Traveling with a SATB2 Child

With the 2nd annual SATB2 Associated Syndrome Conference coming up, our family is gearing up for a long road trip to drive there and back again. 

With a SATB2 kid along for the ride, this can be a massive undertaking! So here are some ways we keep our sanity while on the open road together:

Things to Bring:

Bring a clean up kit!!! Our SATB2 kids car sick. A LOT. So be prepared! For my clean up kit, I include: clothes, carpet cleaner, Lysol wipes, air freshener, plastic bags, water, quarters, laundry detergent, and hair ties/ brush

BOOKS!! Audio books and regular books. Books for the kids to quietly look at by themselves, follow along with audio books, or for me to read aloud from the front seat

Rest stop toys and snacks! I don't let my kids eat in the car, so rest stops every hour or two include a potty break, snack time, and 10 minutes or so of throwing a ball/ frisbee

Prizes for good behavior! Every half hour of no fighting/ whining, my kids earn a "car buck" for good behavior. They can save up their car bucks for prizes, worth different amounts. Chelsea just likes getting a prize and forgets about the ticket system. My son LOVES earning the tickets

Coloring books and coloring pencils! I don't like using markers because some always ends up on my seats

DIY Activities

My favorite thing to make is BUSY BAGS!!! I blogged about the first 22 busy bags HERE. And trust me- I am NOT crafty! If I can do it, YOU can do it!

I also put together a few Busy Boxes, like a dinosaur play scene, a lego box, things like that. I wrote about it HERE.

This trip, I really want to make these magnetic travel boards I found of pinterest! 

Another big hit with my kids is when we sing songs. I am terrible at thinking of what songs to sing, even though we know soooo many, so I made little pages in sheet protectors and let the kids choose which song they want

Games

• I spy!!! The regular version, or print out pages, or get I Spy books from the library

• Alphabet game (find letters A-Z)
• Car BINGO (I found 4 of these at the dollar store)

• Categories (pick a category and go around the car, everyone saying something from that category)
• Name that singer (Chelsea's favorite because we sing a lot of Disney songs!) 

Travel Products

If you don't want to go to the trouble of making a bunch of activities, here are some things we have used to entertain the kids with great success! 

• Water WOW- these are usually about $5/ each, and TOTALLY worth it!!! You fill up the pen with water, and then the kids draw on each picture, which colors it. After a few minutes, it dries back to white so you can color again

• Re-useable stickers- people. Again, about $5/ each. My kids love these!!! And I like it because it keeps them occupied for FOREVER! The only down side is that some of the stickers are tiny (like the shoes), and get lost or drop all over the car. So when I find stickers in the carpet, they go in the trash. That is enough motivation for my son to keep it cleaned up.
  
  
  
  

• Re-useable stickers- scenes. Yet again, about $5/ each. I want to use these for the magnetic boards! Put on magnets to hold the scene there and then play with it. I also love these in the car because the stickers stick to the windows, and HOW FUN IS THAT??

• Magnetic dress-up. These range from $5-$8 each, and I have used mine for years, so I think it is well worth it! This is one of Chelsea's favorites! She loves making the prince and princess talk/ kiss, and changing outfits all the time. Same thing with the dress up stickers- the little ones get lost sometimes. But usually, Chelsea just cares about the dresses, so oh well

• Glow sticks- Seriously the best thing for night travel!