BJU Press Blog

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Tips for Road Trips

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tips for road trips
You may be joining the thousands of others traveling for the holidays. Thankfully, my family lives literally across the street, and my husband’s side lives only an hour away, so we have it easy! But since we used to live about 675 miles away from family, I can completely relate to traveling with small children for long distances. Road trips can be challenging, to say the least; but we’ve found some useful ideas for entertaining the family that may help you keep your sanity if you’re traveling this holiday season.

For the Little Ones

If you have toddlers, try these ideas to keep them occupied in the car:

  • Arts and crafts. Bring plenty of coloring books and crayons, or drawing paper and colored pencils. Don’t forget a lapboard or other hard surface for them to write or draw on!
  • Books with lots of pictures. With these, you can ask them to find as many specific items as they can.
  • Books you can read to them. I used to sit in the back seat between our daughters and read them one story after another. They loved it!
  • Sing-along or story CDs. Our girls listened to these for hours. It really helped the time pass quickly.
  • Snacks. I’ve learned to pack lots of these for long road trips! If our girls were starting to get extra fidgety, I’d give them a sucker, and it would content them for quite a while. Of course, I tried not to load them up with sugar—that can majorly backfire!
  • Toys. We would let our daughters choose a few of their favorite toys to play with in their seats. I usually ended up playing silly games with them, not only to entertain them but also to hear their contagious giggles.

For the Older Ones

Traveling with children actually gets easier as they get older because you’re able to play different games with them, such as:

  • Twenty questions. It’s a classic time-filler! We like to play a Bible version of this that involves guessing a person, place, or thing mentioned in Scripture. With 66 books to choose from, you can come up with a plethora of possibilities.
  • License plate game. Keep track of how many other states each family member can spot on license plates and tally points. Award extra points for license plates from places outside the US, such as Canada.
  • Board games. Lots of travel-size board games are available, such as checkers, Trouble, chess, Connect Four, and so on.
  • Bible verse game. This one can be especially helpful if you get stuck in traffic. Have each family member quote a verse that starts with a  given letter of the alphabet in sequence. For example, for A someone could quote, “As a man thinks in his heart, so is he.” The next person would quote a verse that begins with B, and so forth. References are optional.

If you’re all gamed out, you can listen to a sermon, read, or just spend time talking as a family. Road trips can be great opportunities to connect with and encourage each other in the Lord. Hopefully these ideas will help you on your next long journey!

• • • • •

Jennifer is a pastor’s wife and mom of two young girls and loves homeschooling them. During her own twelve years of being homeschooled, Jennifer developed a passion for reading and writing. She earned a bachelor’s degree in creative writing and relishes writing during her free time.

P Is for Party!

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Preschool and K4 students work their way through the alphabet letter by letter. They need to learn to recognize letters by their shapes, and they need to know what sounds the letter makes. These are important pre-reading skills that will help them when they get to K5 and beyond.

Learning the alphabet doesn’t have to be boring. Since young children learn best by experiencing the world around them, parents and teachers can make learning fun by involving all of the senses.

October is both National Pizza Month (according to pizza.com) and National Popcorn Poppin’ Month (according to popcorn.org). Put these two ideas together for a fantastic p-themed party that will help teach little ones about the letter p.

Dress

Encourage the kids to dress up as something that begins with the letter p. Examples include a pirate, parrot, princess, painter, pumpkin, policeman, popsicle, or postal worker. Or you could let them wear their pajamas to school!

Food

Every party has to have food. For this p-themed party, pizza and popcorn are on the menu. Below are some great easy recipes for treats you can prepare ahead of time.

caramel popcorn in a treat bag and bowl

Caramel Popcorn

Ingredients

4 quarts popped popcorn (unsalted, butter-free)

1 cup brown sugar

½ cup light Karo® syrup

1 stick margarine

½ tsp. salt

½ tsp. baking soda

1 tsp. vanilla extract

Directions
        1. Preheat oven to 250 degrees. Line a shallow roasting pan with foil and coat it with cooking spray. Add popped popcorn.
        2. Combine the margarine, salt, brown sugar, and Karo® syrup in a medium saucepan. Stir constantly over medium heat until the mixture comes to a rolling boil.
        3. Boil for five minutes without stirring. Remove from heat, and quickly add the baking soda and vanilla; stir until the mixture turns an even caramel color.
        4. Pour mixture over popped popcorn and toss to coat evenly.
        5. Bake for one hour, tossing every fifteen minutes. Allow to cool; store in an airtight container.

veggie pizza with pizza cutter

Veggie Pizza

Ingredients

2 packages refrigerated crescent rolls

1 cup sour cream

1 8-oz. package cream cheese

1 package dry ranch dressing mix

1 small onion, chopped

1 stalk celery, chopped

1 red bell pepper, chopped

1½ cups broccoli, chopped

1 carrot, grated

Directions
            1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
            2. Pat crescent roll dough onto a greased jellyroll pan. Pierce with a fork.
            3. Bake for ten minutes. Cool completely.
            4. In a medium bowl, combine sour cream, cream cheese, and ranch dressing mix. Spread onto crust.
            5. Add chopped vegetables. Cover with plastic wrap and chill for an hour or more in the fridge. Cut into small triangles and serve.

Games/Activities

Don’t forget about your kinesthetic learners. Below are some p-themed activities to get the kids moving.

Parade

The day before the party, ask the children to bring an object to school that starts with the letter p. Sample objects might include a stuffed puppy, a small pumpkin, a pencil, or a puppet. On party day, let each child carry his object as you all line up and walk around the school building. Be sure to smile and wave at the people you pass!

Musical Pillows

The day before the party, ask the children to bring a pillow to school. Play the classic game of musical chairs, but use pillows instead!

Peanut Toss

Materials

Bag of circus peanuts
Two buckets or other open containers
Masking tape

Directions
                1. Divide the children into two teams.
                2. Use the masking tape to mark two starting lines on the floor. Place the buckets two to three feet away from the tape marks.
                3. Challenge the children to try to toss the circus peanuts into the bucket. The team that gets more circus peanuts in the bucket wins.

As you can imagine, the possibilities for a p-themed party are endless! If you have a  p-themed party idea, please tell us about it in the comments.