Traveling with a Preschooler

We're on the home stretch of a 4 1/2 week vacation. Traveling from Ashland, Nebraska to Damascus, Oregon...1,650 miles the "quick" way....with a four-year-old. Over 1,800 on the return trip.

A few ideas that made our trip AWESOME!!!!

1. Postcards, postcards, postcards...we've sent home a few dozen. The picture quality is great, and transcribing Dayna's thoughts will be a fun reminder not only when we get home, but also years down the road.

2. Tickets...she gets a baggie filled with brightly colored tickets each morning on the road. There are enough tickets for every 50 miles. She turns them in as we go and can see that we're getting closer as the tickets dwindle. I also printed a map of every state with a sticker every 50 miles or so. She can "connect the dots" and see our progress.

3. Special treats for every state. I printed a coloring sheet for each state we visit. (Just google "state" coloring page.) She also gets a snack (some healthy, some not so much). On our way out, we had Cracker Jack in Nebraska (College World Series time), trail mix in Wyoming, honey sticks in Utah, potato chips in Idaho and gummy fish in Oregon. For our return trip (a different route), we had cheese curds from the Tillamook Cheese factory in Oregon, apple chips in Washington, potato chips again in Idaho, Rocky Road candy bars for Montana, beef jerky in Wyoming and Corn Nuts in Nebraska.

4. My mom bought Dayna a clipboard and sprayed it with chalkboard paint, threw a few pieces of sidewalk chalk in a baggie, and we're good to go. It also makes a handy desk for all those coloring pages.

5. Games, games, games...a different one for each day. Today we kept track of all our slugbugs. I printed a spreadsheet with different colored boxes at the top. We made a graph (early math skills!) of the colors we saw. Bingo, scavenger hunts...all good ideas. I have a new favorite website: www.momsminivan.com

6. Childrens' music that we can stand listening to...I made a playlist years ago of Dayna's favorite songs from my school's music series. Over 200 songs, no repeats, high quality. This music teacher mom doesn't go bananas with the same 10 songs over and over. When I get tired, she can listen to whatever she wants on her own CD player.

7. If you can splurge (Dayna has generous grandparents who provided this for her birthday), a kidproof digital camera. Who cares if the pictures turn out (you might be surprised how good some of them are)...she entertains herself for long periods of time taking pictures of her animals, out the window, the back of our heads, nothing in particular.

So...what do you do in the car?