Imagine you are small child who is trapped for hours on end in a seat belt. Now imagine you have ADHD and need to wiggle. You don’t own a watch and have no concept of time or distance. You have no idea when the torture is going to end. Now imagine being the mother of that child. Were talking about a time bomb on wheels here.

Welcome to operation Save Mom’s Sanity. This took me about 10 minutes to prepare and made our road trip with small kids happier, more peaceful, and bonus, educational.

1.  A long strip of blue painter’s tape with marker dashes down the center created a “road”. I taped it to a visible spot in the car.
2. I wrote major landmarks and cities along the tape with the destination at the end.
3. Using an old children’s book (or you could just draw a car), I cut out a paper car and put some tape on the back. The kids got to move the car along the tape as we progressed. They could see we were getting closer! I also marked on the strip when we would get to open little gifts or do special activities like watch a movie. I heard a lot less “are we there yet?”

Wishing you and your little ones a happy and safe summer!

Kim