Road Trip Tips
- 4 hours ago
- 4 min read
Before kids, my husband and I spent a lot of time traveling. We were going out of the country at least four times a year and crisscrossing the U.S. in between. Maybe it was naivety, but we thought we could continue doing it once we had kids. One of the many reasons we wanted to homeschool was so we could live a life where we spent more time exploring the world, finding amazing adventures, and taking random weekday trips. That’s why I named the website Atlas Road School. The plan was to live our life on the road.
But yeah, that's not what happened.
Between my daughter’s dance schedule, my son’s football and basketball practices, and tending our garden, we spend a lot more time at home than I ever expected. Not to mention the cost of travel for a family of five🤮. I also didn’t take into account that as my kids got older, they’d want to spend more time with their friends and not as much with us. But I love that for them. As a homeschool family, we spend a lot of time together, so having strong friendships is important.
Even though life hasn’t turned out quite the way we expected, I honestly don’t mind. I love being home. We’ve spent a lot of time, money, and love creating a home we truly enjoy, so these days I’m not in such a hurry to leave it.
Still, when we do get the chance to travel, we usually prefer a good old road trip. My kids are actually pretty good in the car. Not perfect. There are still occasional arguments, complaints, and somebody asking for a snack ten minutes into the ride. But overall, they travel well, and I think a lot of that comes down to a few simple habits we’ve had for years.
Our favorite road trip is to Martha's Vineyard during off season.
1. No Screens on Short Drives
This is probably the most effective thing we do.
For any drive under three hours, we have a no-screen policy. If they need entertainment, they can look out the window, read a book, listen to music, have a conversation, or better yet, take a nap.
I think this has helped our kids learn how to be in the car without needing constant entertainment. They don’t climb into their seats all set up with a water bottle, snacks, headphones, and a tablet, ready to be entertained. They just get strapped in and are ready to ride. If I hear I’m bored the only response they get is “look out the window”.
When I was a kid, I used to stare out the window and imagine a horse running beside the car. Every time there was a fence or a road sign, the horse had to jump over it. It kept me entertained for what felt like hours.
I think there’s value in that. Boredom builds creativity. It teaches patience. It gives kids a chance to entertain themselves instead of expecting entertainment to be handed to them.
Now, if we’re taking a road trip longer than three hours, I loosen the rules a little. Once we’ve been driving for about two and a half hour to three hours, I’ll let them get on a tablet. We only have one tablet, so they have to take turns. Sometimes we’ll let them use my phone or my husband’s phone as well.
I like waiting until we’ve already been on the road for a while because that’s usually right around the time we start hearing, “Are we there yet?” Once we’re within an hour of our destination, the tablets and phones get put away. I want them to pay attention to the area we’re visiting instead of staring at a screen all the way there.
2. Don’t Bring Out the Snacks Too Early
Before we leave the house, I make sure everyone has a good breakfast or lunch so that I'm not passing out snacks as soon as we get in the car. Usually I wait until we’ve been driving for about two hours before we snack. By then everyone is starting to get a little antsy, and snacks definately help. The timing also works well because it’s usually around the time someone needs a bathroom break.
3. Play Road Trip Games
We play a lot of road trip games.
My kids love playing I Spy in the car, which I still don’t quite understand. We’re in a moving vehicle and everything around us is moving too, but somehow they make it work.
My favorite game is Concentration. I played it as a kid, and I think every city probably had its own version. The way we played started with:
“Hands up to 85, gonna get names of “girls”, no hesitations and no repeats, so let’s go so let’s go…”
Everyone claps to the beat while taking turns naming something from a category. You can choose almost anything: fruits, things you’d find at the beach, ocean animals, or words that start with a certain letter. The goal is to keep the rhythm going without repeating an answer or hesitating.
Another favorite is Would You Rather. It’s fun, usually leads to a lot of laughs, and makes for some good conversations.
We ask questions like:
Would you rather be lost at sea or lost in the desert?
Would you rather sleep in a haunted house or in the Amazon jungle with no tent?
Would you rather be able to fly or breathe underwater?
One thing that has helped our family is not relying on screens as the default answer every time someone says they’re bored. A little boredom often leads to conversations, games, daydreaming, and noticing things outside the window that would otherwise be missed.
If you’re looking for some screen-free ways to keep kids engaged on your next road trip, check out my Road Trip Bundle. It’s packed with activities like road trip bingo, scavenger hunts, license plate games, and more to help make the miles go by without everyone staring at a screen.
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