity for our next road trip.
Paper Doll Books
Activity #6: Paper Dolls
Price: Gift
Hit or Miss: Hit!
Recommended Ages: 5 and up
How long they played: 30-60 minutes
Pros: Interesting activity that kept their attention
Cons and Considerations: The book becomes very messy once they start pulling all the dolls out. I suggest hanging a little bag in the back for them to throw out the papers as they go.
These books were a Christmas gift. I instantly fell in love with them because it reminded me of my own childhood and how much fun I thought these were. Due to the amount of toys they got at Christmas time, I decided to save these for future use and I’m glad I did! This is the kind of activity that they may not be as inclined to choose at home but was perfect for the road. They spent plenty of time pulling these apart and matching up outfits for the dolls.
Activity #7: Circle Sticker Art Fun
Price: Free Printables and $1 Stickers (Dollar Tree/Staples/OfficeMax/Online)
Hit or Miss: Hit!
Recommended Ages: 2-4 years
How long they played: 15-20 minutes
Pros: Great activity for reinforcing letter, color, shapes learning and motor skills. Perfect for toddlers!
Cons and Considerations: Binder was cumbersome through great for him to have multiplies to do and choose from.
I use bingo dot daubers at home for these but dot stickers are a great option for the road. He loved the stickers, choosing colors, and having many to choose from. The stickers were $1 at the Dollar Tree and I had extra colors at home in my office supplies that I bought previously at OfficeMax or Staples (a bit pricier). The printables I had were already printed online and placed in a binder for him for home use with the bingo daubers. You can find them online for free.
Creative Kids Water-N-Color Art Kits
Activity #8: Creative Kids Water-N-Color Art Kits
Price: $1 (Dollar Tree)
Hit or Miss: Hit!
Recommended Ages: 3 and up
How long they played: 10-15 minutes
Pros: Fun, fast, cute, and mess free…just a bit of water in the squeeze tube.
Cons and Considerations: The tube is cheaply made and the little lid can pop open if they squeeze too hard however, a bit of directions before starting prevented this altogether.
This was also a fun find from the Dollar Tree. The water inside the squeeze tube reveals the colors on the art piece as they “color” over it. Since painting with real paint is out of the question inside the car, this is a cool alternative. They had fun with it and found that it returns to white when it dries so they can “paint” it all over again. Even our little toddler enjoyed this. Again, this is a fast activity but when you have a long road trip having choices is part of the fun.
Word Searches
Activity #9: Word Searches
Price: $1
Hit or Miss: Hit! (Dollar Tree)
Recommended Ages: 5 and up
How long they played: 20-30 minutes
Pros: Fun, Builds Vocabulary, Cheap and is also a Coloring Book
Cons and Considerations: If your child gets easily frustrated they may not enjoy word searches however, road trips have a way of making activities they would not otherwise try, more appealing. My 5 and 7 year olds love them. Worth the try!
Activity #10: Mini “Canvas” Art
Price: $1 and up (Michaels Craft Store)
Hit or Miss: Hit!
Recommended Ages: 3 and up
How long they played: 20-30 minutes
Pros: Doesn’t take up much space in your activity box, fun for most ages, can use a variety of art tools
Cons and Considerations: None found.
This cute find was so worth it! I found them at Michaels for about a dollar and the ones that came in a 2pack had 3 mini art pieces for each mini “canvas”. The ones I bought in the past where actual mini canvases and cost more but these were small “cardboard” art pieces that were thinner and actually worked better for a road trip. They enjoyed coloring these and later displaying them on the mini wooden easel! The older kids used fine point markers and glitter glue in tubes while the toddler used crayons. I was fine with trying the glitter glue because we used the cookie trays as our work area. It worked out just fine and the art was beautiful!
Mini “Canvas” Art
You can see both the real mini canvas and the cardboard art (in her hand) in this pic. Check out the cute mini easels!
As you can see, most of these activities were $1 and kept the kids busy and engaged. It was fun for them discovering the activities since I kept most of them a secret. Digging in to find what they could do was part of the discovery fun and of course I kept some surprises hidden for the road trip home. More activities to come! Stay tuned. As always, feel free to comment below or email me at bernice@diapursity.com on which of these you’d like to try, any questions you may have, or to share some of your own ideas! With another road trip around the corner, I would LOVE to hear yours.
