6 Tips for Peaceful Road Trips with Kids
- Annie Yorty Crosswalk Contributing Writer
- Updated Jul 11, 2022
Are you hitting the road with your family this summer for vacation? Or maybe because of high prices you'll choose a staycation that includes a few day trips. While looking forward to the destination activities, you may dread the hours spent in the car.
The Israelites back in the day of Moses were accustomed to road trips. Of course, they didn't drive cars, but they did wander around the wilderness with their kids for forty years, learning to follow God. Here's what God told them through Moses:
"Listen, O Israel! The Lord is our God, the Lord alone. And you must love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul, and all your strength. And you must commit yourselves wholeheartedly to these commands that I am giving you today. Repeat them again and again to your children. Talk about them when you are at home and when you are on the road, when you are going to bed and when you are getting up." (Deuteronomy 6:4-7 NLT)
In other words, take advantage of every opportunity to teach your kids about God's ways. It's tempting to hand everyone in the car a device and ignore them for the entire trip. But where would the fun be in that? What if, rather than viewing time in the car as a necessary evil, you could redeem it for your benefit and God's glory?
If PhDs were handed out for road tripping, I'd have one hanging on my wall. During sixteen years of homeschooling, my family crisscrossed states exploring every nook and cranny from mountains to oceans. While I can't promise you joy in every moment of your car travel, I will share six tips and practical ideas for traveling with your kids.
6 Tips for Peaceful Road Trips with Kids
1. Prepare
Plan and prepare for what you can reasonably foresee. Allow each child to be responsible for a personal to-do bag with a few small items that occupy them or bring them comfort. Consider how you prefer to handle meals and snacks. Will you pack a cooler with lunches, or will you stop and buy food along the way? Make sure drink bottles have screw-top lids to reduce spills. Bring extra baggies for serving snacks from bigger bags. Pack napkins, wet wipes, and several trash bags.
Think ahead about the entertainment in the car. Consider audiobooks, radio dramas, music, and podcasts to pass the time and stimulate conversation. Choose books that are on your child's school reading lists. Often, you can check out free audiobooks from your local library. Focus on the Family also puts out educational audio entertainment resources. When my kids were younger, they measured the length of the car trip by the number of Adventures in Odyssey episodes it took.
If you prefer books over audio, pack a longer book and read out loud in fifteen-minute increments with breaks for other activities. Stop at points that build suspense to keep kids anticipating the next installment.
Look at the map ahead of time to choose where to stop for breaks. Consider the bladder capacity of your family members and plan to pull over every couple of hours to stretch and use the bathroom.
Involve the kids in the planning. Task an older child with creating a music playlist that has something for everyone. As a family, make a list of car games to take and check them off as you play each one. You could create a "Travel Olympics" where each game is an event. Keep track of who wins each game and award homemade medals at the end of the trip.
Travel Game Ideas
I Spy—Take turns being the one to give clues for something that is seen while everyone else guesses.
License Plate Game—Make a list of states for each child and have them tally the license plates they see along the way.
Mad Libs—Take turns being the recorder and reader of these hilarious fill-in-the-blank stories.
20 Questions—Take turns being the one who thinks of a person, place, or thing and answer yes/no questions.
Alphabet Game—Pick a category (e.g., animals) and take turns seeing if you can name animals for each letter of the alphabet, beginning with "A" and going in order. Add a memory challenge by trying to name all the letters and animals that came before you.
Rhyming Game—Pick a word and take turns coming up with a rhyming word until everyone is stumped.
Add-on Story—Write a cooperative story where you take turns adding one sentence at a time until the time limit is met. Have someone write the story as you go.
Tic-tac-toe Tournament—Play different rounds of games and have winners advance to challenge one another until you have a champion.
Bible Memory—Make flashcards with Bible verses to memorize using repetition, songs, and games. Give small rewards for achievement.
2. Hold Realistic Expectations
Remember that kids will be kids. They make noise. Some will squabble. Others will whine. Pent-up energy bursts out. Boredom sets in. Car travel provides an opportunity for kids to learn to wait, put others first, cover annoyances with grace, and occupy their minds.
Expect to stop regularly for stretches and bathroom breaks. The trick is to observe your family and try to stop just before the need becomes urgent, otherwise known as the meltdown limit. When possible, stop at rest stops to allow your kids to run a few relay races to release energy.
3. Assign Responsibilities
Help your kids take ownership of the travel by delegating responsibilities appropriate to their age level. Teach them how to use a paper map and have them note your progress. Ask one child to watch for signs when it's time to find a rest area or gas. Assign responsibility for the garbage collection bag. Ask an older child to help a younger one with opening snacks. The possibilities are endless.
4. Deal Strategically with Negative Behaviors
When you pack several people into a car for several hours, you will undoubtedly experience behavior problems. Sometimes kids stir up drama simply because they are bored. Hopefully, some of the other suggestions here will detour that need. But I will add two quirky behavior modification suggestions—one negative and one positive—to discourage poor choices and encourage positive attitudes.
To discourage repetitive behavior, create some red circles from card stock and glue them to popsicle sticks. Write the offensive or annoying behavior you'd like to discourage on the circle (e.g., whining, complaining, arguing, picking at a sibling). Put a black slash through the word. Explain ahead of time that if they exhibit that behavior, you will hold up the sign without a word and expect them to stop. Believe it or not, this eliminates a lot of lecturing and arguing.
To promote positive behavior, such as harmony, use a simple, clear jar and glass beads used for flower arranging. Explain that there will be a family reward for filling the jar with beads. A bead goes into the jar for every interval of time during which everyone exists in peace. Set a timer on your phone for every 20 minutes (or shorter depending on the children's age and ability) and jangle a new bead into the jar if the goal is met. You don't need to say anything. The noise will cue your children to remember the goal and the reward. You want to create success with this activity, so choose a size jar that is commensurate with the day's travel. Also, consider the ability of your children to sustain this behavior and begin with a time-lapse that is achievable. When the jar is full, celebrate the accomplishment together.
5. Check Your Attitude
Parents must set the tone in the car. Consider how your attitude and talk contribute to a peaceful, joyful atmosphere. Are you speaking to your spouse and kids with respect? Do you complain about other drivers or bad traffic? Does everything blow up when you make a wrong turn? Or do you respond to the unexpected with grace and humor, trusting in God? Your calm response to stress will deescalate tense situations.
6. Pray
It probably goes without saying that prayer changes our hearts, but I'm saying it anyway. Ask each child to write a prayer for your travel time and take a few minutes for each person to pray out loud before you begin driving. You will be pleasantly surprised at the difference in the atmosphere of the car.
As you travel, if you notice tension building or other problems arise, pause, and pray together again. You're teaching your children to depend on God's wisdom and provision in real-time.
You can also make prayer a regular part of the trip by announcing a "talk to God" moment every hour or so. Think about who your family knows that needs prayer or pray for people with car problems, accidents, or even road rage along the way.
Building Memories
Hopefully, these six tips will help you see that time in the car isn't simply about getting from point A to point B as quickly as possible. Instead, consider the travel as part of your vacation. Use it to honor God and form family traditions and memories that will last a lifetime.
