Car Organization and Traveling Toddler Toys

This post contains Amazon affiliate links; For more information, read my Disclosure page.

For our July road trip, our car was loaded to the hilt with stuff. Camping gear. Birthday gifts. Clothes. Toys and snacks. The Toyota Venza worked perfectly for this. All the camping gear and clothes for the week was loaded in the far back (and no, the driver could not see out the rear window). The backseat is very roomy and allowed for the kids toys and snacks under their feet.

I bought a couple plastic bins at the dollar store to organize the kids toys in the backseat but they didn’t work as well as planned; The oval shape, and soft plastic sides were too flimsy and toys fell out of the container’s holes. For our next road trip I will investigate better ways to keep the kids stuff contained and yet easily accessible for days at a time.

How do you organize toys for 2 in a backseat of a sedan/wagon? 

My idealistic hopes were that the kids would watch the changing scenery out the window and absorb the differing cultures, but the realist in me knew that they would sleep, play with a toy, and sleep some more, so we planned ahead with a few basic toys that would go from car to hotel to restaurant with ease.

Toddler Traveling Toys

For my 2.5 year old son Grady we packed:

• Melissa & Doug Deluxe Latches Board (affiliate link)
• 
  I’d been wanting to buy this puzzle for months, and was so excited to finally get it for him. The size and sturdiness of the puzzle was perfect to rest on the toddler’s lap in the car seat. At first he moved the latches around without knowing what to do, and since I was driving it was difficult for me to show him. By the end of the trip though, he had figured it out all out and was still enjoying latching and unlatching. What I hadn’t anticipated was my 8 year old wanting to play with this puzzle and the fighting that ensued between the two of them.
• Melissa & Doug Basic Skills Board (affiliate link)
  
  This puzzle seemed to also be a perfect toy for the car with the size and sturdiness of the base, and the intricacies of the various components. What I didn’t realize when I bought it was that this is actually a puzzle, and the various pieces can be moved around. Because of this, it’s not a good toy for the car, unless the child is older and has the dexterity to hold the board flat. The first time we propped it on Grady’s lap the puzzle pieces fell into his lap. The pieces being so light also meant that they were not sturdy enough for toddler fingers to manipulate. After 5 minutes this puzzle was put back in the bag under the carseat and not used again. Someday I will either glue or use heavy duty magnets to affix the individual pieces to the board. A fun puzzle, but not ideal for the car.
• Melissa & Doug Water Wow Bundle Animals, Alphabet and Numbers Paint Kit (affiliate link)
  
  
  And wow what fun! I had no idea how much of a big hit this toy would be, or how much the kids would fight over it. Who knew that an 8 year old would find such cathartic enjoyment in painting on cardboard with water; over and over again. We highly recommend this toy for all diaper bags and road trips!
• And numerous Matchbox and Hot Wheels cars, because we can never leave home without them.

Asleep, snuggling his latch puzzle:

What are you favorite go-to toddler toys for traveling? 

We are a traveling family

We are a traveling family. What seems normal to us is plain craziness to others. My almost 3 year old has been on a dozen flights around the country and numerous road trips in his first 3 years, with more trips planned. It's second nature to us. We also live in the Dallas Fort Worth metroplex with no family within a six hour drive, so traveling is a necessity. We’d like to share some of our experiences and tips with the hopes that it benefits you, and other families with their travels; and maybe you’ll share your tips with us as well!

In July we planned a week long family road trip that spanned 2100 miles and 3 states, from Dallas and Amarillo Texas, to Albuquerque and Santa Fe New Mexico, through Colorado Springs, Breckenridge, Estes Park, and Fort Collins Colorado, back south to Manitou Springs and then a final visit to Amarillo before arriving back in Dallas. This started out as a simple, “let’s visit our sister in her new house in New Mexico and my Mom in Colorado” to weeklong trip with a dozen stops in between. Each stop provided an opportunity for the kids to stretch their legs, but also for everyone to gain new experiences.

With all of our travels we start out with a simple email agenda, and by the time we leave we have a detailed spreadsheet. It never fails. We just can’t plan a vacation that doesn’t involve numerous stops and visits and a detailed agenda.

Here’s a free printable template that we use for planning our vacations. You’ll see columns for each day broken into rows for morning activities, lunch location, afternoon activities, dinner location, evening activities and where we are sleeping. 

I also use a similar template to plan my clothes and accessories. This helps me to plan ahead with extra stuff that we might need like bathing suits, hiking boots, warm coats, etc. 

How do you plan for vacations or trips? Do you have big spreadsheets too?