Montessori Road Trips Ideas.

This weekend I posted a few clips on my Instagram about how we took an impromptu road trip to New York City on Sunday morning. We woke up, asked the kids what they wanted to do that day, my five year old said “see New York City” and we were in the car within the hour. We live about 3 hours away; drove there and back — and never got out of the car (because of Covid) other than a trunk picnic for lunch and some bathroom breaks (for the kids because we brought a toddler toilet.) We were in the car from 9:30-5:30. I got so many DMs wondering how it all worked with three young children — fair enough! So I thought I’d share a little bit about how we approach road trips with our children.

While road tripping, I still value the things that I love so much about Montessori: freedom of movement, freedom of choice, and independence. So I think it’s important to provide as similar an experience on the road as at home. 

We are a family that enjoys traveling together and before the pandemic had done two cross country trips with young toddlers in tow. We also plan to do some cross country travel this summer and having been at home for a year now (!), want to get some practice trips in to get our three kids comfortable and familiar with the idea of car trips again. 

First — let’s talk expectations.

Lower your expectations. Leaving the house and the typical rhythm of your lives is hard on children. So meltdowns are bound to happen. You probably won’t see or do all that you have in your mind — so keep your list short, and broad! Like literally, one or two things a day is realistic.

Consistently check-in with yourself and your children. Pause. Breathe. Pull over. Stretch your legs. Do a mental check-in. When was the last time everyone ate? Drank water? Peed? Make sure basic needs are met and offer as much patience as you can muster. They are doing their best but so are you.

Maintain a rhythm: Children like routines, and they like to know what to expect. As much as you can, maintain their routine. Make sure you offer snacks and meals at similar times as though you were home, stop and use the bathroom frequently, and make sure they bring items that allow them to feel safe and secure. Sometimes that’s a blanket, stuffed animal or doll. These items are a part of their rhythm, so don’t try to do without them.   

Now, let’s talk about how this all looks logistically for a day trip. I bring three bags: a diaper bag (backpack style), an activity bag (open tote bag, no zippers/pockets) and a snack bag (again, open tote bag, no zippers/pockets.) The activity bag was the one that most people had questions about. I’ll show what I just brought on our most recent day trip (affiliate links) but to answer some questions: I bring one activity bag and everyone’s activities are in it, I bring one of each activity and they take turns (just like at home), and we are not screen-free. 

Basics:

Diaper bag: I would argue the most important bag, ha! I’ve had this one since Javi was 3 months old and we traveled to Puerto Rico. It’s the best! I make sure to have diapers and wipes and all the things we’ll clearly need — plus, a first aid kit! I can’t tell you how many knee scrapes we’ve experienced while we’re just “getting out real quick to stretch!” I also keep an extra outfit for every kid, even if they’re fulled toilet-trained. You just never know.

Toilet: Especially in these times, when we can’t just jump out of the car and run into a store or a rest area to use the bathroom, we always travel with a toilet! Make sure to bring along plastic bags, too. 

Bubbles: These are basically a necessity. 🙂 Bubbles are a great little activity if you can find a safe patch of grass to get those legs moving! They are endless fun and I always have them in our diaper bag.

Trays: I’ve tried every car seat tray Amazon sells, I swear. If it’s listed under “traveling with kids”, I’ve purchased it. Nothing works that doesn’t frustrate the kids when things inevitably roll off of them. But these $3 trays I found at Target are wonderful because they have a lip and they’re so inexpensive! They are great to hold in laps to do activities, or to use as a place setting for a meal in the trunk of our SUV.  

Activities:

I know a lot of people aim for keeping kids busy in the car, but my Montessori-heart prefers to think of it as keeping them engaged. I want to offer similar activities that we would otherwise do at home. 

Activities for young toddlers:

These are some activity ideas for young toddlers. Since she’s rear-facing (16 months), there’s not too much she can see out of her window. So while, I bring her some items that she can manipulate, I also rely heavily on snacks AND the rest of us to keep her feeling included on our trip! We talk, sing, read books and hope for a few car naps. 🙂

Wallet + cards: This one is from Lovevery but you could easily grab an old wallet with some expired gift cards because children this age LOVE putting things inside something and then taking it out again. 

Puppets: Puppets are really fun! They fit on fingers, and if you have older siblings they can make up great puppet shows in the backseat for a young toddler. These ones were like $5 at Ikea.

Fidget toys: This is her favorite toy. So, we bring it everywhere. It keeps her attention and she loves pressing all the colors. This one is a little more expensive than others you can find/buy but I do notice it’s better quality because we have some other ones, too.

Books: These books are wonderful because they have real photographs and they are not overstimulating. There are only a few images on each page, plus they are small! So I notice she has an easier time turning the pages while in her carseat.

Activities for three year olds:

Here are some activities for children around age 3. It’s best to have contained activities so that items aren’t falling into the carseat and onto the floor since that will just cause frustration. These are also activities you can do even if you don’t have a tray table.

Water Wow: I haven’t met a child who didn’t enjoy these books! We always travel with water so they are really easy to fill up and we haven’t had a spill yet (though even if it did spill, it’s just water!)

Magicolor: I love these books because the markers only work on the special paper. 🙂 We also don’t use markers at home that much so they are very exciting while in the car.

Paper + stickers: Stickers are always fun! And we always seem to have sheets of them. We also always have a box of crayons with us, so we can use those to color on the pad of paper.

Sewing block (similar): This is another self-contained activity and one that is great for fine motor skills.

Another activity that works if you have a tray, is a small puzzle. I keep the pieces in a small container in our activity bag. I love the containers The Container Store sells; the “multisnap mini storage box”. They fit small puzzles or crayons or stickers perfectly. I always have 3-4 with me with different activities inside.

Many families don’t do screen time, even in the car, but we do use tablets! Not for my youngest, but my 3 and 5 year olds both have their own. Lola chooses not to use hers much and is bored by it quickly. Javi will choose the tablet first. Our ground rules around tablets, even in the car, are: you still have to be a part of our ride (so answer us), and you have to shut it off when we exit the highway so that you see what we’re going there to see. Here are some ideas that I bring along with my older two children in mind.

Tablets: We typically have at least one movie downloaded on each tablet and sometimes they watch together or on their own. This is a personal decision for each family to make, of course. I also know it’s entirely possible to do a trip without screens, because we’ve done it.

Books: We always have a stash of car books and I’m very fond of the ones by Barefoot Books. They have a YouTube channel (as well as CDs in the backs of the books) so you can listen to the music that goes along with the stories, too. It just adds something new and different to the ride.

Games: Trivia games are really fun for road trips. Anyone can play! Other games we play are I spy — sometimes by color, sound, car, etc. You can also count: count how many cars go by, or how many red cars, or how many signs you see, or how long the red light lasts! You can make observations: what do you see, hear, smell? Who can find the tallest building? How many words are in New York City? How many syllables are in “traffic”? Assuming you’re using a GPS, which direction are you traveling? Endless opportunities!

Camera: My two older kids both have cameras and they love to take pictures. I always love looking back at the photos to see what they thought was picture-worthy.

Activities for 5 year olds:

Here are some activities to bring along for older children. Similar to when we’re at home, I balance screen time by having other activities that he’s inspired to use instead of watching a screen. He can also use anything in the activity bag for the younger children, but most likely they won’t use his things as they aren’t developmentally appropriate for them. 

Wipe-Clean books: He loves these so much. We have number ones, letter ones, mazes, doodling — they are all great though I’m particularly fond of the ones by Usborne.

Scratch Art: Another self-contained activity that is perfect for the car are scratch art books.

Paint by sticker books: He’s really into these lately and they work best with a tray.

Maps + facts: A map of where you’re traveling to is the perfect activity for this age. Since we were going into NYC, I grabbed the map we did have. Then on the ride, we did some research. We learned that 8 million people live there and over 800 languages are spoken there! Kids are usually fascinated by facts so they’ll soak up (and retain!) that information.

Snacks:

Now that I’ve mentioned expectations and activities, I’ll talk about snacks. MAKE SURE YOU HAVE THEM. Our snack bag is always stocked — bowls, napkins, dry snacks (for kids and adults.) We also bring a cooler anytime we go on a day trip and we make sure to bring waters, juice boxes, soda for us, and cold snacks — string cheese, chopped veggies, washed fruit. Food is important to the overall success of the trip but food is also comforting. I prefer they eat things they are familiar with and that we bring along with us rather than expensive and/or unhealthy snacks from a convenience store. On planned trips, I typically pack lunches too.

Snacks (and meals) are also a great time to offer your child a choice, even in the car. And of course, giving them opportunities for independence is still important (and necessary if you don’t want a power struggle!) so make sure you’re bringing snacks they are familiar with opening — and then let them do it. If you’re worried that it’s too messy for the car, don’t bring it! 

A few other tips:

– If one person needs to use the bathroom, everyone needs to try! I can’t tell you how many times we’ve stopped for one person and as soon as we get back on the highway someone says they need the bathroom! So now, if one uses it — they all do (and Eva gets a diaper change.) Like I said above, we bring our toddler toilet everywhere and it works great for the kids.

– Get rid of the trash. If you stop and there’s a trash bin, empty the car. It becomes overwhelming really quickly if you’re surrounded by crumbs, and used napkins, and diapers and empty wrappers. So, every time we stop, we throw away all our trash and it’s instantly like a weight has been lifted. This is the best way to maintain your “prepared environment” even on the road!

Do you road trip with your children?