At the time of our trip, Jeremiah was about 15 1/2 months old. We split the 14 hours of travel time (each way!) into two days. Call me "old school," but I want to try and provide activities that are engaging and educational.
I scoured pinterest for ideas prior to the trip. (How did anyone survive before pinterest?! I'm kidding. Kind of.) I made sure to include several things I already knew he liked to play with, but also lots of activities that he had never seen before. I figured that if he didn't like the activity, at least the "newness" would keep him entertained for a while.
I put all the activities into one tote that I kept within arms reach in the car. We started out saying that we would not give him a new activity until we had picked up all the pieces of the previous one. This rule quickly got broken. Jeremiah turned Houdini and caused many things to disappear. We still can not find two activity pieces.
Jeremiah loves to read. So I started by packing several of his favorite books.
My mom sewed two quiet books from fabric panels. She added charms, pom-poms, googly eyes, etc. to make the books a little more interesting and engaging. Jeremiah liked these, but he did not love them as much as I wanted him to based on the time that goes into making them.
A bag of dinosaurs. We got these at a garage sale earlier this summer, and I hid them until the trip (after they took a nice bleach bath in the washing machine). The "newness" kept him engaged for a short time, and he still likes to play with them on occasion.
A bag of magnets and a small cookie sheet. At home, Jeremiah plays with a set of alphabet magnets, but they are a little small for him to play with independently. He doesn't typically put things in his mouth, but I knew in the car I couldn't keep an eye on him 100% of the time. So I bought some larger fridge magnets at the dollar store. I also took a large sheet magnet (you know, those free ones you get on the phone book that tell you the emergency phone numbers for attorneys) and glued some pictures on it. I cut them out, and Jeremiah got his own set of family magnets. Jeremiah wasn't an expert at getting the magnets to stick to the cookie sheet, but it did keep him engaged for quite awhile.
An old wallet filled with used gift cards. This was very simple to put together and surprisingly one of Jeremiah's favorite activities. I would like to add a mirror and pen (that has run out of ink) to this.
An empty gum canister with ribbon. Jeremiah enjoyed taking the ribbon out, but it didn't take long before he needed me to refill it.
A bag of foam letters. I purposely only put in letters that spelled his name so that we would know if any were missing. (This is one of the activities that Jeremiah turned into a magic trick. We still can't find one of the letters. I replaced it for the photo.) He likes to zip and unzip the bag and move the letters from one pocket to the other.
A container of wiffle and water balls. These were not that engaging during the car ride, but we've been teaching Jeremiah how to throw a ball. He would attempt to throw them to us, and we would toss them back to him.
A parmesan cheese container with straws. We have had this activity for quite awhile. I used to have q-tips in it, but Jeremiah likes to tear the cotton off the ends. So for the trip, I switched out the q-tips for straws (cut in half). He loves to open and close the lid, shake the container to get the straws out, and put the straws back in. He has very good fine motor skills and is quite successful in getting the straws back in independently. (This is the second activity that Jeremiah turned into a magic trick. One straw half is still invisible to us.)
Texture balloons. I filled four different balloons with things from around the house: flour, rice, sugar, and beads. The "newness" kept his interest briefly, but he was not that impressed.
Egg carton and Easter eggs. I filled an empty egg carton with different colored Easter eggs (two of each color). I also cut shapes out of matching colors of felt to put into each egg. He's still not ready to match shapes or colors, but I figured I could keep it around for awhile. When he is older, I will paint the matching color in the bottom of each egg cup in the egg carton for him to match as well. Jeremiah loved this activity. The egg carton itself kept his interest for a long time. We had to replace the egg carton after he had played with it the first time, but we're still on the second egg carton now.
A baggie of various plastic lids. I just raided that one cabinet (you know you have one, too!). Jeremiah LOVED these. Several of the lids were translucent, and he liked to hold them up to his face and look through them. These kept his attention for much longer than expected.
Other miscellaneous objects. I threw in some plastic measuring spoons, my old flip phone, some play eggs, and Altoids tins. Out of these, the Altoid tins are his favorite. He likes to open/close them and put things inside and shake them. The old stand-by of water bottles made several appearances too.
Another favorite activity of his on the trip home was to poke mom and dad with a pool noodle. My mom had given him this to swim with on vacation (no such luck), but once he got hold of it in the car, it kept him entertained for MUCH longer than anything else I had packed. Since Jeremiah is right handed, he had a much easier time reaching my head in the car. Josh thought it was hilarious and kept egging him on. (Look at that evil grin on Jeremiah's face!)
These activities are now in our rotation of tricks we take to church (okay, not the pool noodle!). I think the key was to have numerous activities and a lot of variety. The first of (hopefully!) many successful road trips!
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