Homemade Highways

During the summer, we do a lot of learning with sidewalk chalk outside.  During the winter, I turn to painter's tape.  I love painter's tape!

This activity is really just a fun way to add a little variety to your day, especially these long winter days.  I set up a highway system on the kitchen floor using painter’s tape.  This took me about 5-10 minutes. This is even something your little ones can help with. J later made 2 requests that were easy to add on.  1. A garage to park some cars (my version is on the bottom right side of the pic) 2. Destination states (he’s VERY into states and geography. I definitely accomodated him on this one since it’s educational too.  I let him choose the states and just cut them out of construction paper and taped them down to the end of each roadway.)

Add buildings and bridges with Legos or blocks, stop signs, railroad crossings, etc.  It could be as simple or extravagant as you want.  This picture is fairly basic, since it was honestly meant to keep J busy and focused in the kitchen while my husband and I moved furniture for new floors (woohoo!).


I'll admit, painter’s tape is not cheap.  While you really only use a small amount of the roll, I tend to leave these up for awhile to get lots of use.  I also reuse the tape to make other things later (letters, shapes, numbers,…). One reader adapted this idea by placing tape on a blanket that she could then put away any time she wanted.  Since the tape isn't permanent, you can change the road map easily or remove them completely for cleaning.