Tag: 2013

Tips for Tots on Road Trips

If you’ve ever been trapped in a confined space with screaming children, you know how terrible traveling with kids can be.  Planning ahead can make road trips with tots more fun for both the kids and parents. These seven traveling tips will help keep everyone in your car stay happy.

1. Timing is Everything – Chose your departure time wisely.  When I was young, my parents would load everyone in the car for road trips at the insanely early hour of four am. They were morning people, and we kids would sleep along the way.  Although I can’t bring myself to wake up that early, I do plan my travel times around little g taking a nap on route.  That way there’s one less person for me to entertain while trying to drive.

2. Something Old, Something New – Entertaining kids on long trips is not always easy.  One thing I do is bring a new toy along with us. Even if I just went to the dollar store, or got happy meal toys, the newness of the item is usually enough to hold their attention for a while. Also, if your kid has a favorite toy they can’t live without be sure to bring that as well. Just make sure you bring toys that aren’t messy. No markers or playdoh! This photo is from a trip when I let Big E bring along a styrofoam block he had been playing with.  Needless to say, we both regretted that choice.

3. Technology – I’m a big fan of my Kindle Fire and iphone when it comes to road trips. Kindle Fire has a Kindle Free Time App specifically designed for kids, that has access to tons of books, games and videos. The best part of the app are the parental controls which allow you to set time limits for total screen time. If nothing else, the tots love watching movies on the devices, and I love them not screaming, “I’m bored!”

4. Music – On a recent four hour drive, I was desperate for a new distraction. So, I put on some toddler tunes and I kid you not, for a full hour both Big E and little g listened intently to songs like “Twinkle Twinkle Little Star” and “You Are My Sunshine.” Even on short trips around town we often sing together, and it can be even more fun to make singing a game. The SONG game (similar to the board game Encore) makes thinking up new songs a competition. A topic word is chosen, river for example, and teams go back and forth singing songs with that word in it until one team is stumped. Hint: the word LOVE can last forever.

5. Games – Old fashioned car games can always be a good option.  I like the Alphabet game, where you search signs, license plates and billboards for all the letters in the alphabet. Also, I SPY and 20 QUESTIONS can be fun.

6. Food – Don’t forget the snacks! I like to bring some healthy snack options, like fruit and yogurt in a cooler, but that’s not all I bring.  Part of the fun of road trips for me is eating treats along the way. Don’t skimp on the snacks when you’re stuck in the car with tots. Yes, your backseat will be covered with crumbs by the time you reach your destination, but a little vacuuming is better than cranky kids. I also bring water bottles with sippy tops for every family member to use throughout the trip, that way spills are limited.

7. Breaks – Don’t be afraid to stop along the way. I try to plan a twenty minute ‘run around’ time around gas station and food stops. Yes, it will take you longer to get to your destination, but kids need to move around, and parents do too.  One note on bathroom breaks – to limit bathroom breaks make sure everyone uses the facilities before leaving and limit liquid intake to twenty minutes before your next scheduled stop. On the drive home from our last vacation, Big E had to stop three times in one hour so he could pee! Although I was annoyed at having to stop so often, I suppose it was better than cleaning up a backseat soaked in urine.

I hope these tips for tots on road trips is helpful.  Happy Trails and let me know what outdoor adventures you’ve got planned!

Five Reasons to Take Your Kids to Snow Canyon State Park, Utah

My tots and I loved our recent trip to Snow Canyon State Park, Utah.  Here are the top five reasons I would recommend it for your family:

1. Campground – The campground is well maintained, has sites for tents or campers and had the cleanest bathrooms I’ve ever seen when camping. Pull chain showers are also available to registered campers. The ranger station also includes a small book store and there’s a play area for kids. If possible, get your friends together and stay at the group site, it was self enclosed, had easy access to trails and bathrooms.

2. Short Hikes – Hiking with kids is never easy, but the great thing about Snow Canyon State Park is the multitude of short, but interesting hikes.  There’s lots to see and do, less than a mile from the main road.

3. Biking – Snow Canyon State Park is known as a great place for biking, in fact the ranger told me St. George holds their Ironman triathlon biking portion within the park.  The canyon is one long, paved downhill if you start at the top. If you’re averse to biking next to twenty five mile per hour traffic, there are two great bike trails as well.  The first, Whiptail, is paved and starts at the Upper Galoot Parking area.  It follows along the main road six miles down to the park entrance.  The second trail, West Canyon Road, is eight miles on a gravel access road that parallels the amazing rock formations in the park.

4. St. George, Utah – If you’re camping with kids, it’s always good to have access to a store in case of emergencies.  Whether you forgot a favorite toy, need a snack or just want a break, it’s nice to have access to the benefits of a city. We especially appreciated the Sand Hollow Aquatic Center and visiting a local park in St. George, as different activities from the daily hiking and biking.

5. Scenery – Snow Canyon State Park has a variety of rock formations from red sandstone to dark lava rock. Add to that the fact that the entire park is located within the Red Cliffs Desert Reserve, a habitat conservation area whose purpose is to protect the endangered Mojave Desert Tortoise, and you can appreciate the wildlife, as well as the beauty.

Utah State Park Snow Canyon: Scout Cave

Snow Canyon State Park, Utah – Scout Cave hike

The longest hike that we attempted while on our trip to Snow Canyon State Park was the Scout Cave hike, via Johnson Canyon. This trail was well established and fairly flat, made of sand and rock. The trail head was just outside the southern park entrance on the west side of the road.

We started on the trail later than I would’ve liked, so the sun was hot early on. A half mile into the trail, we took a right turn since a gate closed the trail to the left, leading into the seasonally closed Johnson Canyon. This trail had no shade for the first two thirds, until we descended into a valley with a trickling stream from a natural spring.  There, a few cottonwood trees grew tall enough to offer some shade.
Because of hiking in the heat, not bringing snacks, and little g falling asleep on my back, I called it quits three, but most of our group continued on the trail another twenty minutes or so, to explore the interesting cave that gave the trail its name. This last part of the trail was within view of housing developments in St. George, so instead of looking at houses, Big E and I looked at tadpoles in the water and dug in the cool sand, while little g napped in the shade.
It was a good hike for kids, but at approximately three miles it was a little too long for my tots. The kids over eight and the teenagers in our group really enjoyed it, thanks to crossing a rare desert stream and finding cave at the end.

Clean Up Games for Kids

One thing I’ve learned in my time as a mom, is that kids make messes. I don’t know about you, but I HATE cleaning up the same mess over and over and over again. Since my tots are the reason for most messes, I try to make them clean up as much as possible. Here are some of my kids favorite Clean Up Games:  

1. Sing the Clean Up Song – Have a special song that you sing or listen to when it’s time to clean up. Ours is well known and goes like this: Clean Up Clean Up Everybody Everywhere, Clean Up Clean Up Everybody Do Your Share.

2. Have a Race – I literally race Big E around my living room, each of us picking up a toy along the way and then racing to put it where it belongs. You can also have a race to see who can get the most toys in the least amount of time.

3. Gobble it Up – With toys like blocks, where there’s lots of pieces, I take a bag or pillowcase, hold it open and pretend it’s a mouth that likes to gobble things up.
Little g and Big E love to drop the toys in, then pull their hand away quickly before the gobbler gets them too.

4. Singing Plinko – Similar to Gobble it Up, Singing Plinko is where you sing one note to a song for each toy dropped into the toy box.  If the tots want to hear Twinkle Twinkle Little Star without stopping after each word, they have to hurry and put more things away.

5. Bubble Machine – For little g’s first birthday I bought her a bubble machine and soon discovered that when left unchecked it left a wet soapy area on my kitchen floor. I decided to use that to my advantage and now put the bubble machine on whenever I mop the floor. Bubbles are soap, right?

6. Dust Buster – This is not a game per se, but you’d be surprised with how much time Big E can spend vacuuming the floor with the handheld vac. He loves machines anyway, and loves to do things by himself so he’ll often look extra messes to vacuum himself. We’ve also turned the dustpan, broom, toilet brush and vacuum attachments into toys to help us clean.

7. Find the Magic Toy – Sometimes I will have Big E search the room for the one magic toy that will make me sing a silly song.  Conveniently the toy is one of the last ones picked up.

8. Hot and Cold – If Big E walks closer to the item I’m thinking of, I tell him he’s getting hotter and hotter until finally when he picks it up.  Conversely, if he walks away from it, he gets colder and colder. He loves finding the secret toy, and I love that he’ll put it away before we play the next round.

9. Have Toys Help – Big E loves construction machines, so if I can find a way for his dump truck or excavator to help put socks in his drawer or toys in his toy box, I do it. Along with this, squirt guns make great watering cans and bathtub rinsers. You’d be surprised how useful some toys can be.

10. I Spy – Almost any tot knows the phrase, “I spy with my little eye…” It’s easy to play this game to choose items that need to be put away. For example: I spy with my little eye something that is blue, has wheels and drives around a track (a car).

11. Basketball – Get a laundry hamper or the toy box and plop it in the middle of the messy room.  Then walk to each toy and throw it into the hamper without moving your feet.

12. A Minute to Win It – In this game each family member must pick up and put away as many items as they can in one minute. We actually use a countdown timer from Scattergories or Catch Phrase because it makes a great countdown sound.

It should also be mentioned that positive reinforcement goes a long way.  Nothing makes Big E help out faster than me telling little g, “You’re such a good helper!”

So try out some of these clean up games for kids, and please let me know if you have any more. And thanks to the moms in my life who taught me some of these games in the first place.