Traveling with Children this Summer?
COMMENTS FOR THIS GIVEAWAY ARE NOW CLOSED.
Thank you to all who shared a travel tip! I was amazed at all the wonderful suggestions our readers shared for traveling with children.
As a result of the large number of entries received both here on Moon Child and on Instagram, we chose TWO winners!
Congratulations to Meredith Baldwin (no relation) who won one of the Travel Baskets for sharing the following tip:
Travel tip: go to the bathroom before you leave 😉
I stapled a bunch of blank pieces of paper cut down to a smaller size for little children and told them to “write stories” by drawing pictures or using stickers and to tell me what was going on in their story. (They couldn’t write yet)
You can play this game: every person takes a turn saying a word or two going around to create a story. My girls LOVED a version of this when we made up quick fairytales-each person getting a turn.
Amanda Gregg @wholenessmom was the Instagram winner of the second Travel Basket.
All Moon Child readers are invited to SAVE 10% off all items our Travel Games and Toys Collection through July 31, 2017 with coupon code: TRAVEL10. Valid only on in-stock items, while supplies last.
Enter Our Summer Giveaway to Win this Basket of Travel Games, Art Supplies, & Crafts!
Last week on Moon Child I shared my “Top Tips for Stress-Free Travel with Kids.”
This week, Bella Luna Toys is delighted to host a giveaway for a basket full of exciting games, art supplies, and crafts that will make traveling with children a lot more enjoyable.
This exciting travel tote includes one of each of the following:
⭐️ String Game from Sarah’s Silks
⭐️ Children’s Card Games Set
⭐️ Travel Bingo Game
⭐️ Bag of Crayon Rocks
⭐️ Box of Stockmar Modeling Beeswax
⭐️ eeBoo Jumbo Double-Sided Colored Pencils
⭐️ Quick-to-Knit Scarf Kit
⭐️ Rainbow Covered Woven Lunch Basket
TO ENTER
Earn one entry for each of the following actions:
- SHARE A TRAVEL TIP: Receive one entry by sharing your own travel tip or leaving a comment in the Comments section below this blog post.
- FOLLOW + LIKE TO WIN: Follow Bella Luna Toys on Instagram and like our Travel Goodies Giveaway photo by double-clicking on it.
- TAG FRIENDS: Receive one additional entry for each friend that you tag in the comments section of our Instagram Travel Goodies Giveaway photo.
Entries must be received by midnight PDT on Saturday, July 22th, 2017. One winner will be selected at random and announced on Sunday, July 23th, 2017. By entering, you confirm that you are 18+ years of age, release Instagram of all responsibility, and agree to Instagram’s terms of use.
Happy Travels and Good Luck!
Enter our giveaway by sharing your own travel tip or leaving a comment below!
210 Comments
We like audio books, activity books, and music! Of course some great snacks and stopping to hike or run around a bit help a lot too.
I agree. Audio books have always been a huge hit with our short travelers. I have also learned that sprinkling an odd assortment of items around them in the car works better than handing them a designated “travel” kit. They always want the odd toy more and will play with it for hours using very vivid imaginations
Sleeping early the night before makes my kids less cranky on the day of travel. Packing in healthy food (not processed or commercially prepared meals) such as boiled organic eggs, bananas, local in season fruits, boiled sweet potatoes, fresh salad and smoothies as well as mineral water and cookies with coconut sugar or muscovado i baked myself keep their energy levels steady . .
Downloading a few Sparkle Stories!
I pack small crafts, toys, books, and games in separate see-thru bags (to keep organized after each use) as well as several new said items that are gifted-wrapped (for fun and experience of unwrapping). Some of favorites are post-its (to draw and create art gallery on seat in front), magnetic stories, stickers, and dry-erase coloring.
I love the post-its idea!:) And, love how you wrap new items as well.
We love listening to audio books! We also take frequent breaks to do jumping jacks and Mad Libs. 🙂
Packing toilet paper and a toddler potty is our biggest tip LoL
Especially when active little folk are confined to their car seats, all of these wonderful suggestions will make the journey easier! I’d like to add that bringing a couple of small silks can create extra game time with peek a boo with their favorite doll or stuffed friends! Or with parents or siblings sharing the back seat! And your sweet small traveler will want use them to wrap their travel buddies for their “naps” 🙂 I Also use them for simple wrapping “surprises” in a gently tied bundle for along the journey when you’re not quite to that planned stop at a park or rest area!
My mom used to pack one fun item (game, art supply, craft project, or small toy) per hour we would be in the car or plane. The items were either new or just things we hadn’t seen in a while that felt new, and we looked forward to opening them as each hour passed. It not only kept us busy, it helped us guage how much time was left in the journey. On car trips we also made use of every rest stop with a green space to run, stretch out, or climb trees.
Play the old game to ” spot a beetle”
or different color cars, etc.
I pack an activity bag for my girls, snacks, audio books, and CDs. They help me pick what to bring along as well. We also enjoy creating our own stories. Sometimes we try to create a story using things we see outside of the car windows. We also take breaks to stretch our legs.
Always have plenty of snacks, toys and music or audio books. Make stops to get the wiggles out!
Audiobooks are definitely a favorite of our family for travel as well! We also like to have everyone pack little satchels of what they would find enjoyable for hours. For the little ones we would pack this bag. It may be books, drawing, toy animal or whatever they find interesting.
Audio books and a bag with individual snacks are my travel secrets.
Beach travel tip! Bring a small inflatable baby pool along that can be placed under an umbrella for shade and let the kids fill it w/ sand & water for a safer way for little ones to enjoy the sun.
We keep a small cooler with bottled water and flavored seltzer in the car all year round! Saves time and money…We have been doing this since our children were little and now with our grandchildren!!..Also pop one or two waters in the freezer for a quick ice pack!
My 3 year old loves playing I Spy on trips. We count white houses and blue cars. We listen to audio books and sing silly songs. And pack lots of nutritious snacks!
When I was a kid, we would go on summer vacation in the station wagon. My parents and their six kids going from So-Cal to Utah and Wyoming. Mom always packed a wet wash cloth in a plastic sandwich baggie (yes with the paper-wire tie) and it gave us kids a certain assurance that if I or my siblings caused a spill, all would be OK. Today we have zip-locks and wet wipes but the principal is the same and I have always made sure the kids knew if there was a spill, we were ready!
Frequent stops and we love to pack coloring and snacks 🙂
We recently purchased craft kits that had all the materials for a craft project and that was a good buy! We always bring drawing materials as well and try to steer away from toys with small parts. Another thing that I try to do is read stories about the place that we are going and walk through our traveling day with her beforehand. I also try to remember that I am taking her out of her comfort zone and that changes my parenting a bit while on the trip. I definitely try to be more patient 🙂
Colours/shapes bingo! The kids must spot something green/white/etc in the environment or something round/square/star-shaped as we drive
Take it slow. Plan in breaks to let off energy and for naptimes when you’re out and about.
I recommend bringing as little stuff as possible, it just gets in the way. Also swimming before a long ride always helps my kids sleep.
Another travel tip: have the kids tell a story as a team. Each child adds one new sentence of 6 words to the story. If your sentence is too long you are out.
For long car rides DRY ERASE ACTIVITY SHEETS. I make handwriting practice sheets or seek and finds and a dry erase marker is easier to clean so into a plastic sheet protector and he’s occupied for the distance. Sometimes it’s nice to play I-Spy and listen to spa music. For plane rides I like interactive book apps and movies.
Use small cookie sheets and magnetic letters and shapes to entertain children while traveling.
My toddler likes to read books to himself. We also leave small dolls, toy animals, mini playsilks, and magnetic toys (like Tegu or Magformers) within easy reach, and try to travel during naptime.
We listen and sing along to Charlie Hope’s music! Love her CDs!!!
We have food sensitivities, so we like to bring mason jar salads when traveling. Salad dressing on the bottom, toppings, then the lettuce on the top. When we’re ready to eat, we shake it up and go for it! My son gets car sick, so audio books and many rounds of eye spy so he can look out of the window.
We like to start a long journey after lunch time, so they nap for a few hours before we need to stop and run around. To keep the two toddlers busy we sing a lot of songs, pack musical instruments like maracas, lots of picture books, little “guys”/ cars/trucks/dolls to play with, and of course car friendly snacks to toss at them like cheese sticks, little breakfast cookies, blueberries/apples/bananas. I always have the emergency sweet treat for the last little leg it usually involves chocolate. Happy travels all.
I bring sing a long cd’s and try to drive late while the kids sleep!!
Read aloud!!!
We love playing i-spy and coloring during our trips.
Love the ideas! We play “count the exits” until our next stop. Everyone guesses how many ‘exits’ there are between where we are at that time and where our next stop is (or a designated town). It’s fun to see who gets the closest or farthest or even in the middle.
When I think about travel with kids I think about flying. We have a couple of things we do when flying with our kiddos (both under age 5). First of all – we bring the car seats on the plane. They are approved for flight so all of a sudden the kids feel much safer (no wiggling out of those plane seat belts that hardly hold them!) and they are in a familiar space, So right off the bat the plane feels less overwhelming. Not only that – my 4 year old can now see out the window and look at the earth below – that’s huge, because otherwise the window goes to waste, she can only look up and hardly see anything!
We are a screen-free family so we come with activities. My daughter loves to draw so we usually bring a magnet drawing board. It’s great because she can draw and draw and draw and we aren’t picking-up crayons or paper off the ground since the pen is attached! We also come with books since both kids love stories and Since the kids are strapped-in tight we (my husband and I) have our hands free (seriously I can’t recommend this highly enough) and books suddenly become much easier to play with.
We usually bring simple things – like a couple of cups or a set of felt that sticks together. We’ve also brought some small stacking toys but anything too small falls on the ground and requires frequent pick-ups. We’ve had great luck with travelling with very little though – even pieces of paper that we fold into animal shapes or stacking cups from the airplane can be a great hit.
I like putting toys in a bag with different compartments, so my son can look & get them, a small toy, a new toy, a finger puppet, crayons in a zip lock so I can see what they are. This takes time on the plane to unzip & find. I might also put snacks in a zip lock as well.
Finger puppets, I Spy beanies, and snacks!
We love our magnet boards and lots of music! Have our dogs in the car always keeps everyone entertained as well 😉
We play the A-B-C game – thinking of things we can see that start with A, B, C… or foods that start with A, B, C… etc!
I would pack Frisbees as plates and kept utensils in a bag in the trunk of my car. That way I could stost a supermarket and get bread andd sandwich meats or peanut butter for a quick lunch with fruit and juice. Much healthier and less expensive for our day trips to various towns and museumd.
I wait til the littles are tired and make car rides naptime! We sing songs, tell stories, and point out things we see!
I love packing dress up clothing (animal masks & cape) to make our rest stops a little more fun.
We have had many travels with our children, I always remember a wet cloth for dirty fingers, an empty containers either for left over foods or on the way things that need to be saved for later investigation by the child. For international travel we always put their favorite toys in check-in luggage that when we get to the hotel they have something familiar.
Sparkle stories! My boys love audio books!
Pack a “go-kit” for each child- that includes books, new art materials, small toys and other surprises.
We love these bags of goodies. I travel with my grandchildren and would love a basket like this for our trips on the plane and in the car. We also take the crayons and use them with coloring and with a journal where they can create their own pictures and keep them from each trip I take.
We love to wrap up surprises in silks or tissue as we fly or drive over a preselected destination 🙂 The anticipation makes the journey exciting!!!
I remember the first day back to school was always exciting. My siblings and I would have spiffy new clothes and fresh notebooks and sharpened pencils ready to learn! Now I see that same excitement bubble up in my 6 year old as the new school year approaches. Good memories for sure!
My favorite back to school memory was this year. We homeschool and for our first day of kindergarten we went out on our boat island hopping and collected seashells. We had a blast!
Favorite memories include school shopping for supplies and new clothes with my mom and brother. A little family time and so fun to have crisp new binders and paper, new art supplies, and new jeans.
My memory of going back to school would be of getting all your new stuff ready for the first day. Making sure it was in order and waking up to see your new class.