Family Road Trip

The occasional road trip is unavoidable so I try to keep a busy bag filled with paper, colored pencils puzzle books, and coloring books in the car (unfortunately regular crayons melt). Even short trips can go more smoothly if the young ones have something to do - other than argue.

One memorable road trip we took last summer started out great. The children were using the books from the busy bag. The weather was beautiful - sunny - not too hot - not too cold. At the risk of sounding like Goldilocks - it was just right.

The peace was broken with no warning. It was like a bubble burst. The whining and arguing started and it kept getting louder. Attempts to get attention focused back on the busy bag had no effect.

I decided to try making up a story and getting the children to fill in parts. Anything we saw or imagined could be used for our story. At first I was kind of making it up on my own because the children were cranky and hesitant to join in. (I saw a phone pole and a wheat field beside an ice cream shop so in the story - Sir Pole hurried to meet Miss Wheat at the ice cream shop.)

The children quickly decided to get in on the fun. (Zoey the hippo was dancing on the moon while she waited for Sir Pole and Miss Wheat to come home.) The story went on and on for the whole trip.

It was so much fun, and a great memory came out of a road trip that was starting get tense from the boredom and arguing.

Next summer I am going to either record our story games or take notes. That way I can print them up and let the children illustrate them for bedtime stories. They will always have the memory of the stories we made up together and they will even have them to read to their children someday.