If you’re planning a long road trip with young kids, you’ll love these simple activities and free printables to keep them busy! My kids were entertained for over 15 hours with these activities. I just put them together in a box and passed them around when we needed something new!
Road trip activities for kids ages 2-8
Inspired From:
You Will Need...
- Magnetic baking tray
- Magnet strips
- Glue gun
- Library books and CD recordings
- Free printable activities
- Low cost drawing prompts from Melissa and Doug
- Magnetic pattern blocks
- Snacks
Step by Step Instructions
Step 1
Purchase some inexpensive magnetic baking sheets (ours were a dollar each at Walmart). Then get some magnet strips and hot glue them to markers or crayons. Buy some inexpensive drawing pads (ours were from the dollar bin at Target). Now you have a simple lap board for your trip. Your kids can draw and create without losing their crayons every five minutes!
Step 2
If you have time, get to your library a couple weeks before your trip and gather some new or favorite books. Get accompanying CD recordings and save them in a CD case. Pull these out when your kids get bored and you’re hoarse!
Step 3
Older kids might enjoy these free printable road scavenger hunt and BINGO pages. If you’d like, laminate and let your kids complete them with dry erase markers. Then they’re all ready to go for your NEXT big trip!
Step 4
Without a doubt, these fun “would you rather” conversation starters were the biggest hit of our trip! “Would you rather have bright blue hair or bright blue feet?” Print the 48 free cards or a single page with all the questions for easy reference. Have fun getting to know your family a little better!
Step 5
As it turned out, we didn’t use these Melissa and Doug drawing prompts on our drive. But they came in handy at our destination when our pregnant host needed a little break and the kids needed some down time.
Step 6
My preschoolers love to color, so I packed these beginning sounds coloring pages to give them a little alphabet review at the same time. (Yup, you can get all 26 letters free!)
Step 7
My oldest enjoyed these free addition color by number pages. I love it when I can sneak in a little math practice and she doesn’t complain about it. 😉
Step 8
I bought these magnetic pattern blocks on Amazon for our trip, but we can use them at home too. The printable patterns were free online. My kids loved copying the patterns and creating their own. And I loved that the pieces weren’t rolling around the floor of our van!
Step 9
I have to admit that the easiest way to keep my kids busy on long trips is to feed them! I found a variety of fun new snacks as a special treat and packed some healthy favorites as well. I packaged them in individual ziploc bags and clipped four bags together with a clothespin. When it was snack time I just grabbed a set of snacks and passed them around to our four older kids. After I took this picture, I also prepared a ton of air-popped popcorn. The kids love it and it takes a long time to eat ;).
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