By Julie DeLong, A-1 Freeman Moving Group
If your moving company has packed and loaded everything, and a multi-day trip is standing between you and your new residence in Austin, the dread for the trip is genuine. And it appears like the easiest course of action is to load up on USB chargers to ensure everyone is continually busy, and you're free to have some peace and quiet and also NPR. That is the simple approach, but who said life was meant to be easy? Get some road maps, games, coloring pages, crayons, and load up your phone with road songs--this is mostly a generation that's grown up on "Baby Shark" and has to be taught "John Jacob Jingleheimerwhatever".
Setting up Your Path to Austin
Get genuine paper atlases for your children and show them the way to look at the icons and pick out the waterways, roadways, state borders, and so forth. Ask them to identify entertaining stuff to do--"points of interest"--along the way and let everyone find one tourist trap on the way, or one each day you're on your way. If you're going with pets, this is the chance to get them out and exercising a bit through the day.
Car Games
Youngsters nowadays. They're just so wrapped up in Snapchat and YouTube they've missed the thrill of car activities. If you cannot remember any, or maybe you disliked them as a child and failed to take notice, consider these. You just need your creativeness for such old favorites. You and your spouse get to begin each of the games until there is complete buy-in.
· Name Game--say a name. The following person must think up a name whose first letter is the final letter of your name--George--Ellen--Nathaniel. You may make your very own specifications regarding nicknames and diminutives, subject to your youngsters' age groups in addition to general inclination regarding hand to hand combat. Proper names, locations, vehicles--anything goes here.
· Punch Buggy--play this one while you can, since Volkswagen is stopping production on the Beetle. When you see one, you holler the color in addition to punch buggy--"yellow punch buggy" and then--real fast--"no punch backs". The champ subsequently gets to LIGHTLY poke sisters and brothers on the arm--with zero retaliatory punch backs.
· Grandma Went to London--there are lots of titles for this game, but fundamentally, you start out with "Grandma left for London and she packed ......" The subsequent person affirms the same thing and adds another thing, and so forth. It's simpler to proceed alphabetically to get past the third round.
· I Spy--easy enough, just one rule. The thing you spy will have to be inside the car.
· My Cows--or signs, or bridges. Select the item, and whoever sees it first receives the points. Should you be heading through a non-urban part and see genuine livestock, make sure you count rapidly.
Sing Melodies
Cue family-friendly, entertaining to sing songs on your device, and show the kids the excitement of the previously mentioned John Jacob. Let them coach you on tunes they have learned, also--but one Baby Shark per journey. Or Mommy's going to London with an empty suitcase.
Audiobooks
Prolonged days in the vehicle tend to be exhausting, and no one wants to be continuously entertained. Tune in to audiobooks--pick books you are all familiar with, thus if somebody dozes off they do not miss anything. Nothing compares to Harry Potter for road trip listening.
Avoid being the mean mom and dad and hinder all of their technology but do attempt to minimize it by providing other activities to do. A lot of screen time will make all of us a little dialed out and touchy, and this is certainly not the time to encourage the grouchies. Quickly enough, the professional movers in Austin are going to be unloading the truck and you will be in the midst of unpacking your new residence. The children can retreat to their new rooms and not be seen again. Use this time to push a bit of old-school activities on them--years from now, these will likely be fond remembrances.
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