Traveling With Kids: Part 1- Milestone Packs

Over the years, my husband has had to travel a lot for work. Many Most of those times, the entire family travels with him. I have to admit that the long car rides have gotten easier over the years with things like hand held video games, smart phones, and portable dvd players, but sometimes, we just don't want to have to employ those "new age tactics" to keep the kids quiet and not ready to break out into a riot occupied and entertained. Before each trip, we make sure the kids have something to do in the car. We pack snacks, books, and activities. I recently came up with the idea of milestone packs.

Milestone packs are small bags of stuff for the kids to open at certain milestones (determined by you). You could go with every hour, every 30 minutes, or after every bathroom stop (because, if you have kids... you will be stopping!) Just figure out how long your trip will be, divide that by your child's attention span, and you will know how many milestone packs you will need (give or take.. lol)
So... what is a milestone pack?



It could be anything. Preferably something your kid will like, of course.
I recommend filling each milestone pack with a few things:

A small snack. This can be anything from a piece of fruit, to a sandwich, to a few crackers. You can make a batch of No-Bake Granola Bars to take. Don't forget drinks- a juice box or bottle of water is perfect about a half hour before your next scheduled stop. Even just a lollypop is great! It'll keep your child quiet happy for a little while, and a tired toddler might just fall asleep!

Something to do. This can be a new book to read (older kids may enjoy Mad Libs or a joke book) , a few pipe cleaners to make things with, stickers and a small sticker book, a small coloring pad with crayons- check out this awesome Duct Tape Crayon Roll from Lauren at Tutus &  Tea Parties- it would be perfect! You could make up a few Quick Paper Hand Puppets for the kids to decorate and play with. 

You could even allow 1 hour of hand held video game time.

A travel game. Just have instructions or a card with the name of a travel game on it. You can do a scavenger hunt, car color bingo, the ABC game (you have to look around at signs to find all of the letters of the alphabet in order), 20 questions, or any others you can think of.

For more fun travel ideas for your toddlers, check out:

•  Toddler Tearless Travel  from Erin at Simply Real Moms.
•  Super Travel Tips for Toddlers  from Neetu at Super Mommy.
•  How To Have a Homerun Car Ride from Diane at Dollops of Diane.

The secret to success with milestone packs is bribery getting your children excited about them, and telling them that if they behave, they get to open fun presents throughout the trip. Have fun with it.

Enjoy your nice, peaceful trip!

If all else fails...make sure you have you have an mp3 player handy with headphones... no, not for you (even though that would be very tempting!), but as a "time out" for anyone getting unruly. With any luck, after 10 minutes of music, they'll fall asleep!

Click here to see which super parties I link up to!