Road Tripping: Pediatrician Approved

June 9, 2019 /

We made it safely down to Florida (with only one set of teeth marks in someone’s arm) after our long drive! It was actually kind of a vacation in itself and while I got mostly love from all the people who have been following our journey I definitely got some “mom judgement” from a few folks about my kids being in car seats so long…

Just to clarify we don’t strap them in and drive for 12 hours a day here – we stop every few hours and get plenty of gross motor time running around parks, exploring gardens and museums or just crawling through random grass pretending to be babies. We mostly try to drive during nap time but the awake time in the car isn’t lost time either! We look at books, practice our fine motor skills with with etch-a-sketch and doodle boards. We’ve been working on our social skills – asking each other for toys we want, using our words to respond to our siblings, and sharing or trading with each other.

We sing songs and talk about all the things we see along the ride – we even started a bit of VERY early geography with this great felt USA Map talking about the states we are driving through, how far we’re going, and what we’ve seen in different states!

It’s not always easy, but we do make sure they have plenty of time to run around and play and get more than the pediatrician recommended amount of gross motor time!

I won’t lie though being on the road with kids isn’t always fun and games – sometimes there are tears, sometimes we put our hands in each others car seats and get bitten, sometimes there’s traffic… but other times we find the coolest new places, see the most interesting things and find things we’d never see at home. It’s those times that make it all worth it. Sure it can be hard work but seeing them come back together and play or help each other – offer a kiss when their sibling falls down – I wouldn’t change a minute of it. Just watching how they are all learning so much, making connections and discovering different parts of the world is amazing. They’ve explored so many new things everyone’s vocabulary has exploded! It’s incredible how much they really do get out of our whole driving experience.

Stay tuned and I’ll be sharing some of what we are up to this week before indulging in the typical Orlando family madness and some of our favorite stops for those of you planning your own East Coast summer trip!

Orlando
Brown Bear, Brown Bear

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