Keeping them Content on the Road

Here are some of the travel-with-kids tips I have received from other moms:

- Stick to your regular schedule for meals and snacks. If you feed the kids constantly while on the road, they'll get off-schedule and cranky. Stop the car and have proper meals and snacks.
- Stay away from sugary snacks like dried fruit. Sugar will wind them up and they can't burn it off in the car, and then they will crash and get cranky.
- Bring a ball for active play at rest stops. (This reminds me to also bring baseball gloves and bat, a frisbee and my jogging shoes, too, just in case I can sneak in a quick run.)
- Tie the baby's toys on strings so that when he drops them he can retrieve them without me having to crawl in the back seat and get them.
- Make a car bingo game with bingo cards and letters. Players have to look for items that start with the letters. For example, if you pull out a B, the first person who says "I see a bird" gets that letter on his card. (Of course, this will only work for my older child, but the baby might think it's fun to hear us playing. Maybe he'll learn how to spell!)
- Bring books on tape of stories they know, likeGoodnight Moon, Are You My Mother, The Very Hungry Caterpillar. This will occupy them and give the parents a break from entertaining them.
(I'd better go to the library, quick!)

Please send me more tips and ideas.