A few years ago, my family was going on a trip with the kids and it was going to be a LOOOONNNNGGGGG drive. At least seven hours in a car with four kids aged 6 months to 6 years old. Yeah, I know. Some of you are thinking that sounds like a nightmare! I didn’t want the kids to be on screens the entire time and I definitely didn’t want to be entertaining them the entire time either. You can only play I Spy so many times before you want to lose your mind…. There is nothing worse. Ok, I’m sure there are many things that are worse than listening to the whining sound of kids and not having any way to escape. So I decided to be proactive and get creative.
I headed to Dollarama – the best place in the world to get crafty items on a budget. I grabbed some binders, pencil cases, stickers, clips and pencil crayons. I was determined to make them fun for the kids. I started by using some monster letter stickers I found to spell out their names on the front of each binder. That way, I could personalize them for each of my kids. Monsters seemed like way more fun than plain letters. Ok and it was also so that there would be no fighting over who’s binder belonged to who. Because that was never going to happen right? (insert sarcasm here)
I chose binders with a clear insert on the front so that they could choose what they each wanted to display on their front cover. Maybe today it would be a princess and tomorrow a dinosaur, or maybe a drawing of their own! I know that if that was my binder, I would choose a coloring page to display since my drawing skills appear to be at the same level as theirs right now. Except numbers. I’m good with numbers, in more ways than one! I’m also an excellent tracer!
The pencil cases were an easy pick. I needed ones that had three holes that the kids could keep in their binders. There would be none of this “I dropped my pencil crayons on the floor. Can you reach them please?” Um, no sirree. Those will be stuck inside the binder and accessible at all times. Mama is going to be enjoying the break in the front with a book or chatting with papa. I also made sure they were all sharpened and decided it would be best, for all of us, if I was in charge of sharpening those that were needed. I mean, I was trying to avoid a complete mess in the backseat and pencil shavings aren’t easy to just pick up and move on.
I had found some stickers that I thought suited each of their personalities and that they would like. I slotted these inside the binder pocket on the backside of the front cover for easy access. Then I three hole punched some blank sheets of paper and let the kids know they were for the stickers. I wanted to be very clear that the stickers were not for the seats or windows. I can’t be the only one who has found stickers on the windows in the backseat. I remember this one time that one of the kids had put a sticker right in the middle of their window and then couldn’t get it off. They asked me for days to take it off and I left it there longer than I normally would have to teach them that their actions have consequences and it’s important to think about what you do and why you do it beforehand. I think we’re all still learning this to some degree. This is what I would call a natural consequence – a consequence that naturally occurs after a certain behavior. ie. sticker on window = can’t see out window properly. Bam!
Next, I spent a bit of time with one of my best friends, Google (have you met?), and we found some coloring pages and other activities for each of the kids. Something different based on their age, interests and skill level. I found easy word searches, sudokus, and spot the difference games! Remember how long I said the drive was? They needed some variety and I did my best to find that for them. All free since we basically have any information we want free at our fingertips nowadays. Does anyone else remember encyclopedia’s, floppy discs and DOS? Yeah, I’m that old. If I wanted anything for free, I had to walk on over to the library!
The kids wanted to help me with the three hole punch. Sometimes I’m amazed at how they can find such boring and routine activities exciting but yeah yeah I know, it’s all new to them! So I let them. DISASTER! But you know what? We had a lot of fun doing it so I guess it was ok. I don’t know if you remember from my list, but I also bought some clips. They were to clip the page they were working on to the front cover of the binder so it wouldn’t move around (and possibly fall to the ground) on them. Also, there was no way they could each have a binder open and not get in each other’s space in the backseat. I tell you, I thought of everything.
These binders were a HIT and totally worth the effort. They were fairly simple and easy to put together. I love that it keeps the kids entertained, using their brains and off the screens. We do allow some screen time in the car but we like to keep it at a minimum. We keep the binders ready at all times to go on trips and the kids help with filling them with pages that interest them. They loved them so much that we made some for their soon to be step siblings too!
These binders could save your sanity on long road trips too! What other kinds of activities would you put in them? Let me know in the comments! I’m always looking for new ideas! I hope this was helpful for you!