Car Travel with a Toddler: Part I

So little time, so much to do!

If we are friends in real life (if only there was a link for this!), Facebook, Instagram, or Pinterest, you are well aware that I am in the process of planning our family vacation to Walt Disney World this December. Originally the plan was to fly to Orlando, but our plans recently have changed. When I was younger, my family always made a trip (or 2, or 3) to Florida a year, and we ALWAYS drove (my Mom doesn't like to fly). I decided we should give that a try. Not only would there be less risk of delays, but it would save us at least $500 in travel expenses! I felt as though we would be silly not to take advantage of the additional savings.

Obviously it did worry myself and my husband, driving 21 hours with a TWO YEAR OLD. But, we feel the reward would be worth the risk of a little fussing. 

I have been on planning this vacation NON-STOP since February, and once we decided to drive, this planning took a whole new twist. Before I was just planning what we would do once we were in Florida.. Now I am planning what our 2 year old is going to do for 20 hours BEFORE we get to Florida. Of course I jumped right on Pinterest and started searching for ideas for car games, toys, and my favorite things I have found so far, BUSY BAGS! 

I have always thought of myself to be a crafty person. Heck, I did spend thousands of dollars to go to art school. But arts and crafts for a toddler was never something I had worked on before. What seems silly to us, could literally keep a child entrained for HOURS. So, that's exactly what I did. I started making little activities that he will to play with in the car, and I am SO excited to share some of what I have already made with you today! 

 This was pretty simple to make. It is just magnets super glued to the back of colored popsicle sticks. The paper clips are to help with color matching. 

  

Another awesome use for the popsicle sticks-- Add some velcro! 2 pieces on each side, and they can make shapes for HOURS!

This is my FAVORITE activity I have made so far! I call it the "Disney Pal's Match-Up". I took photos of 2 friends from a Disney movie, and it will be Brody's task to match up the characters from each movie! My buddy is AWESOME with character recognition, so I have a feeling he will want to play this all the time. 

 The above photos are clothes pins and paint color samples (from Lowes) This will help with color recognition by having multiple shades of colors on each palette. From other posts I have seen, they have actually painted the clothes pin, but I found it easier to get 2 sets of each paint sample and paste a block of color onto the pin. It was a lot faster, and the color matches perfectly, so there is no confusion!

I will continue to post blogs when I make additional activities. Please feel free to share your car activities with me! Who would have thought, 2 weeks in Florida would take so long to plan!

I LOVE IT!

Ashley