Keeping the kids busy.

A couple of people have asked about the ways we have kept the kids busy during this long trip. Tony and I spent some time considering this in our planning. We have done several things to help the kids have a good time and feel like they are "involved" in the trip and not just spectators. All of them have all been inexpensive have taken up small amounts of space.

First we have limited the amount of time we are in the truck on any given day. We decided that we would limit the distance we would try to travel to less than 350 miles a day. While this makes a trip take longer, we were worried that day after day in the truck would be too hard if they were in there all day.

Next, we have a DVD player/TV combo that is installed on the ceiling of the truck. AJ in particular spent much of his time in the truck watching movies.

On the seatback that is in front of both Sarah and Abby we installed organizers and filled them with coloring books and magnetic puzzles and other "car friendly" things to play with.


We had already purchased the penny passports books on Ebay (for keeping their smashed pennies in. We got ours at http://www.pennypassport.com/, but there are other places) prior to leaving. Tony used a label maker to help the kids keep track of which one was theirs. The passports have also been available in most of the larger gift shop/information centers we have visited too. The kids already had a few “smashed” pennies they had made locally (zoo, museum center, Jungle Jims etc). Pretty much everywhere we have looked for one they have been available. Just about every “touristy” place we have visited has a machine. Most of them have cost the standard 50 cents plus the penny, but at one place they cost a whole dollar –seriously! At Yellowstone, each of the different visitor centers had a machine with different scenes so we made a few there. If you want to visit the website that lists the location of every smashed penny machine in the country it can be found at http://www.pennycollector.com/

I also made each of the girls a travel scrapbook by using a small 3 ring binder. In the binder, I put a two pocket folder and several sheet protectors so that they can easily slip in brochures and other literature they pick up along the way. We have tried to stop at the Interstate Visitor Center that is usually at the first exit off the interstate every time we go into a new State. They go inside and collect some brochures and put them in their scrapbook. They have also purchased post cards along the way. They slip these in their sheet protectors too. We have tried to have Sarah record her thoughts about her favorite sights on the back so she can remember what she liked. Since Abby doesn’t truly write yet, we have helped her. The girls also have small Tupperware containers to collect rocks and other natural things they like to collect (Sarah is the ultimate collector and if we don’t limit how much, she would fill the car top carrier!).

The other thing they like to do is take pictures. Sarah got a new digital camera for Christmas and Abby inherited the Fisher Price Kid Tuff Digital camera that Sarah had been using. Having multiple cameras has proved worthy when batteries run low and memory cards fill up! Tony created a folder for each of them on the laptop so he can download their photos and they can see them. We will probably let them print a select few when we get home.


We also bought a kid friendly map of the US and Highlighted our route with the kids. We marked the destinations with numbers so we can see where we are going and where we have been. We also have an outline map on the door of the camper. As we have visited each new state, we add it to the map.

The National Park Passports were a neat addition. I found them in Yellowstone, but discovered after the fact that they were available at Mount Rushmore too. I am bummed that we missed the stamps at Mount Rushmore and Wind Cave as well. The basic model was fairly inexpensive (8 or 9 bucks). You can also purchase these from the National Parks website (http://www.eparks.com/store/product/22515/%2APassport-To-Your-National-Parks%2A/).

We originally thought about getting each of the kids one, but didn’t want to keep track of three so we got one for the family. The passport is divided into geographic regions and lists all the National parks and monuments for each region. At the visitor centers/gift shops of these places they have free stamps to “cancel” your pages. They list the location and have the date. Yellowstone also had picture stamps (old faithful, Waterfalls etc.) that you could use as well. There are also stickers you can purchase at the individual parks (Yellowstone’s was 2 bucks). They sell these individually and as a yearly set purchased in sheets. We decided to pick them up as we go rather than collect stickers for places we haven’t been yet.