This series of travel posts are long overdue. Back in May I put together a bunch of DIY’s and activities for traveling with kids. In early June I was one of two moms taking five children (ages 8, 7, 5, 2, and 2) on a TWENTY hour road trip (one way) all in one vehicle. Anticipating that trip was my motivation for doing this DIY ‘Are We There Yet’ Board.
I am happy to report we survived the trip and I am here to tell the tale. My goal was to keep them busy without a ton of screen time. The kids did do many of the activities prepped and mostly enjoyed them. However, with two families merging and so many different personalities screen time was an activity we definitely used and I would NEVER advocate a trip such as this without it. Seriously, how did our parents survive!?
See it in action here on the Lovensthelife YouTube Channel.
For more ideas check out my other posts from that trip below.
DIY Travel Entertainment for Kids
DIY Dollar Tree Travel Racetrack for Kids
Tips for Travel with Toddlers and Early Grade-schoolers
DIY Dollar Tree Travel Tray and Supplies Caddy for Kids
DIY ‘Are we there Yet’ Board
Are we there yet!? If you have traveled with children you have heard this more times than you can count. Here is a fun little way to help them see that “no, we are not there yet.”
This is simple and inexpensive to make. I purchased nearly all of the items needed from the Dollar Tree. Each will cost roughly $5-8 to create depending on what you have on hand or what you need to purchase.
Items needed
- Printed Text and Graphics – Headings and Road trip Sign are attached for printing
- Project Board from Dollar Tree
- Small envelopes or materials to make little pouches – I used a plastic folder and tape
- Dollar Tree Sloth sticky flags
- Laminating Sheets – I used these from Amazon since I don’t have a laminator
- Marker
- Number Stickers or can print or write numbers
- Printer
- Glue
- Tape
- Binder Sleeve
- Velcro – I used these from Amazon
- Ribbon
- Clothespins (Dollar Tree)
Putting it all Together
My apologies but I did not take progress photos. It really is a simple cutting, taping, and gluing project though. I will walk you through it below.
First up I printed the Headings, States, Road trip Sign, and Maps. I included what I printed for the Headings and the Road trip Sign that you can print and use. The States and Map will depend on your trip though so no printables on those.
Then I trimmed around the Headings and States cutting them to the size I wanted.
The maps I printed from Google Maps and then added stars and information to them to make them easier to understand and more visible.
Getting it all Prepared
Next I added numbers using stickers I had on hand to the sloths. You could also print numbers or just write them on with a Sharpie. I did 1-20.
Next I laminated the Headings, States, and Sloths. I didn’t laminate the maps as they will change with each trip.
Then I cut around all of the laminated shapes.
I used a binder sleeve to put the roadtrip printable into. I wanted this to be changeable as I may want one to say something different such as ‘family vacation’ next time.
Next I made little pouches for the sloths and states. I had a plastic folder on hand that I cut up. Using the folder bend as the base I cut pouches large enough in width and height to fit the contents. Then I used packaging tape and Wasabi tape to close up the sides. Velcro Dots were used on the top edge to hold the contents in.
Attaching it all to the Board
I ended up cutting down the display board and only using about 1/3 of it for this project.
Next I layed out all my pieces where I liked them and I started gluing and applying velcro dots.
I glued the headings on the board as well as the binder sleeve and the clothespins. The pouches I used velcro dots to apply. I wanted these to be removable so I could hand back to the kids to find the appropriate number of hours and State. Since I was doing so many I used the sticky velcro dots but you could also cut and glue velcro too.
I hung the maps on a clothespin for our to/from trips.
Finally I closed it up and used ribbon and velcro dots to keep it closed for easy transport.
Using it on the way home.
I would love to hear if you gain inspiration from these travel posts and put together a DIY ‘Are We There Yet’ Board.
HAPPY TRAVELING
