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4 Road Trip Tips When Traveling with Tweens

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Road Trip Tips When Traveling with Tweens

Eight years ago, we moved from Chicago, Illinois to Tucson, Arizona. We still had family in Michigan, so we have made the road trip across 1,900 miles one way to visit family six times now. When we made the first trip, our kids were 10, 5, and 4. Our most recent trip was just a few weeks ago, and the kids are 18, 13, and 12. Traveling with them now is much easier, but regardless, the trip is a long one. We’ve learned many road trip tips when traveling with tweens. If you’re traveling with kids in the eight to 12-year-old age range, these tips may help your family survive a long road trip.

Road Trip Tips When Traveling with Tweens

Tweens are easier to travel with than younger kids, but they still can get bored quickly. Try these tips to make the trip go faster.

Make Maps for Them

I mapped out our route on Google Maps, magnified it, and printed it out. Then, I made binders for each kid with the seven pages showing the route. I put the pages in plastic page protectors and gave the kids dry erase markers. They marked on the pages as we passed areas, so they could see how much progress we had made and how much more we had to go. I also marked where we were stopping each night to make the three-day trip seem less daunting.

Have Them Pick a Fun Activity

Road Trip Tips When Traveling with Tweens

Before we left, each child researched the route and found one fun thing they wanted to do. Our favorite activity that a child picked was Cadillac Ranch in Texas. We brought along some spray paint and joined others in spray painting the upside-down cars planted in the ground. When we have driven by later, other times we are making the trip, the kids still talk about the fun they had and how weird the attraction is.

Pack Food. . .and More Food

Tweens are hungry most of the time, especially on a road trip. We pack sandwiches and chips for lunch, but we also pack A LOT of snacks. Popular snacks include beef jerky, pretzels, granola bars, squeezable apple sauce, squeezable pudding, and fruit. Make sure the kids can easily access the snacks.

Limit Stops

Our drive is so long that it takes us 10 to 12 hours of driving each day to get to Michigan in three days. Add in a fun stop, and there’s not much time for anything else.

When we stop for gas, we also use the restrooms and get out our sandwiches, if it’s lunchtime. When we combine all of our stops in one, we only stop for 10 or 15 minutes before we’re on the road again for another three to four hours. We have found Love’s Travel Centers have the cleanest restrooms.

Final Thoughts

Traveling with tweens is less stressful than traveling with younger kids, but they can still get bored and antsy on long road trips. Use these road trip tips when traveling with tweens for a smoother, more entertaining drive.

Read More

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Best Travel Crib for Twins

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Best Travel Crib for Twins

Traveling with babies and toddlers is always interesting.  First, you have to plan the actual trip.  How will baby do?  What can you do as a parent to make baby more comfortable and able to pass the time while you’re traveling?  But then there are other considerations, namely, all the gear that you have to pack so you can travel with baby.  Think playpens, strollers, portable changing tables, etc.  If you have twins, the planning is likely double.  However, if you choose one of the best travel cribs for twins, you may get a lot of your travel gear in one purchase.

Best Travel Crib for Twins

Now that more people are having twins, the market has exploded.  Lucky for us as buyers, that means there are many choices available.

Joovy Room²

Hands down, the best travel crib for twins is the Joovy Room².

This product comes with a thick pad for the bottom as well as a soft, fitted, waterproof sheet.  This playpen can accommodate children from newborns to those 35 inches tall, which means you’ll be able to use it for several years.  (The manufacturer asks that you discontinue use when the child can climb out.)

Pros

There are many pros with the Joovy Room².

Spacious

This portable playpen is bigger than standard pack n plays, which makes it ideal for twins.  In fact, it’s nearly 10 square feet in size and can easily accommodate two children.

Additional Features

The Joovy Room² has wide mesh on all sides, so you can more easily see your children.

It also comes with a storage bag that you can use when traveling with the Joovy.

Finally, it has two wheels on the bottom to allow you to easily move the Joovy Room².

Twin Nursery Center Bassinet Playpen Accessory

For newborns and infants, you can purchase the Joovy Twin Nursery Center Bassinet Playpen Accessory.

Best Travel Crib for Twins

This handy accessory turns your playpen into the perfect portable crib for twin babies.  It includes:

  • Bassinet,
  • Bassinet divider (so each baby has their own separate space to sleep in), and
  • Changing table (which sits on top of the bassinet area)

For convenience, the changing table flips to the side when not in use.

The bassinet holds up to 30 pounds, which means the twins can use it until they weigh 15 pounds each.

Cons

Although twin parents love the Joovy Room², it does have some drawbacks.

Heavy

Because it is large and comes with a high quality, thick mattress, some parents say that it’s heavy.  A few even say it’s too heavy to travel with.  However, that is a minority of parents.

Bunching Sheet

Other parents complain that after the sheet has been washed a few times, it has the tendency to bunch and not fit as snugly as when it was new.

Final Thoughts

If you’re looking for the best travel crib for twins, consider adding the Joovy Room² to your baby registry or buying it.  This product will continue to serve your family for several years.

Read More

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Insurance While Traveling Abroad

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You are all ready for your European vacation. You have packed your passport, clothing, snacks for the plane ride, and games for the kids. You may have forgotten something important, though. Did you remember to pack your insurance?

Before traveling outside of the United States, it is important to check your insurance policies to make sure you are covered for any unforeseen accidents or injuries.

Health Insurance

Nobody wants to get hurt or ill on vacation. Unfortunately, accidents do happen, and exposure to unfamiliar foods or environments can lead to illness. A trip to a foreign doctor, dentist, or hospital can be very expensive. Many health insurance policies, including Medicare, do not cover medical treatment outside of the United States. Make sure to check your insurance policy before you travel. If it does not cover you outside the country, consider purchasing a separate travel insurance policy that covers emergency medical treatment and medical evacuation so you can return home to recover after an accident.

Auto Insurance

Most automobile insurance policies cover policyholders as a driver or passenger in any automobile, even rental cars, within the United States. Some policies also cover travel to Mexico and Canada, but it is likely that you will not be covered in other countries. As any injury lawyer will tell you, even a minor accident can lead to  significant liability claims. You may need to opt for the liability insurance coverage offered by the rental car agency if you are renting a car in a foreign country. To supplement that, look into a personal umbrella policy. Umbrella policies cover you for any losses over and above those covered by other insurance, so you may be able to opt for a less expensive option from the rental car agency if you have umbrella coverage. Always check with your insurance agent to make sure the umbrella policy covers you in the areas you are planning to travel.

Travel Insurance

Chances are, you have purchased non-refundable airline tickets, or placed non-refundable deposits on hotels for your trip. If an unexpected event delays your trip or forces you to cancel altogether, a travel insurance policy can reimburse you for those losses. Travel insurance policies may also cover lost luggage, meals, travel inconvenience if you miss part, but not all, of your trip,  and may also cover emergency medical treatment. Most travel insurance policies are relatively inexpensive, but can save you thousands of dollars. Just make sure you do some research and choose a reputable insurer. Read the policy benefits and limitations before you purchase so you understand exactly what you are getting before you have to make a claim.

I am Home; Where is My Lightsaber!

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light saber

Image from DeviantArt

Last week I went on a business trip to Chicago.  I was gone for a full 7 days and the schedule and work load was absolutely brutal.  My wife travels quite a bit for work but it’s rare that I do so when I am gone for such a long stretch, the kids just freak out.  They don’t know how to deal with it.  It’s kind of odd that it’s mommy that they usually want but they deal with her being away much better than they deal with me being away.

Last year when I went away on a similar trip, I found these little plastic lightsabers that light up and brought them home as “prizes” for my two boys.  I made the mistake of using that trip as a reference point when I explained why Daddy was going away and what I was going to be doing.  I started the conversation off by telling them I was going away and saying “remember when Daddy left last year and came back with those two lightsabers?”.  Their first comment was that they remembered and those lightsabers broke because they played with them too hard.  They had sad little faces until the light bulb finally went off and they realized I was going to the same convention again this year.  Suddenly the sad little faces got happy and they started yelling that they were getting new lightsabers.  From that point on I could have told them I was going to China for 6 months, it wouldn’t have mattered, visions of lightsabers were dancing in their heads.

I created a monster!

I split up the drive out to Chicago to two days because we (me and one of my employees) weren’t able to leave until the afternoon of day 1.  At the end of  day 1, we stopped at a hotel and I called home.  First thing out of Sean’s mouth was “did you get our lightsaber yet!”.  I had created monsters!  They were more concerned with their potential prizes than they were they I had gone away.  Oh well, it was still pretty cute and once we got past that, they were genuinely excited to hear from me.

The rest of the week started off the same way but something really sweet happened half way through.  By the time day 4 rolled around, all they wanted to do was talk to me, find out what I did that day and tell me what they did.  It was really sweet and it made being away from home both easier and much more difficult.

When I finally returned home brandishing their brand new lightsabers (among other things) their first question was “Did you get us a lightsaber” and the second question was “did you get us anything else”.  Haha, oh well.  Finally by the third or fourth question they started asking me about my trip and how I was and their true excitement to see their daddy home started shining through.

Do your kids expect presents when you go on trips?

Traveling With Children – Ideas to Make Your Trip More Enjoyable For All

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Traveling with children doesn't have to be a hassle

Found on Pixabay

Traveling with children may sometimes seem like a daunting task and it is if you expect them to sit in a car for hours on end with no entertainment whatsoever. By entertainment I am not referring to movies and video games (although they do come in handy on extremely long trips). There are many technology-free activities and ideas that can make your road trip an enjoyable one – for you and the children! Road trips are a great opportunity to spend some quality family time together.

When my daughters were only two, three and a half, and five and a half years old, our family went on an 11 hour road trip in a 7-seat mini van with one set of grandparents. There was not an empty spot in the van! We did not have a built in DVD player and our children did not own Nintendo DSs. Our two year old had a cast on her leg. Sounds like something not too many people would want to do doesn’t it? With minimal planning for an enjoyable road trip, the drive went off without a hitch – there and back! The children enjoyed it so much they were asking when we were going on our next long road trip. I came up with some of the ideas myself and found endless suggestions for games and activities and other entertainment ideas on the internet with search words like “car games” and “traveling with children”. Here is what we did.

 

Have Things to do While Traveling

We made sure to have a CD (at that time we did not have an MP3 player or an iPOD) with ALL of their favorite songs compiled onto one disc. We played this throughout the trip in the background for hours and had many, many family sing-a-longs. We packed a bag for each of our daughters as well, with their favorite things from home, that they kept by their seats on the floor of the van. This gave them the ability to self-entertain and gave us a break from constantly providing sources of entertainment.

Since we knew the drive was a long one, and even we were not that thrilled to be trapped in a vehicle for 11 hours, we made sure to try to hit the road early to make up some fast ground. This also provided us with the probability that the girls may sleep for a portion of the trip – another good way to kill some time. Our daughters have never been big sleepers, and although we were on the road before 6am, we did not get much sleeping out of them. If I remember correctly, our two year old fell asleep by nine and slept for about an hour or an hour and a half. Our three and a half year old slept for maybe 45 minutes shortly after lunch. That was it.

Breaks

No one can sit in a vehicle for eleven hours without bathroom breaks and without getting out to stretch tired legs. With children, it is even more important to do this. We made sure to include breaks as part of our trip. We timed them with lunch, for instance, and also with museums or parks we wanted to visit. This allowed us to provide our children with a definite timeline so when they asked how much longer until we stop, we were able to give them an answer, which seemed to satisfy them.

Entertainment

We made sure to play games with our daughters too. These games not only passed time for them, but for us as well. We played the ever popular “I Spy” and we also had our girls on the lookout for as many blue cars as they could find, and how many trucks they could see, etc. We looked for the letters of the alphabet, in order, on highway signs, as well as numbers, in order. With older children you can improvise these games by giving them a word such as “elephant”. They must find all of the letters, in order, on the highway signs. The first person to spell the word wins. Have them write down the name of one of the cities or towns on one of the highway signs and see who can rearrange the letters to spell the most words. Older children may also enjoy trying to find license plates from all 50 of the United States and/or all 10 provinces and 3 territories of Canada.

We did bring along a couple of portable DVD players and the older girls did end up watching one movie each, during the final hours of the trip. However, the highlight of their road trip was the surprise bags they got every hour of the trip! Thanks to the Dollar Store, I was able to purchase some inexpensive toys and activities to surprise them with. It was really fun shopping for things I knew they would like and it did not cost me much when it came right down to it. Before we left on our trip, I labelled twenty-two paper bags for each daughter – eleven for the trip there and eleven for the way back. I filled three or four of them with a juice box and snacks they do not typically get to eat at home. That way I knew they would be getting a snack every couple of hours. I filled about three bags with toys or books or activities I already had at home that they had not used in a while. They were excited to see them when they opened the bags and enjoyed them just as much as the stuff I bought new from the Dollar Store. My two year old loved to play with socks so I actually put a couple of pairs of socks in one of her bags and she entertained herself by putting them on and off both her hands and her feet! I filled all but one of the rest of the bags with items I had purchased at the Dollar Store. One of the biggest hits was colored pipe cleaners! I bought one package of 20 – 40 pipe cleaners and divided them up between my three daughters. They had great fun twisting them into different creations such as candy canes, letters of the alphabet and butterflies!

I only purchased one brand new bigger, more potentially expensive, toy for each of my girls, which was a mini Littlest Pet Shop kit that folds up for travel. Luckily, I had gotten them on sale a few months earlier, knowing I was planning to buy them something for this road trip. They received them in one of the first few bags of the road trip and they played with them on the road trip there, at the house we were staying at, on all the little road trips once we reached our destination, and on the way back too. They still play with them now, two years later, so they were well worth the money.

Road trips with children can be very successful and rewarding with very little planning and very little money spent. I am speaking from experience.

What other tips do you have for traveling with children?