Wednesday, February 27, 2013

Car Travel: Part Three - Journey Maps

To help alleviate the "are we there yet?" questions from my eldest daughter, I created a Journey Map for each day of the car ride.  I used Google Maps and just zoomed in on the trip and took a screenshot and copied the screenshot into my photo editing software.  I pieced the screenshots together to have one full shot for my daughter to follow along.  Each day prints into a single sheet and there is a place for her to keep notes if she sees something interesting on the way.  I've seen cute little travel timelines, but since we are renting a car for the journey down, I didn't want something complex that I had to create and install while packing up.  So here is her own compact timeline and she can follow along with a highlighter and highlight our path as we go.  I think this will also help her to see how far we have yet to go or how close we are to our destination.

(for privacy, I am only sharing one of our days)


Other posts in the Car Travel Series:

Sunday, February 24, 2013

Car Travel - Part Two: Alphabet Color by Number

Part two of my "prep for the long car ride from hell" series (AKA the Drive to Disneyland) has a free printable from Reading with Kids.  They have all of these Color By Number sheets there on their website, but each letter was one single page.  I have simply taken their sheets and combined them into one PDF so one could print them all at once.  I did not do the same to their Color by Letter sheets, so if you want to peruse their other printables, go here.

But for the free PDF of the Color by Number sheets (one for each letter - and some look to be somewhat challenging), go HERE.  Below is a couple of sample letters.




My seven-year old was looking on in envy as I printed these out last night...she can't wait to dive into them!  I'm going to dole them out periodically throughout the trip so she doesn't do them all at once!

Car Travel - Part One; Alphabet and Number Dots

We are getting ready for a trip to Disneyland this spring.  The countdown has begun...we're a little over a month away!  So, I've begun to prepare the entertainment binders for our two girls (ages 7 and 3) for the long road trip.  We're not trying to drive from Washington to Los Angeles in one day (thank the Lord), but the journeys will still take between 6-8 hours in the car each of our travel days.  After doing a lot of research, I have started to create printables for the girls and now will be posting them here as free downloads.

Part One: Alphabet and Number Dots

This one is designed for the 3-year old.  She's learning her numbers and letters and loves stickers.  I got the idea here and the gal here will sell this 65-page book with large letters and numbers and others for $5.


I went ahead and created a simple version of my own  of just the numbers and letters I think this simple exercise will keep my little one entertained for a while as she practices her fine motor skills (peeling and sticking the stickers) and her letters and numbers.

 Go HERE to download numbers 1-10

Go HERE to download letters A-Z in both upper and lowercase.  The circles are the right size for the circle dots you find at office supply stores or Walmart/Target.