I was trying to do this trip on the cheap (isn't that what I say about all my projects?). Let's face it, the way this economy is, we can all stand to save our pennies. So, I didn't want to go out and buy a ton of stuff. Free printables to the rescue!
I gathered up some old school supplies--binders, pencil bags, and various and sundry markers and colored pencils.
I used Picasa and Google Image Search to put together a bingo card for things we might see on our trip (I saw everything except the roadrunner...). I made a collage in Picasa, then shuffled the images to make a different card for each person. I put the bingo cards in some plastic sleeves that I had laying around and included some dry erase markers in the pencil bag so that my boys could cross things off right on the plastic sleeve.
I printed out a few mazes and coloring pages as well.
The mazes came from mrprintables.com. They have tons of great free printables for kids. They're super cute.
I also added some maps. A good way to stave off "Are We There Yet?" is to give the kids a map with your route on it that they can follow along with. Each kid got a map of all the states we drove through, plus a Google Maps printout of our route and directions.
Plus, since we were going to be traveling during my church's General Conference, I printed out some Conference Packets from Sugardoodle (oh how they love their conference packets every 6 months!) for them to work on as we drove as well.
And, of course, I added a bunch of notebook paper for each binder, as all of my boys love to draw and write.
Though not in their binders, I also had some conversation starters with me (in MY binder--of course organized me has my own binder!) from iMom and Sissyprint. A long road trip is a great time for great conversations.
Each boy had a backpack to put their binder in. I added to each backpack a magazine (copies of The Friend and Boy's Life), Where's Waldo books (that I keep stored with the suitcases so they're still interesting every time we take a trip), a couple little snacks (Tic Tacs and Barnum's Animal Crackers are favorites), Kleenexes and a package of wipes (do you know how nice it was not to have to twist around and get my allergic boys Kleenexes every 10 minutes?), and a teeny tiny stuffed animal each.
These binders and backpacks kept my three boys happy and interested for most of our 40+ hours of driving. We didn't even have to break out the DVD player once. I call that a Family Vacation Miracle. :)
Each boy had a backpack to put their binder in. I added to each backpack a magazine (copies of The Friend and Boy's Life), Where's Waldo books (that I keep stored with the suitcases so they're still interesting every time we take a trip), a couple little snacks (Tic Tacs and Barnum's Animal Crackers are favorites), Kleenexes and a package of wipes (do you know how nice it was not to have to twist around and get my allergic boys Kleenexes every 10 minutes?), and a teeny tiny stuffed animal each.
