This is a sponsored post written by me on behalf of SnowCast for IZEA. All opinions are 100% mine.
Becky and I are both from PA, so we just took a 7 hour trip home (from NC to PA) to see our families (my parents and some of her family still live there). The trips are getting longer and longer. When we first went back to PA, before having kids, we made it in 5 hours, 20 minutes. Our latest trip (four children later): 7 hours. We’ve learned a thing or two about traveling with kids.
1. Pack days in advance, because chances are you will have forgotten something, so you can go back and add stuff or take stuff out. Trust me… we’ve been down this road before. Pack at least three days in advance, so when you realize that you left the noise machine at home, you don’t have to run out and get a new one at the store.
2. Use E.W. Scripps Company’s new app, SnowCast, to plan your trip. We travel in the winter, so this is pretty important. We need to know when the best time to leave is going to be (like leaving early to beat the snow), since it tells you how much snow will fall now and within the next 6 hours (and over the next 48 hours, in 6-hour increments). Not to mention that the kids use the app to plan their PA snow days. You will receive notifications, like NOAA winter weather warnings and advisories, to let you know when and how much snow is forecast for your location. We like it because it is easy to Download the app and install it & it is always accurate. (We use it almost every day in the winter months!)
3. Get CAR movies. Becky ran to the library before the trip and rented 6 movies that the kids watched over and over. (Another option is to get a RedBox movie, because you can rent it in one city or state and return it in another).
4. Get headphones! This was a tip that we heard last year and we will never look back. We got headphones… for the kids. Each child gets their own and they are wireless, so they connect to the DVD players. If you can ask for this for Christmas for your kids, it makes traveling so much easier. (You get pretty tired listening to Curious George three times in seven hours).
5. Have cleaning supplies in the car. You don’t want to know why you will need these, but trust me… have them in the car.
6. Take a snack basket and fill it with easy snacks. We pack granola bars, crackers, goldfish. (Anything that is easy to vacuum up after the trip).
7. Pack sandwiches to make the lunch stop quick. If you can eat lunch or dinner in the car, without a huge mess, the time moves right along. We started doing this a few years ago- packing sandwiches at home and bringing them to eat in the car.
8. Get a book on CD. We tried this last year and loved it. It kept our kids so busy that they didn’t want to get out when we got to our destination! We rented long books on CD (6 hours or more) and it was a hit. We plan on doing this again for our spring trip.
All in all, remember to be prepared for the trip, download the app & have a great time!
How about bringing a multi-port charger with you? If you have kids, this help you solve their usual bickering about who should charge first. Most multi-port chargers can charge 5 to 6 devices at once.
Thats funny you mentions that. We recently just purchased one and just used it on our last trip. The one we purchased can charge up to 6 devices at a singe time. 🙂