Are we there yet???

We recently evacuated due to Hurricane Irene and took a road trip with our three kids, a 4 year old, 2.5 year old, and 7 month old. They'd ridden 3 hours before, but nothing like this trip. Twelve hours there, 9.5 on the way home.

So you can imagine how many times my 4 year asked, "Are we there yet? Are we almost there?"

Someone recommended I try this little trick for the way home...oh, I could kiss whoever came up with this idea.

We set up a timeline in the car. We tied a ribbon (you could use string) across the ceiling of the car to the handles at the doors, making a straight line. We drove 450ish miles, so I divided the string,making a mark for every 25 miles. I used a hair clip (hey, it was last minute!) to mark the halfway point. Every time we drove 25 miles, I moved the clip. It was a great visual representation of how far we'd driven and how much was left. There was a huge cheer when we got halfway. :)

So, on your next trip, try this and see if the "Are we there yet"s are fewer and less often?

:)

Stringing Sponges

In one of my trips through the dollar store, in search of cheap, light weight “toys” to keep my toddler busy on planes, I came up with this version of stringing beads.

I bought a couple packages of sponge curlers (the kind some of us slept in when we were little).  They came in black and pink in our dollar store.  I took them home and sliced some in thirds, some in half, and kept others the full length.  I keep them in a small wipee box with some pipe cleaners.  The sponges are perfect to string on the pipe cleaners.  I think it’s a little easier for them use the pipe cleaners than regular string, making this activity possible at a younger age.  You could also use thin straws.  We also make jewelry with them or link them together to create a chain (thought J needs a lot of help with that).  **Since this original post, I came across a larger color selection of the sponges which allowed him to play a matching game too (matching them to the colored pipe cleaners)**

This makes a good plane/travel activity because it keeps them occupied for awhile, it reuses the same materials from other plane activities (so you have to pack less), and it’s lightweight.  The disadvantage is that the sponges can be decidedly fun to throw around on the plane.  J just learned that was not an option.  But in the meantime, at least they don’t hurt if they hit you and they’re so cheap that it’s not terrible if some are lost.  This worked well for J at 23 months; our first experience with this plane activity (at 14 months) didn’t go as well.

Of course you can also use these at home!

Age attempted:  14 months (too young for on the plane), better by 18 months and good at it by 23 months

Teachable Moments:  We’ve worked on the meaning of push and pull with this.  Fine motor skills get a lot of practice.  You can make patterns with the different colors, match colors, practice counting by assigning a different number of sponge beads for each pipe cleaner, etc.

Car Games: Stickers!

On a recent vacation I had to find some fun for my munchkins for the car ride. So we pulled out some stickers, and I started calling out body parts. Their job was to stick the sticker to the correct body part. My toddler loved practicing and my preschooler loved passing out stickers and peeling them from the sheets. This game lasted a good 30 minutes and they were (delightfully) covered from head to toe...literally. It was also a fun and easy way for me to see which body parts I needed to work on. It also gave us a learning opportunity, like learning clavicle, shins, knuckles, and other parts.

This could also work in a grocery store, waiting for food in a restaurant, a doctor's office, or just about anywhere you need to divert some attention for a little while.

In The Car: Finding Colors

This is an activity my husband came up with to keep our children occupied in the car.

He simply says, "I am going to find a blue truck. What are you going to find?" They each choose what color and type of vehicle they will find. They are then quiet as they watch for their chosen vehicle.

Not all children (or parents) will be into the type of vehicle, but we can all do colors.

Sometimes Kaitlyn chooses "pink" or "purple." We always just say okay and let her wait to figure out those vehicles are very few and far between.

This is a fun, simple way to keep everyone focused on something other than the long car ride.

Another Car toy!

It was a complete accident that I discovered the all consuming enchantment my toddler would have with this toy. Are you ready? Here it is........drum roll..........

A half full (or half empty, depending on your point of view) bottle of water.

You are going to do a post on the fun of a half empty water bottle?

Okay, please don't stop reading. I know that sounds mundane, boring, silly, and even obvious.

Here's my story. After an unsuccessful morning nap for my youngest, we traveled to the nearest grocery store for some much needed sustenance. On the way home I was trying my best (without endangering anyone on the road) to keep my toddler awake to preserve the afternoon nap. In a last ditch effort, my daughter passed her my half full water bottle. Her eyes lit up, she squealed happily, and proceeded to shakity-shake-shake that bottle all the way home....fully awake. *insert happy dance here*

So once the girls were down for their naps, I promptly dug through our recycle bin to find any worthy container, and started filling and gluing tops on.
Here are some ideas of what to fill them with:

• water
• colored water (water and food coloring)
• make a mini ocean in a bottle
• water and glitter
• oil and water
• sand
• rice
• sand/rice with small objects, like plastic insects, marbles, dice, part of a crayon, a puff ball, whatever... (leave a little space at the top so when they shake it and rotate it, they can find the objects in the jar/bottle).
• coins
• beans

Use any combination of the things above (colored water, oil, and marbles). Add this to the car wallets, and your little one may actually make it to the afternoon nap. :)

Car Game: Wallets

A favorite activity for both of my girls in the car (ages 2.5 and 13 months) are personal wallets. You can use an old wallet/purse you have around the house, or get a cheap one from a bargain store. This has helped preserve the afternoon nap at ages where if they slept for even 15 minutes in the car, that's just enough to ensure they wouldn't take an afternoon nap (like Sunday after church). Both girls love taking the items in and out of the wallet, looking at the pictures, snapping the wallet, and unzipping the change pouch. It's provided a good 20-30 minutes of entertainment on more than one occasion. I actually keep them in the compartment in the car. That way they are never left at home.

Some items to put in your wallet:

• small flash cards of numbers, letters, or shapes
• pretend dollars (for counting)
• fake credit cards that come in the mail (I wouldn't recommend expired ones, just in case)
• library card, if your child has their own personal one
• pictures of family
• pictures of things they love (like animals, princesses, trucks)
• a small sheet of stickers
• if the wallet fits one (like in a check holder) put a small pad of paper and crayon for drawing
• key chains attached to it
• I have a mini measuring tape on one. My oldest loves to try to measure things, like her hands and feet.
• On mytoddler's wallet, I attached a mini stuffed animal on a key chain.
• A mini flashlight/light up device

Have fun... and enjoy some nice quiet time in the car!

Learning While Traveling-Best Toys

I've been extremely busy lately because we've been traveling A LOT! We drove from Minnesota to Georgia, then back, then flew to West Virginia and back. All of this with our 18 month old Tobias! Now my husband got the job he interviewed for in West Virginia so we're moving there in 3 weeks. Add another 15 hour drive onto our schedule, no big deal, right? :)

Along this theme I decided to do a 4-5 part series on learning while traveling. Just like you want to do more than just make it through the day at home, you want to do more than just make it through the trip with your young kids.

The first thing you need for any good car trip or long flight is toys!

Don't ever say a child is "just" playing. That's like saying a surgeon is "just" operating or a pilot is "just" flying an airplane. Play is the essence of being a child.

Think of what kind of activities lend themselves to time in the car or plane and to a varied experience for your child. These include but are not limited to fine motor skills, stacking, sorting, reading, pretend play, and drawing. Your goal should be to fill your child's time with meaningful and interesting work. Parents are not clowns, our job is not to simply amuse our children with flashing lights and moving images. We are teachers, our job is to demonstrate new skills to our children and give them plenty of space and time to explore and practice independently. Keep this in mind when you choose your toys to bring for travel. A toy meant to amuse will hold a toddler's interest for 5 minutes. A toy meant to be explored, completed, manipulated, will hold their interest far longer, often 15-30 minutes.

Here are some of my favorite toys for each of these types of activities:

Wooden Stringing Sets: This has become hands down Tobias' favorite toy. We keep it strictly for church and traveling so it retains his interest. The long "threading needle" wooden piece helps little hands get the beads on and the beads are colorful and large. I would recommend this for 18 months-3 years old. Older children can handle more difficult lacing bead sets, such as the Melissa and Doug one. Those could be used to practice patterns or counting. For children under 3, the simple act of lacing the beads is plenty of stimulation.

Stack and Roll Cups: I like these when we go to visit family because they stack up tiny to fit in the baggage. They can be stacked while sitting in a rear-facing carseat and turned into balls when you get to Grandma's :)

Board Books: Okay, this should be self-explanatory :) I will make a few unique suggestions you may not have thought of though.

• 10 Button Book by William Accorsi--this book has slots for the buttons to fit into on each page so children can count the buttons on each page. This is a bit difficult for Tobias so I'd recommend it for the 2 and up crowd.
• Quiet Books--these are usually cloth books that have zippers, buttons, and snaps for kids to manipulate and work with as they read through the book. Great for keeping minds and hands busy and preps them for buttoning their own shirts and zipping their own coats.
• Cloth Books--there are tons of these around. Tobias has had 3 of these since infancy and they still hold his interest. We keep them in the car because they are soft and in case of an accident wouldn't hurt if they flew across the car and because they are so versatile. Newborns chew them, grasp them, and look at the pictures. Pre-toddlers start turning pages and feeling the different textures and enjoy listening to the story being read. Toddlers will move velcro pieces around, turn pages, and name the things in the pictures. Have I mentioned these are versatile and that I love them?

Finger Puppets: These can be used by a parent in the backseat of a car, by reaching over the back of the front seat to put on a show for the kids in the back, or to entertain a baby on a long plane ride. Get creative and if you're not creative, get a set that goes along with a particular story or nursery rhyme and simply read the appropriate parts. Like the stacking balls, these are very small and portable for when space is limited.

Magnadoodle: Nothing beats a toy that inspires creativity, encourages writing, and is mess free!

Stringing Bottle Caps

I've seen many variations on this activity, including lacing tiny beads into bracelets and lacing big wooden beads onto shoe strings, as in the Melissa and Doug version.

This is an activity that requires and encourages a great deal of fine motor skills. Tobias at 16 months old is able to string 1-2 beads independently and watches me intently as I do it and with me holding the string he can do more beads halfway independently. I wouldn't suggest trying this under 15 months old unless your child is already scribbling with a crayon and using a fork and spoon with some success. This activity can be great for 15 month olds to 3 year olds.

Materials:

• As many bottle caps as you can find (a slight addiction to soda could be a good thing here)
• Half a shoelace with a big knot in the loose end
• drill with large drill bit

Preparation:

• drill holes in the center of the bottle caps

Activity:
Demonstrate to your child how to lace the bottle caps onto the shoelace. Do it slowly and holding it up in front of them. Talk about the colors of the bottle caps as you lace them and then hand one to your child if he hasn't already picked them up and encourage him to put it on the shoelace as you hold the shoelace up. Once your child shows interest in doing it, step back gradually and let them take it on independently.

Extensions:
With an older child (ages 2+) you can make a pattern (red, green, red, green) on your own shoelace and ask them to copy the pattern.


* ignore the goofy face, that's just Tobias' brilliant look of concentration, or maybe the flash was just in his eyes :)