Don't even think about going on your next road trip without a road trip binder for the kids! Filled with road trip games, activities, maps, and fun printables! The kids won't mind taking a break from their electronics to have some good old fashioned fun!
So the countdown is on until the day of our big move and we are preparing every day. Today I cleaned out the cupboards and freezer and washed all of my dry foods containers. Also went through and got rid of a ton of plastic food containers that didn't have lids. Now onto the next item of business...
One thing that we don't have to worry about anymore is keeping the kids busy on our trip. It's crazy how road trips have changed from when I was a kid! Holy cow! My parents never went out of state, we usually just stuck within a 1-2 hour radius from our house and I still remember being BORED to tears!Our kids are spoiled, but they've also been across so much more territory than I ever did as a child. We've driven from California to Alaska. From Alaska to Ohio and from Ohio to Utah (twice) on top of trips to Niagara Falls, Pennsylvania, etc. So I guess a bit of extra effort is required since we drag our kids all over the country! With a portable DVD player, books on tape, a new DS (ugh...yes, we caved and finally let our children get one to share on the trip), toys, new chapter books, and these new travel binders that I made, I think they will have fun!
Road Trip Binder for Kids: Road Trip Games, Map Activities and More!
The boys' binders are identical. Kaylee's is a scaled down version with lots of coloring pages and stickers instead of educational worksheets.
Each binder has a map of the US that they can check out and follow along. The front of each binder has our trip mapped out for them as well. They can follow along with little post-it flags.
The first several pages are road-trip games. Links to any printable I show can be found at the bottom of the post. Yay for free printables! What a time saver! The first is a state licence plate game. Both of our cars have Alaska plates so they can check those off....or should we make them find other cars with Alaska plates? Probably!
Next is an I-Spy game. I put post-it tabs and flags inside the binders to use as markers for games like bingo and to mark what they found.
A slug bug game (although I think we'll just look for cars in these colors too) and an Alphabet game. Those two are games we always played as kids, while traveling, and I play them with my kids now. I never thought of putting them on a printable to mark off though. Genius!
Another version of the I-Spy game with things to find.
I have a section for them to keep their ticket stubs and brochures from the attractions that we visit.
Also a place for them to keep their bonus travel tickets. The kids can earn tickets by catching Derrick or I saying the "Word of the Day". For example, if the word of the day is "Car", anytime we say it, and they catch it, they earn a travel ticket. Tickets are worth money and can be used to buy souvenirs along the way!
There is also an itinerary packet for each day of the trip in its own page protector. It tells them where we will end up each day, has a list of things to look for, tells them what the word of the day is, and includes a joke as well. The jokes are all different so they can share them with each other.
Each packet also includes a journal page for them to write or draw on.
There is also a math worksheet to do daily.
And a fun worksheet, like this hidden picture page. I found these books at Joann's awhile ago and the kids love them. There are word search, hidden pictures, mazes, educational worksheets that correlate with their grade level, etc.
I know that we could just give them snacks and a ton of movies and they would be happy (we've done it before and we will still do that this time too), but we would also like to create memories, and have them and interact with each other. So hopefully these games will help with that!
Since Derrick and I are driving in separate vehicles and I will be the one primarily driving with the children, we can use all of the fun interactive, and boredom buster ideas we can get!
3500 miles and 18 Days on the road, then another 2 months of hotel living before our house is finished......BRING IT. 😉
2016 Update! I've added more pages! These seek and find pages are so fun and the kids love them. Put them in page protectors and use a dry erase marker to mark off each picture! I've included the links at the bottom of the post with the rest of the free printables. Enjoy!
This is a very old post, and some of the blogs that I originally linked to are no longer around. Here are the printables still available:
Jessica Payne says
Thanks so much for posting this. This binder idea is going to make all the difference in our road trip!
Breanna Dreyer says
I love and adore your travel ticket idea! I'm scouring the internet via pinterest to get ideas for our binder, and that one is top notch for me! We're heading to Yellowstone in a couple weeks, and I don't want to hear the "Mom, can I have...." this will solve the problem easy! 😀 In addition to no souvenirs till the last day of the trip {we did that for Disney and it was AWESOME!}
Thanks again!
Ann @ The Scrapbooking Housewife says
These are such fabulous ideas!! We are contemplating going on a road trip to California from Vancouver Island, so these ideas will be very handy! I was actually looking for roadtrip bingo for our short overnight trip to Victoria, these will work great! Oh, and many thanks for the free printables!! 🙂
Lindy @ Veni Vidi Scrappy says
This is absolutely fantastic. I found your post by a pin on pinerest.
I saw the link you have to the printables but the ones I'm really looking for I can't find. 🙁 Can you tell me where you found the ABC one, the license plate, the I Spy and Slug Bug? They are so cute for my little one that I think she would love them.
I'm kinda guessing you made them? Thanks for your help!
Kelli says
I absolutely Love this idea and can't wait to make binders up for my boys! For just daily car rides even!! I am going to be a new homeschooling mom this fall, and this is GREAT! Thanks so much for the idea!! :o)
{Steph} says
Great idea! I'm collecting travel ideas for our huge Disney road trip next week! Thanks for this.
~Steph @ Silver Boxes
Mrs. Stout says
Thanks so much for sharing! great ideas! 🙂
Tiff says
Cute, cute , CUTE! Love the idea. Thanks for sharing.
Helen says
When I was 11, my family took a huge road trip from Ottawa, Canada, to Vancouver, down to California, up through Utah and the northern states, and then home again. Three adults, four children, a dog, and a trailer. No air-conditioning, no electronics. However, my parents gave us each a clipboard with similar pages to yours and it made a world of difference. We had route maps and we had the itinerary as well. That really helped because we knew what to expect.
Also, think about adding plain graph paper - great for games like SOS and boxes!
Janice D. Green says
What a fantastic idea! I must share it with my young mom friends.
Carly says
That is a fantastic idea! My daughter is going on a road trip without me this summer. This is something I can put together for her ahead of time so that she can keep busy and record her memories of it. Fantastic! (Plus I LOVE binders)
LeighLo says
OMG! you just made my summer.
My little OCD girl is gonna love how organized this whole thing is. And the Travel tickets - problem solved, no tickets=no money to spend! Budget is happy 🙂
Thank you so much for sharing!
Katie says
This is SO FUN! My kids are still babies, so not quite ready for this, but a couple more years and this will be perfect for trips to grandmas or other vacations.
One tip I saw somewhere else recently that's similar to your word of the day tickets was to give your kids a ticket for being polite or doing good deeds and that's how they earn their spending money for the trip!
Thanks for putting together this fun tutorial!
Rebecca says
LOVE this!!! I have a travel binder that I keep in the car, along with a homemade card game, but you have some ideas here that I haven't seen before. I love the idea of adding some of them for specific road trips!! Thank you for the tips!
Amanda Jean says
Great idea!! You said you wanted a few more ideas, so hopefully this helps:
Putting a fact sheet (history facts, stupid facts, little known facts, state capitals) along with pictures for each state you'll cross (the liberty bell for NC, an Elk for MT, Grand Canyon for AZ, Old Faithful for WY, etc). Make it a game that they can't look until they are in that state. When you do enter, stop at a truck stop and have them pick out a postcard to glue into the state section. Have them write their thoughts about the state.
Another I saw recently was using Google to print off popular games on large paper and placing them on cookie sheets, then you use magnets (decorated of course!) as the players. If you use a sheet with a lip, you can use die without loosing them.
Another woman who moved across the ocean to Europe bought used iPods off Craigslist and added kids games, a few episodes of the child's favorite shows, then decorated each to reflect the child. Buying them second hand, she was able to get three iPod touches for only $150. She bought very cheap headphones at Ross, and put them in the kits she made for each kid.
The "kits" were plastic shoe boxes and included lunch size snacks, books, the iPod, crayons, a "ticket" they could use only once, and it was their choice of music, movie, or game the WHOLE family had to watch/play for one full hour. Also hand sanitizer, wipes, and tissues. There was a gallon size ziplock for their garbage, and some homemade "find it" tubes. The kids decorated them, and the idea was they would have their own…which reduces the "she's not sharing!" fights.
Hope that helps, and thank you for the binder idea! 😀
LindaG says
I like the idea of printing game boards on paper. I think that would keep my children pretty entertained.