Keeping Noah Entertained in the car this Summer

Noah has been traveling by car since he was two months old when we went to Virginia Beach. He is a great traveler. Most of the time he sleeps or reads but sometimes like everyone else, he gets bored. I have to come up with things for him to do. When he was two he started saying wanna go down the road, wanna go down the road over and over. It was pretty annoying, it was his very own version of are we there yet? I made the mistake of telling him about saying that few weeks ago, so now he thinks it’s funny to say it. Since we travel a lot I am constantly looking for and creating road trip games we can play. He isn’t too big in to music, which is something we listened to a lot growing up. He loves to play I spy with my little eye. I try and make it hard by saying I spy with my little eye something that’s pink and have it be my mom’s nail polish as we often travel with her. If it’s too easy it’s no fun! I like to have games where he has to think.

We also play twenty questions but Noah is still getting the hang of that game.  Noah has my love of mad Libs so we play Mad Libs. We also like to start a story and everyone tells part of it. It usually is completely silly and random.  I love Noah’s imagination. Noah also loves animals and one thing I used to do when we were in the car was point out different animals. After a while he would point them out or if it was somewhere we drove by often he would say comes the cows or comes the horses.  He also thinks it’s funny to say that now. It was so funny because when we were driving in to California, they have an inspection station and we all convinced Noah that he was livestock because he asked about the inspection station. Every time we would go through the inspection point he would bend down. I thought he was being silly, but he really thought he was livestock because he wasn’t sure what it was.  I am so glad he has such a great sense of humor. It’s so important to keep kids entertained in the car while you are traveling long distances. I hope Noah will have great memories of road trips growing up like I do.

I was recently reading an article about great road trip games and learned some new games to try out with Noah.

Planning your Vacation Online

I do almost everything online. I work online, I shop online, I pay bills online, I even have ordered groceries online. I have even started planning vacations online. I don’t take online vacations though, that would be silly. I like to book hotel rooms online because it is easier and safer in my opinion than calling on the phone. I seem to also be able to find better rates online since there are so many sites you can now book from. Some are dedicated to finding the cheapest rates available by searching all the deal sites. I really enjoy saving on my trip. Most of the places we drive to are far enough away that we have to stay in a hotel on the road. Unless we are visiting family, we also stay in a hotel at our destination. Even when we go visit certain family we sometimes stay in a hotel for space reasons.

Before everything was online and there were apps and websites for everything, you used to go to places like AAA to map out your route. They would give you books and maps and even plan your route for you. Now we can do it online, and we no longer have to look for maps or bulky books with directions.  You can just plug it in your map app and you are good to go.  Travel agents used to be the one who planned the bulk of everyone’s trips. You were planning a cruise or a trip to Disney World, you called your travel agent. Now we are our own travel agents.  We handle all the planning ourselves through booking online, tracking our own routes and even review sites where we can find out what’s great and what is not.

There are many great sites that will help you plan the perfect road trip. Be sure to read this article about planning your car trip online.

We are a Tech Free Travel Family

Noah has daily computer time almost every day. He has to earn it by either having a good day at school or behaving in the morning. He is such a great kid that he almost always earns it. When we travel however, he doesn’t get any screen time other than occasionally watching a little TV. I usually travel with my laptop and I always have my phone. He knows not to ask for tech time because I want to spend time doing other things on vacations. He will occasionally ask when we are flying and I normally say no. I like to conserve my phone battery for when we reach our destination. Finding an outlet at the airport can be tricky because others are already plugged in. Some have multiple devices plugged in too. I have thought about traveling with a power strip so more people can charge at once.

I am sure you are wondering what exactly I do to entertain Noah during travel and vacations. 

Thankfully Noah loves to read and draw. He used to love to color with crayons but he has since graduated to colored pencils because they are easier for him and they don’t melt in the hot car. He also loves to write stories and make comic books. He loves making reference books about fish, sea life and space. He also has created some of his own characters.  He will often make origami or puppets too.  On vacation it’s self I try to plan activities where he’s not bored and doesn’t even think about it. We love to go to the beach, swim in the pool and go for walks. There is almost always places we can go that are fun too.  I love that technology is not part of our travel and vacation because really you can do that anywhere. We travel to visit new places or to see people we love.

For more ideas on Tech Free Travel check out this post.