Road Trip Tips for School Age Children

These road trip tips for school age children help make travel fun. Many parents consider vacations with school age children to be the golden age of family travel. If done right, kids who are this age can be very enthusiastic about hitting the open road.

There are a few things to consider that can make any vacation more fun. These road trip tips for school age children will have your family out the door in no time!

Involve the kids

Parents who forget to involve the kids in trip planning pay for it later. Just because you enjoy strolling through a quiet art museum doesn’t necessarily mean that your kids will. Involve the kids from the beginning by talking about possible destinations.

Guide their choices but consider their input. Even if you over rule them later the kids will felt listened to and valued.

Assign the kids a task

Giving the kids something to do is a great way to involve them. Road trips for school age children can be made educational. Older school age children can help keep a gas log. He or she can write down the price with every fill up and compare later.

Pack stuffed animals and comfort items

Even school age children will have comfort items or stuffed animals. Let each child bring a few for the trip. They can sometimes double as pillows. Playing with them can help make time go by. Kids can carry them in the travel totes.

Travel tote

A bag is one of the ways that road trips for school age children can be made more memorable. Pick up a reusable tote for each child before the trip. Letting each child decorate his or her bag with permanent markers or paint will make them identifiable at a glance.

Brochures

Kids love to pick up travel brochures at rest stops and welcome centers. The problem is that they like to pick up all of the brochures. One of the road trip tips for school age children is to set a limit on the number of items that they can pick up at any one time.

Maps

Kids can have fun with maps on the trip. They can highlight the route with a marker as they go along. When they ask “how much longer” you can refer them to the map and encourage them to give you the answer. It will also help them understand that map reading is sometimes more accurate than a GPS.

Electronics

These days, road trip tips for school age children involve keeping electronics charged and working. Putting extra batteries in the travel totes can help. Some parents find that investing in a car adapter can be helpful or plugging in electronics. Adapters can be picked up at automotive stores.

Post trip collage

Let the kids go through their travel brochures and maps to create a post trip collage. This can be a great rainy day activity for when you get home. It’s also one of the road trip tips for school age children that will keep them excited about their next vacation.

Photo credit: Gayle Crabtree

Taken on a family road trip with school age children.