Road Trip Tips for Summer (or anytime of the year)

Summer is fast approaching and with that means road trips and camping–or maybe it means you want to take a road trip or go camping, but something is keeping you back.

Namely your kids.

Or rather, namely your chief fear of taking children along for the ride and adventure…which can be a scary proposition indeed.

But it doesn’t have to be!

My little ones, ages five, six, and seven, have gone on road trips and camping with us since I was pregnant with them.  I’ll be the first to admit that caring for a child while inside of me is a lot easier and less stressful than taking care of it after I’ve given birth to it, but with a few quick pointers I think anyone can have a fun and enjoyable time vacationing with small children.

Pee stops, whining, and “are we there yets” included.

You think I’m kidding right?

Well you’re wrong.

Maybe.

Let’s begin with road trips.

The most important thing to remember while driving for any type of long distance (one-and-a-half hours is a long distance for a child) is comfort. If you can keep your child’s relative comfort in check, it will go a long way for both you and your child. While you can’t totally eliminate whining, pee stops, and annoying questions, you can drastically cut down on the number of occurrences by following these simple measures:

• Plan accordingly–know where rest stops, scenic overlooks, and Walmarts are. Even if you hate Walmart. Why Walmart? Because Walmart is everywhere and has everything.
• Keep the sun out of your child’s face.
• Stock up on formula, water, and clean bottles/nipples if you are traveling with a baby.
• If breastfeeding, well dang you’re just lucky. Breast pads and nipple cream?
• If the child is eating semi-solid to solid food, bring extra baby food jars or dinners with you. My favorites were the kinds that needed no refrigeration or preparation that I could use in a jam.
• STOP to eat or feed a child. Rest stops and scenic overlooks are great opportunities for you and your children to get out and stretch your legs and/or clean up.
• Bring extra diapers and wipes–in fact more than you think you need–and change that kid’s diaper. Again, rest stops and scenic overlooks are great places to do this (just don’t spoil the view).
• For each day stuck in a vehicle, bring two extra pairs of clean clothes and underwear for ages 2 and under and one extra pair over the age of two. Dress your kid in the ugliest outfit first, and arrive in nicest if visiting family or friends. Why? Because spills, spitups and blowouts happen.
• Bring a comfort item from home–this could mean a favorite blankie, a doll, a pacifier, or in my youngest’s case a string to put in his nose.
• Pillow for older kids to rest their sleepy heads on.
• Blanket to keep them warm (the warmer they are the sleepier they are).

The second most important thing to remember for road trips is distraction. That’s right, keep that kid occupied and you’ll be less likely to pull your hair out at the end of the day:

• DVD players anyone?
• Favorite toys (keep to three maximum for older children). Suggestions: Cars, dolls, rattlers, stuffed animals, balls, action heroes, play thing that straps to a seat for infants, and more.
• Simple games like goldfish, battleship, connect the dots, checkers, chess,  etc. Keep these games in a designated box or tote.
• Silent distractions: Books, crosswords, puzzles, etch-a-sketch, coloring book with nine crayons, doodling pad. Keep these distractions in the same box with the toys.
• Road games like ABC, license plates, and I Spy, cost nothing.
• Snacks.
• Headphone and a music playing device.

I highly recommend not traveling for more than eight hours in one single day if your trip is going to take longer than fourteen hours. This means that if it typically takes you all morning, afternoon, and evening to get to grandma’s house, then start traveling at 8 am the day before and stop for the day at 4 pm. Do this twice unless camping or hotels are out of the question. Yes, this means that your usual one day trip now takes two days, but I promise you that it will be worth it in the end. I live in the Dallas area and it takes me 24 hours of straight driving to visit my husband’s family who live in central Utah. We used to travel all day non-stop, but last year we got smart and spread the road trip over four days while camping for the night. We were all much more relaxed, happy, and less stressed when we arrived at our destination.

If you are just attempting road tripping, travel no longer than two hours from your home to test things out the first time. Go to a historic place, a state park, a hike, the lake, or even a museum for the day.

Anyone else hitting the road this summer with the family?

How do you manage to navigate the interstates, highways and dusty trails of our great nation with kids in tow?

Botanical Gardens – Fort Worth

The Fort Worth Botanical Gardens has an amazing boardwalk learning trail for children.

It is tucked inside the first Botanical Garden exit (the one closest to 30).

When you see the big log, you are close.

The “log” is actually made of concrete and large enough for a whole group of children to play.

Just beyond the log is the entrance to the boardwalk.

All along the raised trail are learning stations where kids can learn about plants, animals, insects, birds and whether trees poop.

Because the entire trail is high, children can peek through the wire rails at everything below.

Just beyond the boardwalk is a really pretty Lilly pond. I am happy to report that no one ended up in the middle of it on this trip.

We saved the water fun for this action-initiated fountain in one of the prettiest corners of the Botanical Gardens.

Everyone goes home wet, worn out and happy.

The amazing thing is that we have only scratched the surface of things to see at the Fort Worth Botanical Gardens, but that is all we needed today. We will save the rest for another adventure.

Spice Up Staycation with Cheap, Creative Thrills

You aimed to rent a beach house the Big Island this summer for your family, but alas, the economy has downsized your plans to include only cold showers at home.

That said, you and your kids can substitute a costly vacation with a smashing “staycation” here in Texas. All it takes is a little imagination and perhaps some phone calls. And just think: You’ll have the luxury of your own washing machine, which, when enjoyed with a frosty margarita, is a beautiful thing.

Mission: Impossible – Nature Challenge 2010

YOUR MISSION…SHOULD YOU CHOOSE TO ACCEPT IT:
EXPLORE THE NATURE OF NORTH CENTRAL TEXAS THIS SUMMER WITH YOUR FAMILY!

What a great idea!

 The Trinity River Audubon Center is one of the hosts of the Nature Challenge 2010. Sign your whole family up as a team and then set out to accomplish your mission – visit as many participating parks and nature areas in North Central Texas as you can in 11 weeks. From their website, “You will view native wildlife, dip your feet in creeks, rivers, and draw and write about your observations while learning more about nature and science in your neighborhood! At each site you will complete activities designed for family fun and nature exploration provided in English and Spanish.”

Opening Ceremonies take place this Saturday, May 22nd at the Trinity River Audubon Center in Dallas, 10:00 – 2:00. Closing Ceremonies will be on Saturday, August 14th at the River Legacy Living Science Center in Arlington.

Click HERE to register your family for the Nature Challenge 2010!

See you there!

Lewisville Lake Environmental Learning Area

As Environmental Chairman for the Greater Lewisville Early Childhood PTA, I had an outing scheduled for today for the children to go on a nature scavenger hunt at the Lewisville Lake Environmental Learning Area (LLELA). I thought about cancelling it because it was 40 degrees outside which seemed a little cold to go on a nature walk with little children. But I talked to some of the moms who had signed up and many were still excited about going so I bundled Rachel all up and we headed out.

The scavenger hunt was awesome! Most of the children attending were in the range of 18 months – 4 years old and it was a great activity for this age group. We had laminated sheets with pictures of what we were supposed to find and dry erase markers to circle the items once we found them.

I love our trail guide because she “planted” some cool items along the trails in advance just so the children could find some really interesting items.

We found colorful leaves, animal burrows, coyote jaw bones, turkey feathers, turtle shells…

…deer antlers…

…grasshoppers…

…coyote and raccoon tracks in the mud…

…flowers…

…evergreen trees.

We saw Lake Lewisville…

…and an original log cabin from the 1860s…

I’m so proud of our group of moms and kiddos. We spent about an hour and a half on our nature walk and had a great time despite the cold temperatures.

Even though Rachel spent the whole time in the stroller, she was worn out and fell asleep on the way home.

LLELA is open to the public on the weekends. You can hike on three trails, camp, canoe, picnic, birdwatch, or just enjoy spending time with nature.

Project BudBurst

Yesterday we were walking home from school. Nicholas had to get out a little prerequisite running in celebration of the start of Spring Break.

But after that was out of his system, he settled down and picked a dandelion flower from someone’s yard. Then he picked another dandelion flower that was more in full bloom. He said he had a neat idea and started looking around in this person’s yard for more dandelions. He found just what he wanted, a set of dandelion buds that had not yet bloomed. He showed me the flowers and was all excited to explain that he had started a collection of each stage of the dandelion’s bloom.

Well, the collection wasn’t really complete until he also picked the full dandelion in seed form ready to blow away.

I love the way his mind works and that he not only understands the process of a plant life cycle so well but also that he gets excited about it. But what is absolutely fascinating to me about this story is just an hour earlier, I was at home researching citizen science projects that we could participate in when I ran across a project that perfectly mirrors what he just collected on his own. Project BudBurst engages the public in making careful observations of plant life cycles (phenophases) such as first leafing, first flower, and first fruit ripening of a diversity of trees, shrubs, flowers, and grasses in their local area. As a citizen scientist, you collect this information on plants in your area and then report the data back to the Project where they collaborate your findings with those from other citizen scientists from around the country.

I love citizen science projects because they are usually very kid-friendly and a great way to teach little ones about their environment. We have done several citizen science projects in which we monitor and report on birds that we see in our backyard. But this plant project is a new one for us and it sounds like fun. Project BudBurst has a Simple 5 Step process to participate. Their website even includes a Grades K-6 Facilitator Guide and a Teacher’s Guide.

When we made it home, Nicholas had to hide behind the van like he often does so I have to come looking for him. There isn’t a minute that goes by in this boy’s life when he isn’t wanting to play!

Then he put his dandelion collection with his ever-growing collection of nature treasures outside the front door and we recorded our dandelion findings for Project BudBurst.

A Homemade Jet Pack

We Built Leprechaun Traps

Everything is coming up Green at our house.

Lego Mania!

The Lewisville library has a special event for little builders.  It’s called Lego Mania!  We recently stopped by to check it out. We were a little late so everyone was already absorbed in their creations but Nicholas quickly found the table with the cool Star Wars Lego pieces and went to work building.

It was neat watching the boys at the table. None of the boys seem to know each other and they were each building their own ships yet for the most part they would help each other find particular pieces that each other needed. It was a great experience in teamwork.

Lego Mania! is held on the fourth Sunday of each month at 2:00.  There are tons of Legos as well as Duplo blocks from younger children.  And best of all – it’s FREE!  The Lewisville Library is located at 1197 West Main in Lewisville and their phone number is 972-219-3570.

Homemade Butter

Cold and rainy days mean staying indoors. Unfortunately, that makes some of us a little stir crazy. So I’m always on the lookout for fun activities for my little ones that might just happen to also provide a little teaching along the way. Recently we made homemade butter. Stuart looked at me funny when I told him this. “You did what?” Yep, homemade butter.

I talked to Nicholas a little bit about how butter is made. I explained that basically you start with heavy cream and mix it up until it becomes butter. The cream is full of little fat globules but they are all separate and lonely. Once the mixing starts, fat globule Bob bumps into fat globule Joe and they become friends so they stick together. As more mixing happens, they bump into fat globule Mike and fat globule Tom and they all decide to stick together. The little group of friends keep bumping into more fat globules until everyone is stuck together and they have a big party. And then you have butter. Nicholas loved the story and couldn’t wait to start mixing up some cream.

We do have this cool antique churn that we could have used.

But it just sits on top of our kitchen cabinets. It’s gotten a bit dirty and dusty over the years and I don’t really know if I could ever clean those wooden paddles enough to feel good about eating anything made with them. However, it was neat to be able to show this to Nicholas and explain how it was used in olden days.

Our project was a bit different. All we used were some clean baby food jars, a few glass marbles, heavy whipping cream, music, and manpower.

Nicholas started with filling the jars about 3/4 full of cream.

He added two marbles to help with mixing and put the lid on. I double checked to make sure that the lid was on REALLY tight. Then we put on some fun music and we danced around while we shaking the jars. It doesn’t really matter how you shake them or how hard you shake them but you need to keep them moving.

It’s best to do this with two people so you can trade off and let your arm rest. After 5 minutes, he had a nice whipped topping.

Then around 10 minutes, we could hear a more distinct “thud” sound as a ball of butter was now shaking around in the jar. There was still a lot of liquid that we drained off but in the end we had real butter. It tasted fine right out of the jar but we added a pinch of salt just to make it better.

It was yummy on crackers for an after school snack. Nicholas suggested that we should have repeated our homemade cracker project so we could have had homemade butter AND homemade crackers. Great idea but I recall that I wasn’t too impressed with our homemade crackers. I think I’ll stick with store bought crackers but the homemade butter is a winner.

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