Roadtrip Sanity - Keeping the kids occupied

Do you remember family vacations when you were a child?

How was that part of the vacation where you were stuck in the car for hours on end with your annoying siblings?

I remember that experience in my family with my brothers. We didn't have portable DVD players or hand held video games back then.(I'm not a big fan of kids constantly being "plugged in" to electronics anyway.) We had the "imaginary line". My Dad would divide the back seat of our station wagon with an imaginary line and we were not supposed to cross it. So the whole trip was spent with "He crossed the line!" or "How much longer?". My brothers and I were completely bored.

Now I have my own children and we've had a couple of miserable road trips. This past year, as the Christmas Holiday was fast approaching I started to dread the upcoming road trip to visit family. I decided there had to be a way to have a peaceful and maybe even fun ride together. I researched all kinds of websites on parenting and forums and such. I spent some time thinking about my kids personalities and interests. I decided that I was not going to "plug my kids in" to a video game or portable DVD player.

The solution I came up with is something I like to call my "Road Trip Sanity Survival Kit". I found the perfect sized container that fits in the middle of the back seat of most vehicles. My kit is filled with activity books, colored pencils, a couple of books that the kids love, a couple of books on CD, Bingo cards, metal trays to put them on, magnetic Bingo chips and Madlibs. There are several other items and options but we didn't get to use all of them. Our holiday travels were wonderful! My travel kit worked great and the best part was that the whole family bonded during our road trip.