Road Trips with a 3 year old

Our move, from central Texas to the middle of North Carolina, was a total driving time of about 24 hours spread over 4 days. It wasn't too bad, and everything Isaac went soooo much smoother than I expected. Partially, I took a bunch of tips collected off the internet.

 

I have to give "I am Momma - Hear me Roar" credit for her excellent tips:

 

We used a lot of them, but hands down, the BEST tip I was given I have not seen on the internet.

State bags.

Toy helicopter for Louisiana

My friend Kristin made up 5 surprise bags, it was a basic blue paper lunch bag, with the name of the state written on the outside, stapled shut. And inside was a small prize.

 

The idea is that each time you reach a new state, the kiddo gets to open a new prize bag after guessing what it might be.

Every single time, Isaac guessed it was a motorcycle. Thought that was cute.

He LOVED it. The were small things, a toy motorcycle, a slinky, gloves to use at our new place, but it was SO special for him. He still asks almost every day when we can go to another state so he can open another bag. Not only did he get something amazing every state, but it was something new to him he could play with. He even made up a song about the slinky, which got us across the entirety of Alabama.

Have you ever sang a four line song about a slinky for two hours? Thankfully, we managed to get moved over from "slinky slinky slinky/I love my slinky/ slinky is my friend/ the end" to "twinkle twinkle little star" which took us all the way to me pulling out the books on audio I'd purchased just for the car trip, saving my sanity.

 

Isaac had a great time. He keeps asking when we'll go on a road trip again. Or stay at a hotel again. He took to it as much as he loved airplane travel - that is to say, a lot.