Peaceful Car Rides on Road Trips – Homemade Travel Journals

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We just got back from the first road trip of the summer that took us 2400 miles through seven states twice!  This is just road trip number one of 5.  My friends think we are crazy but with a little planning our road trips usually have minimal issues. 

Have you stopped laughing yet?  Minimal issues…yeah right. 

Ok…I might have lied.  On this road trip I actually turned the wrong way down a street.  After we remedied the situation, I turned to my husband and said “I always wondered how those idiots ended up going the wrong way on a major highway and now I know.”  Once our heartbeats returned back to normal, we were able to laugh about it.  We can’t control every thing that happens on our road trips, but with a little bit of planning the screaming moments in the back seat might not happen as often.

This year instead of buying a bunch of coloring books and maze books, I made the kids their own travel journals.  For about a week I collected pages and pages of stuff to do in my Favorites folder on my computer.  When I had some time (and bought new printer ink), I printed out all of the pages, took them to an office supply store and had them bound.  It was probably more expensive than buying a couple of coloring books at the dollar store, but the look on their faces as they read through a travel journal made with each of them in mind was worth the money and time spent!  

What did I include in the book?

Most importantly, I included blank journal pages for them to write their own stories and color their own pictures showing what they did on the trip. 

Then I headed to Mom’s MiniVan and printed out a bunch of road trip scavenger hunts, the license plate game, and car bingo.  The license plat game was a hit.  We ended up finding 44 states, three Canada plates, and 2 plates from Mexico!

At their cartoon sites, I printed out coloring pages with their favorite cartoon characters.

At the Crayola page, I printed out state coloring pages for each state that we were going to be driving through.  These coloring pages have the state flower, state bird, etc.  Everytime we passed through a new state, I would have Big S find it in his book and color something (if he was awake of course!).

The kids spent hours looking through these books, coloring and writing things that were important to them.  I even brought the books into a high school graduation with us to keep the kids occupied. 

Today I am dreaming that the next four road trips go just as smoothly.  If you will excuse me, I need to go print some more coloring sheets for the next book!

For more Monday Dreaming, stop by Mara’s at Mother of All Trips.  Be sure to come back and visit us this week.  I am going to share our adventures from the road trip.  The kids mined for gems in Sweetwater, Tennessee, Big S went surfing in Sevierville, Tennessee,  and we spent two great days exploring the Eastern Shore of Virginia…bridges and tunnels, Mister Whippy, and wild ponies…oh my!