Things to Make - Road Trip Entertainments - Style Me Up and Unbreakable Pencils

I haven't posted anything to make in quite awhile now. We. Must. Start. Making. Things. Even my recipes are old.

Anyways, before a long car drive, I try to buy the kids some sort of art/activity kit to keep them entertained for a few hours or so. Previously, I relied on Melissa and Doug sticker pads and doodle books, like these. But as the girls become older, less and less amuses them, making such purchases tricky.

Luckily, F picked up the above Style Me Up sketchbook from A.C. Moore (click hereto see similar products) and couldn't stop drawing. I think she enjoyed the challenge of creating a new wardrobe for a known figure, very Project Runway-esque. The books come with stickers too, for earrings and details.

We also bought one of Crayola's most recent offerings - the Colored Pencils Kit (is it me or does Crayola seem to come up with new products every 10 seconds or so?). The fact that the pencil tips don't break works wonderfully for car trips.

What about everyone else? Any other suggestions for road trip entertainment? (and, yes, in case you're wondering we've spied license plates from 21 states, though I think this game amused Dan and me more than the kids).

Things to Make and Do - Roadtrip Survival Kit

My usual solution for road trip boredom is to check out some new DVDs from Netflix and hope for the best. But as three children had to share the not-very-large backseat for over 700 miles, I figured we needed a better plan. First stop the library where I told the kids they could choose as many books and DVDs as they wanted - 10 DVDs and over 30 books later, they seemed happy enough. But how long would it last? So I also purchased the following activities for road trip survival:



F and P took turns "decorating" with this one. They really seemed to like it, though they had no desire to reuse the stickers, so it didn't last for as long as I hoped.



All three kids seemed to enjoy working on these together, I heard several cries of "let's make her look funny!!" as I drove.



F really loves this creative coloring book. I'm not sure how she managed to draw while in the car (of course, we stopped a lot, so she probably created during the breaks), but this was the biggest success of all the car activities, as she continues to bring it everywhere. The book contains several pictures with doodle suggestions - like "decorate the piggy bank"; "what can you see in the crystal ball?"; and "finish the dandelions." Fun.



A friend recommended these and they look awesome. Unfortunately, I couldn't find a place that would deliver them in time for our trip. But hopefully next vacation season we'll try them out.



I've written about car trips with this book before (click here for past post) and now that P's learning to read, we've been bringing it with us everywhere this summer. The dictionary matches THOUSANDS of pictures with thousands of words and really helps early readers learn.



We actually didn't use our travel bingo kit on this trip, but we have used it quite a bit on past car trips and we all really enjoy it (yes, even us adults). It really helps make the time fly by.
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What about everyone else? Any road trip tips?

Things to Read - Long Roadtrips & 3 Great Toys for Learning to Read

As I mentioned on Monday, every other year we drive 700 some miles from Arlington, VA to the Chicago suburbs. For the first leg of the trip (to Cleveland) we break up the drive by stopping at the Pittsburgh Children's museum. But the next part (Cleveland to Chicago) is pretty boring (if anyone knows of any good stops along the way, please let me know). Plus, two full days in the car is tough on kids. To make the drive more bearable, we've hooked up two portable DVD players for the girls, which entertain them for the first few hours, but then they start to yell "I'm bored" from the back of the minivan. Until I became a parent I didn't comprehend the true pain caused by hearing "are we there yet?" Nor did I realize the timelessness of the phrase. The children's complaints lead my husband on a long rant on how, during his childhood, movies could not be watched in cars. My kids could care less.

Since F (our five year old) is learning to read, we also bring along some activities suited to this task. We found the following toys and games quite the lifesavers during the long drive through Indiana's farm country.

1.

Both the girls have Leapfrog Tag pens, along with several Leapfrog books, and they use them quite a bit (despite the fact that they're now "old" toys). I know they aren't a substitute to having an actual person read to them, but I can't read to them all the time. And for kids they're way better than TV. Leapfrog has several popular titles - LeapFrog Tag Activity Storybook Disney Princess Adventures Under the Sea, LeapFrog Tag Activity Storybook Disney Fairies, LeapFrog Tag Activity Storybook Cars Tractor Tipping, LeapFrog Tag Activity Storybook The Amazing Spider-Man: The Lizard's Tale, etc. F really seems to enjoy the LeapFrog Tag Learn to Read Phonics Book Series Short Vowels, several of the books have reading games she likes to play. If your child answers enough questions correctly, he/she can win a downloadable "reward" (basically a certificate you need to print). F adores her reward collection, P could care less about the rewards. On the downside, the pens have awful battery lives, we need to change them all the time.

2.

The Cat in the Hat Beginner Book Dictionary (I Can Read It All by Myself Beginner Books) matches THOUSANDS of pictures with thousands of words. So all afternoon, F kept yelling from the backseat, "I can spell cat", "I can spell mouse", "I can spell doll", etc.

3. Discovery Toys Wiz Kidz Card Game

F loves this simple game, so we play it as a family during roadtrips. If you don't feel like paying $12, the premise is quite simple and easily replicated. The game comes with two series of cards, one series contains the letters of the alphabet and the second series contains a several generic categorizations and places, such as "a foreign country" or "something you hate" or "a book or movie." The game involves randomly choosing two of the cards and trying to think of something that matches the description and starts with the appropriate letter (i.e. something in a grocery store that starts with V). F can play this for hours. Sometimes she's better at it than my husband or me. For example, a drink that begins with D (non-alcoholic, as they are children) stumped me, then all of a sudden I heard "diet coke" yelled from the backseat; F's more aware of my addictions than I am.
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Obviously, neither of my kids can actually read yet, so I'm not an expert on this topic. But I do find that these "toys" really entertain them and they also make long car rides more bearable. So what's not to love? What about everyone else? Any suggestions on teaching children to read and making it fun? We also have Bob Books, Set 1: Beginning Readers and Dora The Explorer Phonics Box Set (Dora the Explorer (St. Martin's Press)), and while F loves the Dora books, it's not easy to read them to her in the car.

If you're interested in possible gift book suggestions (for adults and children) please check in next Thursday as I'll be posting on books for everyone on your Xmas list. Also, check in tomorrow for my post on the BEST TOY EVER!
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Oh, as a final shout out for Neat Repeats, my mom purchased ALL of the toys mentioned from the second-hand store where she works (with the exception of the Leapfrog system). I'm telling you, if you live in the south suburbs of Chicago, you need to shop and/or donate here. It's such an easy way to both save your own money and help victims of domestic violence. A total win-win. By the way, does anyone in the DC area know of a similar shop in this area?