Packing to Travel With Children

Today is the day I can say I am completely packed. Well, at least my kids are. 🙂 I had packed all their clothes yesterday, and getting the laundry finished was a huge feat made possible by unplugging for two days. Today I packed all their goodies for the commute. It is a 12 hour drive – so of course – that will take a lot longer than 12 hours if I’m traveling with three young kiddos.

Kelby Carr (@typeamom) sent me a link to her article about packing a family travel tote to make long car rides or airplane trips so that’s what I did today. Here’s the You Tube Video of my magic-mom-sanity-protector-travel-tote and all the things I got for the Type-A-Mom commute. See details about each item below.

In my Magical-Mom-Travel-Tote I have:

• Plum Organics snacks for the kids. One box of Fiddlesticks for my two big guys and a couple bags of Mish Mash for my little man.
• Snack Taxi reusable lunch bags – you can put little snacks like animal crackers or whatever in them too but I am going to use them for sandwiches on the go. That way we can minimize the eating-out expenses during the traveling days.
• Animal Crackers – Yes, my kids really DO think those are cookies. Please don’t tell them otherwise. 🙂
• Trail Mix – It’s just your standard Sam’s Club raisin, M&M’s, peanuts, almonds, and cashews trail mix. We buy it in bulk and then I break them up into smaller containers to make it easier to transport on car trips.
• Beef Jerky – LOVE beef jerky but it’s usually so expensive. Totally providential to find those bags on sale at the grocery store the other day. Of course – I’m only packing three because I already ate one. 😉
• Treasury Classics Bedtimes Stories DVD set from Scholastic – We’ve already watched the Curious George DVD and it was a big hit. Watch for the full review on my Type-A-Mom Preschool column soon.
• Etch-A-Sketch – Picked it up at Wal-Mart today. It was funny because I asked an Associate where the Etch-A-Sketches were and this teenager down at the end of the toy aisle goes “I’ve got one here!” *laughing* He’d been standing there for like 15 minutes creating Etch-A-Sketch art. Too funny.
• Magnadoodle – That way Brianna and Evan can switch out between the Etch-A-Sketch and the Magna Doodle and it will be like TWO new cool toys and the fun will last even longer. Please, Lord, let the fun last a long time.
• Coloring Books – I packed two of their newest coloring books that still had plenty of new pages to color and a pack of new crayons my sister gave me recently. That way I don’t have to take the crayons out of their school boxes. Whew!
• What did you see on your drive? Traveling Game – A totally fun and mom-made game with velcro pieces that are sturdy and laminated. Watch for a future interview with the creators of this fun game (and several other fun kid-friendly creations) – the founders of Excited2Learn.
• 201 Things to do When Your Children Say “I’m Bored” – with an entire section devoted to traveling with kids. I plan to make this my go-to-guide for on-the-spot creativity when I’m stuck for new ideas.
• Hand Sanitizer – Yeah, because at least I KNOW any potential side effects from that. 🙂 And when you have kids, you can never be too careful with the whole sanitation thing. Kids, rest stops, germs…yeah….hand sanitizer is a must.
• Parking Pals – OK these are actually not in my mom tote anymore because I already stuck them on the van, but they are very cool safety things for moms of multiple children like me.
• Little Touch Leappad and Leap Frog Leappad – With new cartridges I bought in big bulk lots for uber cheap. Gotta love a great deal. AND because I haven’t let my kiddos play with any of them yet they should be highly entertaining for a maximum amount of time. See earlier prayer.

So anyway – those are the nifty things I got for Type-A-Mom Conference Commute. More will be coming in detailed posts and reviews and hopefully a few additional videos, for example of how my son is using the Parking Pals so well. Until then, if you are looking for other ideas on traveling with children check out this article on The Vacation Gals website – fellow Type-A-Mom speakers!