AGES 3-6
Favorite Character Books
If your child loves Paw Patrol or Disney princesses, find a couple of new books that include those characters and surprise them on the plane or in the car when a difficult moment comes along. There are many early reader books with characters from popular TV shows. You can check them out from your local library or buy some inexpensive ones online.
Coloring Books
Most kids love to color. Buying a new coloring book with a Ziploc bag of crayons may be a good way to keep little ones happy for a while. Try out the Crayola Color Wonder books with the mess free markers. They are perfect for kids who tend to color in more places than pages. They are also pretty fun because the color gets revealed as the marker is pressed on the paper.
I Spy Books
These books work best when played with an adult or older sibling. There are many versions of these, but usually, the ones with animals entertain kids the most. Try to find some with characters they love or ones that reinforce letters, colors, and shapes.
Sticker Activity Books
Kids love to play with stickers and stick them on basically anything! Buying a themed sticker activity book could provide tons of fun for younger kids. Looking for sticker books that have multiple pages to stick those stickers is key. Be on the lookout for activity books that are more educational and include facts and specified places to put the sticker as well as creative spaces too.
Mad Libs
This classic fill in the blank game is perfect for the whole family. By writing in random parts of speech and plugging them into a story, your family is sure to come up with hilarious and creative stories. It is also a handy grammar reminder for kids and a clever way to get everyone thinking of unique words for the story.
AGES 7-12
National GeographicUltimate Road Trip Atlas
This is a fantastic book for a road trip. It provides easy to read road maps, photographs, roadside attractions, five cool things to do, wacky facts, and boredom busters for each state. The book also includes scavenger hunt games, look and find, license plate search, and a map of the United States. This is a colorful and engaging book that should keep your kids entertained while you travel.
Where’s Waldo
Another classic book, Where’s Waldo is great for kids to play anywhere. Kids can work together to find Waldo and his friends in various landscapes and scenery pages throughout the book. Once you are done finding Waldo, the back pages give you even more items to find based on the location given. This is great to help kids pay attention to details and fosters teamwork to complete the checklists given.
Travel Journals
These can be fun depending on how detail oriented your child is. While there are many versions of travel journals, try to find ones that are interactive and ask questions about places you’ve seen. An area that includes space to draw and write about your day is also nice to have. These journals can be a great end of day wrap up to discuss the day’s activities, restaurants, and attractions.
Word Search and Crossword Puzzle Books
While there are many varieties of puzzle books, try finding one that is geared towards the location you will be visiting. There are countless activity books that focus on fun facts, attractions, and cities all over the world. These word search and crossword puzzles can be completed beforehand as a preview to the location or afterward as a culminating activity.
Are We There Yet?
This book by Rand McNally is filled with a variety of activities to keep kids laughing and thinking. Games include crossword puzzles, travel logs, connect the dots, car bingo, word scrambles, decoding puzzles, and what’s wrong with this picture activities. In addition, there are road trip songs with lyrics, travel game ideas, and hotel games to keep them singing and playing for hours.
Keeping your kids happy while traveling is vital on a family vacation. Hopefully, these books will provide you with more ideas on how to keep your kids entertained during those long trips in the car or plane.
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