Travel Timeline

We are loving summer and loading the car for our next family adventure.  Since we go on long trips with the kids often, I have learned that an organized car and a few extra tricks are key to the trip going smooth.  Here is one of my favorite tricks for helping my kids visualize our road trip. All it is, is a simple Travel Timeline.  Kids love to be a part of whats going on and this simple visualization tool gives them just that.  A simple way to make a connection to how much further before we reach the next landmark.  Visual references or maps help kids understand where they are and keeps the “how much further” question to a minimal.  That a win in my book!

 All you will need to pack in the car to make your own time line need is a little string, a hole punch, paper squares, makers and a few paper clips.  Nothing crazy, and basically mess free.

Before we leave on our trip, I have Chuck install the string clothes line.  Having it ready to go makes the craft even that much easier.  Make sure to hang the clothes line in an area that is out of the way.  We strung ours between the hooks on the ceiling, which works great for us since the kids only use one of the vans sliding doors on trips.

You could make all the visuals at home, but I like to have the kids make them as we are driving.  That way it helps pass some more time in the car.  We punched a hole in the top of the paper and hung it on the string with a paper clip.  Super simple and easy.

The kiddos drew pictures of things that we would be driving past on our trip.  Since this is a route we take often, the kids were able to remember some of the things from past trips.  We also added all the states and provinces that we would be driving through.

The kids drew our car, and yes we were all smiling the whole trip;)  Ha!  As we passed one of the markers, the kids would move our van along the time line.

I love how it turned out.  They looked so cute swaying in the window and the kiddos loved seeing the car move along the time line as we got closer to our destination.  So fun!

If you are looking for more road trip ideas, follow the link to a fun list of things we like to do.