When Mischief Came to Town

Katrina Nannestad, 2015

Children’s fiction

The year is 1911. Orphaned 10 year old Inge Marie is sent to live with her grandmother on a remote island in the village of Bornholm, Denmark. Her enthusiasm and sweet outlook ends up changing the climate of the town. She bring joy and laughter with her wherever she goes, ecpecially to her grandmother. Somehow, together they overcome the grief of losing someone near and dear.

This book was suggested to me by a friend when I mentioned we were going on a trip and I needed something to read to the girls while on the road. I wasn’t sure about the story line. I’m not big on books that have to do with heavy issues in life. Grief is one of my least favorite things to read about, but this book really caught me off guard.

Inge Maria is as friendly and lovable as Anne of Green Gables. She is full of spunk and fire just like Anne, and you will not be sorry you met her. Her grandmother is stern and difficult to become friends with, but Inge Maria does not give up. Inge tries to be good, but the people are strange and their idea of good is defintely different than Inge’s.

This book deals with love, family, grief, joy and the power of laughter and imagination. Get it for your next family trip!

The Adventure Series

Enid Blyton, 1944-1955

This is a series of book of eight books written by the English children’s writer Enid Blyton.

Each book features the same four children, Philip, Jack, Dinah and Lucy-Ann. There are also some familiar adult characters like Uncle Jocelyn and Aunt Polly. The children spend time at Craggy-Tops, the uncle’s seaside home on school holidays.

The children are the main characters in each book. They discover mystery and usually solve them with little adult help.

In Island of Adventure (book 1), the children realize that something sinitster is happening on the Isle of Gloom and they are determined to find out what it is even after repeated threats from Joe, the handy man around Craggy-Tops.

These books make great read aloud books on trips. My girls love them and I think Weston enjoys them just as much as the girls do.

“Are we there yet?”

Here are some suggestions for entertainment while traveling. These are not all my own, but a collection of things I have heard and some I’ve tried myself. I can’t vouch for all of them, but some of them look like super ideas!

Sticky notes
Magnets
Pipe cleaners and fruit loops
Travel bingo and Tic Tac Toe
Window shade on a string they can open and close.
Clothespins to hang things on string the curtain is on.
Window cling stickers
Reusabel sticker books (Usborne, of course)
Lists of things to look for along the way
Paper lunch bag with small toys, gum, snacks they can choose from
Straws in a parmesan cheese container
Cookie sheet to play on with small farm animals and equipment, cars, magnets One brave mama said play doh!!
Paper Clips
Boogie boards
Coloring books
Dry erase boards
One even braver mama said window markers. I fear what the inside of our pickup would look like!! One side would be nice and clean with marker only on the window. The other side would have marker on the seat, on clothes, on face, on the back of dad’s head, most likely.
Legos
Take grandma along. (We do this a lot. It works wonders in the back seat!)

And here are a couple of other suggestion that seemed like good ones. Some of them are for older children than mine, but good suggestions to tuck away for later.
ABC game
License plate game
Behavior incentive. Set a timer and if there is no whining they get to use some money to buy what they want to at the next stop. (OK, my girls are old enough for this one, but I’m not into bribing. After many hours, I may change my mind.)
One lady suggested eating in the car so there is time to stop at a park along the way to give everyone a welcome break. I really like this idea. It always seems a waste of time to sit in a cafe waiting for food when we all would like to be walking around and getting a little exercise.
Another gal said go to the Dollar Store and look around. She said it’s a great place to buy inexpensive toys and coloring books and all sorts of little entertaining things before a trip.
One thing we have done and I will do again is shower caddys. I got 2 smallish ones that have suction cups on them. We stuck them to each girls window and they could keep crayons, chapstick, gum, and all the little things children like.

The cookie sheet suggestion above is another really good one! I have 4 cheap cookie sheets that just get packed away with our luggage. They are an awesome way to corral whatever it is the girls are playing with. We do a lot of eating in the vehicle and that is where they really shine. They make for a great plate for our packed lunch or the drive-through meal. I keep magnets on them and those can be used to tack down napkins or sandwhich wrappers or a chip bag. They can be used for coloring and drawing. For the amount of ease they bring with tripping they take almost no room. It is a great investment with lots of return.

I am curious what you do while traveling to make things easier? How do you teach your children to entertain themselves while giving them a few tools to work with?