Tips and Tricks for Traveling with Kids

We've travelled quite a bit as a homeschool family. From living in and out of hotels and schooling on planes and in the back seat of cars to frequent school days literally on the beach (sand and all) and lugging workbooks to every park imaginable, we've picked up quite a few tips and tricks for what we like to call "road schooling" which to us just means learning on the go.

Since most of us are planning some kind of traveling this holiday season, I figured this would be a good time to share. Not a homeschooler or taking a break from school for the holidays? That's ok! You're welcome to tune in too because majority of these tips have nothing to do with homeschooling; just some thing we've picked up in our own adventures.

From traveling clothes and food to which subjects and fun activities you'll be bringing, if you fail to plan, you plan to fail... ESPECIALLY when traveling with kids. A great way to plan for success is by using our new Road Trip Activity Pack. It includes all of the essential planning/packing pages as well as over 50 pages of no prep road trips games and activities easily played from the back seat. 

There's no right or wrong way for this btw. Do you want to live by the motto of "I'm on vacation, we can eat healthy when we get home"? Go for it! No one is saying that you have to pack bananas and nut thins to snack on during the trip, but DECIDE. There will be a whole section on food, but the point I'm trying to make here is to make the decision PRIOR to pulling out. This goes for when and where/if you'll be doing school, how much screen time will be allowed, and how many road games you want to commit to playing with your kiddos on the way. Making the decision now  AND communicating said decision with your kids will save a lot of stress, whining, and "pleeeeease mom" later. 

Something worth mentioning in the "preparing" category is travel clothes. Comfy clothes are a must regardless of the trip length, but if you're planning to arrive close to bedtime, you may also consider letting your kids travel in pjs. My daughter thinks this is so fun! Plus, it eliminates waking up a fussy child who fell asleep during the trip because she was bored and trying to get her ready for bed only to end in tears and her sleeping in her dirty travel clothes (not me speaking from experience).

The best way to keep your nutrition AND your budget on point is to pack the food yourself. We usually do not travel with a cooler, so all the food we pack is non-perishable OR is eaten within the first couple hours of the ride (think cheese sticks with breakfast). Also worth noting is we usually leave before the sun comes up, so feeding the munchkin breakfast before we go just simply is not an option. If you are planning on a later departure time, a food related tip is to feed your kids right before you leave. 

Below is a list of foods we like to choose from when traveling. These can easily be eaten on the road trip itself, but they can also be thrown into the purse or diaper bag for snacks on the go (think zoo trip with the cousins, waiting for dinner at grandma's after a long day and a missed nap, or a long day of shopping where the adults don't want to stop for food because we're running on Starbucks, but the kids need a quick, nutritious pick me up.) And yes, I spring for the individually wrapped options even though they're a bit pricier because they tend to travel better than portioning your own snacks. 

*** notes that it travels well IF eaten within the first couple hours

Fruit cup

***cheese stick

apple sauce pouch

jerky

larabars

prepackaged tuna salad and crackers

pickles (ind. packaged)

***boiled egg

***grapes

nut Thins

popcorner chips

homemade sandwiches with condiment packets separate

Quest cookies

veggie straws

raisins

nuts

kind bars

smart sweets candy

pretzels

***hummus cup

If you're not a homeschooler, or you're breaking for the holiday season and never do any type of road schooling, you can skip this part. Still here? Let me tell you a little secret then, this is so much easier than it sounds! If you're spending 3+ hours in a car or at the airport/on the plane, why not do school? It helps pass the time and frees up an extra day off sometime during the school year that you can use for an extra field trip day or mental health day. Having said that, here are some tips I learned the hard way, in no specific order.

Hands on school- unless you want to sit in the back seat the whole trip, take a break from the hands on school and opt for independent subjects instead. Again, no right or wrong way, and I've spent many road trips in the back seat with my daughter, but just decide ahead of time if that's possible/something you want to do.

First things first- Do the hard subjects or the ones your kids don't particularly enjoy first, save the easier and more fun subjects for the end when their minds are getting close to being over school. 

Take frequent breaks- A rule we love on roadtrips is 3 subjects and then a 30 min screen break and a snack. If it's a really long car ride (like our 17 hour trip moving across country) once school was completed with a good attitude, EXTRA screen time was given. 

Bring a lap desk- It's much easier to do school (and fun activities) on a flat surface than it is on one's lap. This is our favorite lap desk up to date. 

Communicate- At the beginning of each day of your trip, traveling days included, clearly communicate to your child the amount of school that will be done and the incentive to complete it well and with a good attitude. For us, we do normal amounts of school on traveling days, and then I pack independent school if I know a specific day is going to have a lot of down time with no other kids around to play with. None of us wants to have things sprung on us last minute, especially if we had it in our minds that no work would be done that day or it was just a free for all tv day. Our kids are no exception. Clear communication and expectation is key for successful road schooling. 

It's still a vacation, let your kids enjoy it! And if it's not a vacation, it still is to your kids. Consider checking out the "Homeschool Made Fun" Academy for new, fun, math and literacy centers each month. Many work trips and 3-4 week long hotel stays were considered a vacation by our munchkin even though for mom and dad they were filled with work meetings and content strategy days. We thoroughly let her enjoy them. Here are a few things we do/have done depending on the length of time our stay is for.

Before the trips starts

Go shopping for snacks (if applicable). Let your kids pick out some of their favorite snacks they'd like to bring. 

Go shopping for a couple of new, fun activity books, travel games, etc. to bring along. On a budget and/or prefer to shop online. Click here for educational AND fun sheets to take on the road with you. 

Clean out the car together. Go through a carwash and vacuum place. Use this as an opportunity to remind your kids how much work it is to keep the car clean and the importance of cleaning as they go during the trip (easier said than done, even for adults). 

  During the travel time

We let her pick one item from a gas station on the way to and again on the way home. I don't know what it is about gas stations, but kids love to go shopping at them. 

We plan for extra screen time as well as extra road trip game time.

Start each travel day with a gratitude/journaling session (this is as much for mom as it is for the kiddos). Reflect on what went well the day before and thank God for his protection as well as anything that sticks out to you and then pray over your plans for that day and ask God to keep your attitude right. For some reason it's easy to excuse a bad attitude (both us and our children) when traveling, but that still doesn't make it right. Starting our day with God will help keep us all on track. 

While we're there

Visit a couple fun places

Eat at a unique, local food joint

Go to a local park

Play lots of card games/board games

Allow for a movie night or two with a special snack

You can control what you can control. Not everything will go as planned. You'll get rained out of that cool new park you decided to visit, your kid will have a sensory overload meltdown on the last day of the trip while you're in that fun boutique you saw and just had to pop into, or that awesome little hole in the wall diner you ordered at will leave your family hungry even though they emptied your wallet because nothing they brought looked appetizing to anyone present. It happens. Give yourself and your family grace and change gears spontaneously with a cheerful attitude. When all else fails? Ice cream and a movie at the hotel while you mindlessly scroll social beside your kids who are glued to Clifford running through the park for the 23rd time will fix everything. Let loose and enjoy your vacation.