CANMT Trip: Things to do in the Car

  One of the things I spent the most time on while preparing for the trip was being sure Melodie had enough to do in the car. Normally I pack books, coloring books, Bugsby, stickers and paper, her Ipod (not really and Ipod, but that's what we call it), her read along books and a portable DVD player. I really try not to use the DVD player. It's more of a last resort. All that stuff lasts us on our 6-8 hour drives we take to visit family. But this trip was going to be a lot longer, so I knew we'd need more. Also, I wanted Melodie to appreciate what we'd be seeing and learn about the states we'd be in. I took the things we normally pack and customize it to this trip.

For example, we were going to the National Center for Children's Illustrated Literature and the featured artist was Dan Yaccarino. Also, we were traveling for Easter. All the books I brought for Mel were Dan Yaccarino books (I love Unlovable) and Easter books.

  I also had a binder for each state with coloring pages and activity sheets for things we would be seeing while in that state. I Googled coloring pages for every thing we were going to see, plus things for each state (the seal, flower, flag, etc...) and found some great things I printed. One of my favorite finds was the state coloring pages from Crayoloa. You can see Melodie with a temple maze (on the way to see the Gila Valley Temple) and a Smokey the Bear dot-to-dot (on the way to the Smokey the Bear Museum). Also in the binder were popsicle stick puzzles I made for each state (the shape of the state, the flower, the bird and the flag). I saw this idea on Pinterest and combined it with another idea from Pinterest to make things magnetic and take a cookie sheet.

Two amazing ideas! I made the popsicle stick puzzles (in the picture you can see Mel putting together the New Mexico state flower and the Texas flag) and added magnets to the back. Easy to do puzzles in the car! We didn't loose pieces and she had a flat surface to work on.

  Another idea I had wanted to try was I Spy Bottles. I found little things around the house as the objects. Thanks to Joy Anderson I had a lot of colored pasta and beads (I also used rice) to fill the bottles with. I made check list (with pictures too, since Mel can't read all the descriptions) that I laminated for reuse.

  I read a lot of mom blogs that recommended buying little "prizes" to give kids along the way. I didn't want to give her prizes for no reason or because she was starting to act up, so I thought she could get a prize when she found all the objects. The other way she could earn a prize was by getting BINGO (another Pinterest idea).

This was a huge hit with Mel. The prizes were from the Dollar Store (or cheaper) and were all things she could use in the car (little games, Princess stamps, play foam, etc...) or on the trip (light sticks to use while camping or jump rope to get energy out at rest stops). The BINGO prompted questions and conversation. I made all the BINGO sheets and put them in a reusable write and wipe pocket I bought at Lakeshore. If you didn't want to spend the money you could just as easily use a zip loc bag. I brought dry erase markers for Mel to use for the I Spy Bottles and the BINGO. In the pocket I also put worksheets for letters and numbers. She also just loved the novelty of drawing on the plastic and being able to erase it. 

  Melodie loves crafts, so I searched for car friendly crafts. I found two that turned out to a lot of fun. We made pipe cleaner crafts (mostly flowers). The one we worked on the longest was the pipe cleaner lei, but I found many great ideas online that we used as well.

The other craft was foam sewing. I cut out various shapes (the states, an alien for Roswell, flowers, and more) and punched holes in the edges. Thanks to everyone who gave me some yarn so I had a variety for Mel to choose from (I didn't want to buy a whole thing of yarn when we only needed a small amount).

  As you can see, Mel was set. The one bummer is that somehow she only ended up with one song on her Ipod. I am not technically savvy, so I'm not sure how that happened. It was Poker Face (Lady Gaga) and she would listen to it ten times in a row before Rocky and I didn't want to hear Melodie's version again. She would sing "Kill me fly, Kill me fly!" at the top of her lungs instead of "Can't read my, Can't read my". We thought it was hilarious, but there's still only so much a person can take. Luckily, I put some of her favorite songs on my Ipod, so we were still able to listen to them in the car.

  Since I can't read in the car (makes me sick) I brought my Ipod and cross stitching. Rocky brought Soduku and a Tolkein book. We never touched them on the drive. We had so much to look at and so much to do with Mel that we didn't have time.

  I'm also very thrilled to say that we didn't use the DVD player once. We never had the need. We spent about 36 hours in the car and Melodie did a great job.