Several years ago when many of our children were little we did a lot of traveling! Whether moving, out of town overnights for doctor appointments, traveling to visit relatives and friends, or mission trips, we were on the move. We did a lot of different things to maintain our sanity and to make the trip fun. Today I will share a few.
Car picnics. Most of the time I packed a cooler. We especially like raw veggies. I would make peanut butter and jelly or honey sandwiches in the van and hand them out on napkins. Or plates if we were having other foods.
At night I sometimes made ironed sandwiches. I would take a roll of aluminum foil and cheese and bread. If I didn’t have those on hand almost any store would, including convenience stores. You will also need an iron. I usually take an iron (I wear cotton) and almost any motel will have one, if not in the room, at the desk. I place the cheese between two slices of bread and wrap the sandwiches in foil and iron each side of the foil until the cheese is melted and the sandwich is toasted. (And no we did not have Panini makers way back then either.) Even if we were going to eat out some, we got tired of fast food very quickly and this helped save time and money.
Motels. Because of the labor-intensive work of unpacking and repacking the car each night we came up with a simple solution. We would just take in the sleepwear (for whoever wore any) and toothbrushes, etc. After the kids went for a swim and/or took a shower and were ready to settle down and watch a movie, sleep, read, etc. I would gather up all the dirty clothes and wash them at the motel laundry. They would put them back on the next morning. This made stopping for the night and getting back on the road a lot simpler!
Entertainment in the van. There were various ways to keep children entertained in the van to avoid utter chaos. We memorized scriptures, ABC verses, multiplications, parts of speech, and worked on complicated math problems. There was always singing, mostly spirituals.
We usually had read-aloud books and other books for the children to read on their own. We also made use of audiobooks. I have several fond memories of listening to classics on the road. Sometimes we had themes for the day: kindness, sharing, courage, etc. Sometimes I wrapped up little surprises. When people started getting restless I would give a surprise. Some things we tried worked better than others. Some we used with the older kids and should have used it with the younger ones too. Some we just didn’t think of with the older boys.
Bathroom breaks, fuel stops, and rest stops. At times to cut down on bathroom breaks I would control when the kids would have a drink. If I knew we were going to make a stop down the road in the next half hour or so I would give the children their drinks. I didn’t want 10 people drinking at 10 different times and all wanting to go to the bathroom at every exit. Each stop takes up a lot of time. When we were stopping for fuel we tried to take care of everything that we could. Bathroom breaks, snacks, stretching, etc.
Sometimes we needed an extra stop between fuel stops. We made use of rest stops. Everyone got out of the van. We would take the younger kids for a run around while everyone finished their business. We didn’t have to encourage the older ones to stretch their legs they found ways! Climbing trees, on the roofs of rest stops, etc. It felt good to stretch. If we were just making a quick bathroom stop I would make a game of it by timing how long it would take for us to all go to the bathroom and water fountain and back to the car and on the road again. I know this sounds torturous to some but we all survived just fine.
I absolutely loved traveling with my children. I am not sure my children loved it near as much as I did. For many years there were no cell phones, no electronics, no TVs, etc. It was a glorious time for me to spend time with my children. Sometimes it could be long and tiring for all of us but I have many wonderful memories of our traipsing about.
I know that many of you have great ideas so please share them in the comments below. I would love to read them!
