Planning great family vacations with toddlers can be stressful. Let’s face it, toddlers aren’t always the best road trip companions. We’ve been planning our upcoming family vacation and it got me thinking… traveling with a toddler is hard. Heck, traveling with preschoolers is daunting. Let’s face it. Traveling with children is hard. 4-hour road trips often turn into 5 or 6 hours, routines are interrupted, and everyone gets tired and overstimulated – we may all very easily lose our minds. 🤪 In this blog post, we are going to talk about simple strategies you can use to ensure your toddler (and you) have a safe and happy road trip!
Talk About Your Road Trip
Talk about it🗣️: Going on vacation means a change in routine, which can be tough for little ones. To help ease the transition, involve your child in the planning process. Talk about the trip, create a countdown, and read about vacations together. This will help prepare your child for the upcoming change. You can also search your destination website and talk about activities you plan to do and things you want to see! We choose several activities of interest and have our little guy choose something he thinks looks fun!
Road Trip Activities & Games for Car Rides
Road trip activities🐮👀: Keeping toddlers entertained in the car can be tricky. When they (or you) are tired of screen time, road trip games are both fun and educational! Games like I Spy, Scavenger Hunt, and Spot the Animal are great ways to practice communication skills and expose them to language concepts!
Frequent Breaks
Plan for breaks🛑🚽: Traveling with toddlers can be challenging, especially during long car rides. To make the trip more manageable, plan to take breaks every 2-3 hours. Although it may add extra time to your trip, it will be worth it in the long run. Allowing toddlers to stretch their legs and take a break from sitting is essential. When planning your route, consider places to stop along the way. Texas is home to Buccee’s, hands down the best gas station around. If you’re traveling through Texas on interstate 10, you can find one just about every 3 hours…. coincidence? Definitely not. Rest areas and scenic views are also great places to stop!
You’ve Got This!
Don’t let anxiety or boredom ruin your family vacation – let me help you make your next trip a success! Check out these road trip activities that include a social story designed to help children understand and prepare for the journey, from packing to reaching the destination. This resource covers everything from what vacation means to how to prepare for a car ride, plane ride, or even a cruise ship journey. Whether you prefer full color or printer-friendly black and white, our social story can be easily customized to fit your family’s unique vacation plans. It also includes printable road trip activities such as Alphabet Search, Road Trip Bingo, Color Search, and Road Trip Scavenger Hunt Coloring Page. Additionally, there are Airplane Coloring Pages, Airplane Scavenger Hunt, and Cruise Ship Scavenger Hunt activities that are both fun and educational.
Social stories are commonly found and used in special education classrooms and with toddlers with disabilities. But the truth is, social stories should be used in every early childhood setting because they help everyone! Social stories help toddlers understand social skills, provide conflict resolutions for a variety of situations, demonstrate new skills, and explain new experiences! Social socials may also help see things from someone else’s point of view. Research shows that reading social stories to those experiencing difficulties in certain situations is, in fact, beneficial because social stories are designed to explain things in an easy-to-understand way. PLUS they talk about how to respond to situations or how to use different behaviors.
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