Vacations...traveling in the car...with KIDS!!

There are some parts of parenting I really had to grow into. Traveling in the car with kids would be one of them!! Before kids, I would look forward to reading a good book or doing handwork as the miles passed by. With kids, it's a whole new ball game. Looking back, even to my childhood, traveling in the confines of a car can give you a great opportunity to build memories and good times with your kids. Don't miss it! Turn off the fancy DVD players and IPods and play games. Trust me on this, it will tire you out, but your family will remember the fun forever. I don't know why, maybe it's because of the close quarters or the attention they are getting from mom and dad, it is not to be missed.

Counting Cars
Keep score on the number of white (or any color you designate) vans that pass by you. Count the number of trucks ( have dad honk his horn when you pass a truck and if the truck honks back, give yourself another point!) Change what you are looking for if you are on the road for several days (sport cars, red cars, motorcycles, etc). It's a good way to build attention span, yours and your child's!!

Alphabet Game
I bet you played that as a kid...and you still remember it! Even pre-schoolers can get into this. Look for bill boards, signs, storefronts, road signs, etc (cars go by too quickly for kids to read the license plates) and find the letter A. Then find B and on through the alphabet. The letters can be any place in a word. Work as teams and the first team to get to Z is the winner. When your kids are young, work as a family so there is no winner or loser...you all get farther down the road together!

License plates
Look for license plates when you stop. Check out the parked cars and keep a list of all the states that you find for each trip. I think one trip we found a license from every state! Since we had played this game so often we knew what a feat that was!

Have fun
That's the point of playing together. There used to be big billboards along the road that said "The family that plays together, stays together"! We used to take 'letters' off that sign for our game, but now I look back and see the impact both the game and the billboard had in my life.