Preparations

I've been trying to come up with entertainment for the girls for an upcoming road trip. Most travel games/ideas are for kids close in age, and in the "kid" range of maybe 4 to ten or so, not "teenager" and "not quite 2" range. Our portable DVD player no longer works, and my phone only has so much battery life. I did get this tray for Sophie's car seat, and plan on packing some of her travel-friendly toys, along with a couple must-haves (like Bunny). For Emma, though, it's a little bit trickier.

I turned to my friend Bing yesterday. Also Pinterest. Then, I put my printer to work. I printed off several pages of games, word searches, travel bingo, and even something related to the city we're visiting. Then I put them all in page protectors, and into a three-ring binder. I also picked up a simple pencil pouch to go in binders to keep her pens, marker, colored pencils, or whatever handy. Since the activites are in page protetors, she can use a dry-erase marker for them and reuse her favorites. We also put plain notebook paper in the binder.

Another activity I found was decorating a mint tin and using it for a magnetic poetry set. I have a set already, but no tin to keep it in. I had been trying to find a magnetic surface for it, but other than a plain magnetic dry-erase board, I've been drawing a blank. Today, I found an empty rectangular cookie tin at a local store in the holiday section. It is the perfect size, the lid can be used as a tray for words or whatever, and it will hold other items also. Perfect! I had ordered a set of Crayola dry erase crayons for both girls to use on the trip (no caps! no fumes! no mess!), so I also picked up a small dry-erase board (with rhinestones!) to go inside her tin. I also ordered a book of Star Wars mad libs for her to do with her father. Shh, don't tell :)

Along with the episodes of Sesame Street I've downloaded to my phone, and the game apps, and of course the internet access my phone gives, hopefully both girls will be entertained on our trip.

I found activities here:
FamilyEducation.com (will have to enter an email address but free)
HomespunThreads.com
Yellow Pear Blog