Episode 21 - Traveling with Kids: Tips, Chaos, and Making Memories

Spring travel with kids can sound so fun in theory — fresh weather, family memories, a break from the usual routine — but in real life, it can also come with a lot of stress, mess, and unmet expectations. In this episode, we’re talking honestly about what it looks like to travel with kids during the spring season, from road trips and packing to flexible routines and managing the chaos along the way. We’re sharing practical tips, realistic expectations, and encouragement for moms who want to make memories without putting so much pressure on the trip being perfect.

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Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:02

Welcome to Homeschooling and Life Unfiltered with Court and Jess, where real talk meets real life. Court and Jess are two friends, fellow moms, and business partners who live in different time zones and juggle homeschooling alongside motherhood and entrepreneurship. Jess is a mom of eight and Court is a mom of seven, and together they're raising 15 kids and navigating the wild, wonderful world of homeschooling, each in completely different ways. Every week we invite you to pull up a chair for honest conversations, practical tips, and uplifting encouragement. You'll hear from moms across the country who are homeschooling in a way that works best for their families. Whether you're a veteran homeschool mom just getting started or somewhere in between, this is your space to feel seen, supported, and inspired. Because no matter how different our past may look, we are all in this together. Hello, welcome to homeschooling and life and filtered with Court and Jess. We are, I don't know, halfway through our spring um little, I don't even know what we call it, our spring session or spring whatever, but today we're talking theme. There you go. Today we're talking about traveling, traveling with kids. We've got spring breaks, we've got summer vacations coming up, we have all kinds of traveling coming up. So we are just gonna kind of talk about traveling with kids, traveling with big families. Um I'm gonna go first today, and I kind of have like seasons. Like last week we talked about kind of like whatever your season you are. So we have like our season with a bunch of littles, we have our season with bigs and littles, and then we have our season with all bigs. Um, so many moons ago when I had all littles, and I don't is this was back like before Pinterest and before anything, like we didn't have anything back then. We were on our own. We had the library and we had maybe parenting magazines, I guess. Um, and I have no idea where this came from, but this is what I did. I doubt it came from my brain back then. My brain was tired, so I don't know where the idea came from, but um when I packed with littles and I had lots of littles and I did all the packing, and we're talking, you know, I had four kids under the age of five, right? So like lots of little kids that used multiple outfits a day. So when we traveled, and we traveled a lot, we had family in California that we went and saw easily four times a year. Like that was our destination was you know, Nana's house and aunt and uncle, and I have a bunch of family that lives in one town in California. So super fun place to go visit for my kids. So we would I would pack every day, and every kid would have a gallon-sized baggie. So it would be, you know, Sydney Monday, um, Sydney Tuesday, Sydney, or you know what I mean? Each kid had a baggie, and inside that baggie was their clothes for the day, their underwear, their pajamas, their socks, everything, minus their shoes, because typically I didn't have a shoe for every day. Um, I was a little bit crazy back then, and I probably had a matching binky in there for a baby and a hairbow. I was I was that mom, you guys. I had a bunch of girls. So everything matched. Um, but we're talking like for you know, an infant, it would have three outfits in there and it would have two sleepers and it would have all the things and it you could like vacuum pack it, you like squish all the air out and you can fit a ton of baggies in there. And then we would just put the dirty clothes back in the bag too. Um or depending upon where I was, and that would depend on it. But if I was like at a family's house where I could have a laundry hamper, we had a laundry hamper that I would fill up with all the dirty clothes and that I would wash as we go so that I would not come home with suitcases full of dirty clothes. Um, so that was my when I did everything phase of life. So that was like before packing cubes. So like now we have packing cubes and probably could do things like that. But um, and I reuse the baggie, so it's not like a total waste. Like I would just save them and they would live in our luggage, and next time we would go, I'd pull out the you know, Monday bags, and there's all the Monday bags for all the kids. So I did that a long time. I had one friend who did it and she would rubber band the clothes so she'd roll them, so like socks, underwear, clothes, and then put a rubber band around them. Yeah, I don't know why rubber bands was just too hard for me. So a baggie was easier. I have no idea why. Oh, like a hair, like a scrunchie or a ponytail?

SPEAKER_01 4:03

Like a pointy, yeah, ponytail holder. Yeah. What did you call it though? A twister.

SPEAKER_00 4:08

Oh, there you go. Of course. So that that was back many months ago when I had littles.

SPEAKER_01 4:15

And then when we got this same thing, but we never put clothes, dirty clothes back in. I never thought about that. And I was the person who was like probably tossing the bangs, but um yeah, that's so funny. I did the same thing. I love it. But I did not have matching binkies and bows. I will tell you that I was not that mom.

SPEAKER_00 4:34

Um okay, so that was when I had tiny littles, and then we got to the phase where you had um the kids that could kind of pack themselves a little bit, but then we still had like youngers. And so I paired up a lot. So we had I would make a list, like here's your, you know, you need three pairs of pajamas, you need four outfits, you need four pairs of socks, four pairs of undies, four, whatever, a jacket, a pair of jeans, whatever it is. I would make a list, and normally it would go um on the whiteboard, like in our schoolroom. And so, or I would make copies. So, like as they've gotten older, now I make one and we photocopy, and there's like check boxes they have to like check it off. And something that like it was a grandparent gift when my kids were younger, they all got their own individual little like roller suitcase, but it wasn't like the big ones, it was just like a cloth one. So it only had one side, like it was a reasonable size size, you see them everywhere. Um, so they're not like those big, huge like ones we take on airplanes, but like a kid-size suitcase. Um, so then they got to be independent, and then they would do it, they would check off their list, and then they would bring it to me to check. Like I would have to like look at it and see, like, okay, like you had all these things. And the reason being, you guys, we went one time and and well, hold on, let me go back to the and the big kids would help a little kid. So, like my 12-year-old would help my three-year-old and be like, okay, this is what we're doing. And uh buddy system. So I had the buddy system and I was like, I don't need to check anymore. The big kids know what to do. We we went to our family cabin one year, and and Macy was probably six, so my kids were big. I had big, big kids, right? Well, it was kind of like Macy was like, so she was at the point of like packing herself, but we forgot the like check the suitcase thing. You guys, we got to the cabin and she looked like a homeless child the entire weekend, and we were talking like my my in-laws are like country club members, so we were at the country club and she had on like mismatched clothes with holes in her legs, and oh my gosh, it was like the most embarrassing we could. I'm like, I'm not taking out the house. Sorry, we're just gonna stay home because and it was my bike, I didn't check, and everybody's like, Well, I thought you checked, and I thought you checked, and so we still I still check Maisie's 11 and we still check suitcases, so they can pack their own suitcases with the list, but I still double check to make sure that we have, you know, because they can check a check mark by a jacket, but forget to put the jacket in there because they know that they have it, yeah, but not in the suitcase. So that's kind of how we've evolved. Um, but I still, I don't care how old you are, you are a high schooler, I still make a list of like, hey, these are the things we're doing when we travel, because they don't always know what we're doing every day, right? Or they don't know to look at the weather or think to look at the weather. But again, those are like training things. We're talking about those things and and I'm talking through like how do we make a list? Like, let's look at the weather, because now we can have them look at it. Like, hey, what's the weather going to be like? So, what do we need? We know that in California it's hot during the day, but it's still cold at night. So you still need a jacket, even in July, or you still need a pair of jeans, and you always pack an extra outfit because you never know. We have clumsy children and we spill things, and um, you know, talking, those are life skills, right? That you like you need to learn. So that's kind of how we have done it. And I will say, when my kids were really little and I was packing, I almost always packed right from the laundry. Like as I would fold laundry and I would pack right from the laundry because those are the clothes I know they like. And it was so much easier than having to like go dig through doors.

SPEAKER_01 7:52

Yeah, no, same. And the laundry is always like if we're ever what the only thing that not the only thing, like the main thing that keeps us or makes us run late to getting out the door on time for vacation is waiting on that last load of laundry because it's the same thing, everything that they want is is in the laundry or has recently been lost.

SPEAKER_00 8:12

Yeah, yeah. So that is kind of like my packing how-to's. So I kind of thought, I would you guys again, we didn't talk about this ahead of time. So I would love to know like how did you pack your littles or like Jessica's in the throes of it with a one-year-old, right? How are you doing it now? But then I also kind of want to touch on um, like, how do you keep kids entertained in long car rides? Or like, what are some of those tips and tricks that you have for that?

SPEAKER_01 8:36

Yeah, so um, I guess like the big thing for me, so we really love to travel and we do all kinds of traveling, um, airplane car rides, um, camping, all the things. Camping is definitely one of my favorite because I am a little bit of a germaphobe and I love that we can just be in our camper. It's like our own, right? Like our own dirt and our own space and our own mattress and all the things. Um, but the like the biggest perk for me of having a camper is that I can spend a couple of days before we leave packing all of the clothes, like packing it, right? Like I'm not stuffing into a suitcase. We're loading drawers and like putting the shampoo and like in the shower and all the things. So I really love that. But um for me for packing, the number one thing is um, well, actually, let me back up. So the the big thing that I try to remember like when I'm going into traveling is that the traveling is part of the journey, like it's part of the fun and part of the vacation. So I always try to do things to make the traveling part special so that it doesn't feel as stressful because it's like we're not trying to just hurry up and get through this part, right? This car ride, this airplane ride to get to wherever we're going and then the vacation starts, right? Because then you're you're like crabier and it's not as fun, and everybody's just you know, it's their just want to get to something else. And then on the way home, there's just really nothing to look forward to. So I always try to like in ingrain in our family and our kids and myself that that is part of the journey and part of the fun. Um, and it probably sums back to like my mom on long car rides. Like my mom, I always say she was like the original crunchy homeschool mom. We just briefly homeschooled and and then she had to go to work, but um, she would had a like a homemade cardboard clock in the in the big van that she would like take it down by the hour, or she'd you know, just have different things at certain times, but that we'd get like halfway through the trip or something like that. But for packing for me, I'm not gonna reiterate everything you said, but super similar to yours. But the biggest thing for me is I keep lists on my phone, my packing lists, and those are like so I I for many years I was just creating new packing lists every trip. And then I got a little bit smarter and started to work smarter and not harder. So now I have a camping packing list and I have a work trip packing list and I have a um like a water park beach packing list or just like a general vacation packing list or a homeschool conference packing list. Um so I can kind of go through those, and I mean always have to add things, right? Because there's things I didn't think. But if I'm on, let's say we're on a um we're on a camping trip, right? And I realize, oh, I cannot believe I forgot a can opener, right? That's like the one I can think of. I immediately go back to that list on the trip and I write can opener. So the next time we take that trip, I have this updated list. And so that's probably my biggest tip. Um, and it's actually divided into two or color-coded. So I have what I need to pack, and then I'm making a list on the very bottom of, or I include it in the main list and just turn a different color of things I need to purchase. So it's it's packing and purchasing, um, right? Because there's always something, right? Like some kids always need a new toothbrush or is out of deodorant or hairspray or whatever it is that they need for this trip. So there's always things. Um, and then I have like a food packing list as well, like easy travel foods. Um, I love to go and watch other people who've made content about traveling. So I do spend, you know, some hours prior to different trips. Um if it's kind of a new experience. So this is a new season for me traveling with a baby after 10 years of not having a baby. And so um for her, the biggest thing that I and we're still kind of perfecting this, and I'm I've been watching a lot of, like I said, a lot of content, but we're about to embark on a seven-hour plus plane ride with her in less than a week. And um it's all about what foods right we'll keep while we're in the airplane, keeping her her um like keeping the food as normal as possible. And do that with all my kids because if you, I mean, it's fun to deviate a little bit, right? And you're gonna get that special popcorn at that special stand in South Dakota, and you're gonna get that special ice cream at that cabin place and all the things. But as much as you can keep their diet similar to what they're used to, you're not gonna end up with tummy aches and crabbiness and sugar crashes and all the things. So try to keep some normal C to their diets, um, or like their not diets, but like their their eating habits or whatever, as far as time goes, and then what they're eating. Um and then the biggest thing I've learned with traveling with a baby right now is packing different categories of stuff. So you have like the stuff that I know I'm not gonna need on the plane, there's just no way. And then there's the stuff that I might need on the plane, right? That's a separate bag. And then there's the I know I'm gonna need this, everything in this bag on the plane, and keeping that really close and accessible right from takeoff. So, like that's like your under your seat bag. Um, and just different convenience things, like having a baby right now compared to when I had a you know baby 20, my first baby 22 years ago. It's they have so many convenient things for you now. Like I bought this little snack tray, right? When when my oldest or our oldest were young, it was just like the cup with the little bristly fingers, you know, where you could reach in and grab out around and didn't spill. But now they have like these big round things, and you press a button in the middle, it opens a new slot all the way around. And I mean, it's just like the can the things that they have on the market now to make traveling convenient are amazing. Um, but of course, you don't need all that stuff to have a wonderful trip. Like having a good mindset and a solid packing list is really all you need to travel well with kids and a lot of patience, but that's kind of goes with the mindset. But um yeah, and then just making sure like I tend to overpack, and it's funny because sometimes I overpack and I needed all of it, and then other times I overpacked and I didn't need any of it, so I tend to just kind of stay in that overpacking lane because it can be really expensive if you have to buy things on vacation that you normally you know would buy like an extra outfit or things like that. So um yeah, much to my husband's uh detriment, I tend to overpack and he has lots of luggage to card around for us. But those are kind of the big things that I can think of. Um oh, and then another tip recently that um we haven't had to worry too much about, but just making sure that especially for kids on airplane travel, making sure that you pack enough for at least three or four hours extra in case you get stuck on the plane for any reason. We did get stuck on the plane recently, but only for about 20 extra minutes, so it wasn't a big deal. But um, I've heard you know, we've all heard the horror stories, and so especially if you have like a formula fed baby, making sure that you have enough um uh food and and formula. And I think a lot of people don't know it. I didn't know when I started traveling with this baby that TSA has some relaxed um rules for bringing like baby food and um liquids, you can dig bottles, yeah, yeah. Water for the formula mixing, all the things has to be reasonable quantities, and of course they reserve the right to deny anything and they test it and things like that. Yeah, um definitely wouldn't like we started traveling with her, and we this is just like a weird side tip, but maybe there's a mom traveling with babies, but we used to travel with water in the bottles so that they'd be ready to mix, but they have to open them and like put a little card around them, and it just kind of contaminates the whole thing, in my my opinion. So we stop doing that, we just bring empty bottles and then we bring sealed bottles of water, and so they test the bottles, but they don't open the bottles if they're sealed. So um that's just like a small tip that we've learned, and then I guess I'll briefly touch too on car rides as you asked, like, you know, how do we pass the time? We do lots of things. We've done like the lap trays, right? Like we order the lap trays to sit on their laps in the car. Those are kind of been a flop for us, they've never been super successful. Um, we don't do a lot of screen time, but we do some traveling. Were you gonna say something about that?

SPEAKER_00 17:04

Well, yeah. So when one year for Christmas, my mom made all the kids, and it was basically a clipboard, and then on the back was like a foam thing that she covered in fabric, and like put a little pocket that they could sit on, and that was fantastic because it had a little pouch for them to keep their pencils, and then it was like a clipboard, so it was small enough to fit in their lap, and it wasn't as big and bulky, and like because those lap things are hard to fit over car seats, or like then they're next to them, and they were fantastic. I wonder if we still have them around here, but they were like the best dimension, and they had a little handle so then they could just like hook over the thing in front of them. We had those in our van for a million years.

SPEAKER_01 17:38

That's awesome. We do do a lot of like the organizers, so I'll hang the organizers on the back of the seats so that they have little pockets for everything. Um, and then um the uh oh, I wish I had it in here. Um, but well, let me finish, I guess, with the car ride pieces that we'll do like when the kids are little even now, we'll do like special things they can open at certain milestones, or we'll play like the alphabet game with license plates and signs. I mean, just making it fun and engaging with the kids while you're driving, I think is important. Um stopping and letting them get out and run around a lot is really important as well. Um, but one of the things that my girls and I did uh recently was we, and it was for travel, but also for every day, we created essential packs. And so they are little tiny, I wish that I had it in here. Um little tiny toiletry kits that you know you hang on a like a bath back of a bathroom door. And it they're they're small. I mean, mine unfolded is probably this big, and it has everything that we could need in it in an emergency. So has little tiny little toothbrushes that are pre-filled with toothpaste, has floss, and um like I keep my portable charger in there and my little air or um ear, what do you call those? Earplugs? Air, nope, uh headphones, like earphones or earbuds, that's what I was looking for, that plug into the plane outlet and um like so. Again, this was with my girls, but like all any feminine products that they might need in an emergency, um really just a sanitizer to like wipe down the seats, like the hand, the um, you know, like Clark's wipes kind of in a in a little bin um to clean off on the airport, the airplane, uh hand wipes and things like that. I mean, just really anything that just makes your life a little bit easier when you're out and about, whether you're traveling or just in the car on the way to dance or whatever it is. Um, I keep a couple pencil, uh, one pencil and one pen in there. Um, so that was really fun. We put those together and oh, deodorant wipes and also makeup remover wipes, um, just a bunch of little things they make. These things are just little individually wrapped. And so that was really fun to put together. And we take it on the plane, we take it everywhere we travel, we all do, and or the three girls and I, and they have been awesome. So I think it's just being well prepared, well packed with a good mindset makes for a trip that is enjoyable for everyone.

SPEAKER_00 20:12

Okay, real life. Here we have a baby.

SPEAKER_01 20:15

I love it. Yeah, a grandbaby.

SPEAKER_00 20:18

She does not look a grandbaby. This is a grandbaby, he's a grumpy grandbaby. So we're we're almost done though. I love it. So cute. He just likes lovely.

SPEAKER_01 20:33

Any last-minute tips for making travel enjoyable and fun?

SPEAKER_00 20:37

Yes, okay. So, what I was gonna say is um like car rides. So we do a lot of car rides. Um, and I totally did that. We did a 14-hour car ride a few times, which is far for us, and that's normally, I think seven is like our normal, like that's our California trip, right? Um, and when the kids were little, I would do like, yeah, every hour they would get us another something. And so one of my favorite things to do was a box of band-aids. Oh, entertainment. Like it's the crazy thing because one, it takes them a while to get them out, and band-aids they can stick on anything, it doesn't matter, like they come off, they don't ruin anything. Um, that was one of my kids' favorite, like when they were two and up. I mean, two for a while. A six-year-old still loves a box of band-aids. Oh yeah. So that's and you can get them in all funds of you know, kinds of fun, like Superman or Princess Sophia or whatever. I don't think Princess Sophia is around anymore, but that was that was Macy's favorite. Um, so there's that, and then if stickers, like a thing of a page of stickers with the tip that like you take off the back. So you know, like a sticker, how it has like so if you take off the back piece, so it's just the stickers, they can get them off so much easier and they don't need help because yeah. So that would be a just a plain notebook and a big thing of stickers, is huge, like just as then a little entertainment. And we do a lot of audiobooks, we always listen to fun and audiobooks as a family. Um, we do do TV. Like we'll have movies that we'll do. And a lot of the times what we do now, um, I don't have a car that has a TV in it anymore, like I used to when the kids were little. Um, we'll put an iPad like up at the front, like hooked to like the seat, and we plug it into the car radio so everybody gets to listen. Even me, like as driving, like I can listen to the movies, and we always do musicals. It has to be something that I want to listen to, so it's something fun. Um, so there's that. Just to kind of keep everybody, you know, like included as a fam, like, you know, getting those bonding experiences count for that too, right? Um, yeah. Um, so that's probably my probably some of my favorite things. Oh, we have a ton of, oh, one more. I have a bucket that's like my car bucket that we take on trips. And so it's full of like little car games, or we have a um a bunch of like little travel games. We have all those like little logic ones where like you put the one colored circles in. I don't know what those are called.

SPEAKER_01 22:54

Um, like brain teaser games.

SPEAKER_00 22:57

Yes, those, yeah. A bunch of those or like the little maze balls where you have like a little metal ball and you're like trying to like use um car bingo. I used to have paper ones, but I finally found like a little um cardboard, yes, that moves around. So it's in my car now. I big kids. My big kids will use it. Like the junior high, high school kids will get in the car and they're like, I get this one, I get this one. And they're we're driving down the road, and they're like, Oh, and like one of them is like a river, like we don't have so we count canals in Arizona, like if you pass a canal. So silly things like that. But I don't care how old you are, they still, I mean, literally, my daughter's a freshman, and her and her friends were in the car doing it the other day. I was like, You guys are so silly, and they're like, There's a fire truck, there's a uh uh American flag, there's a gas station there. It's just it's silly little things that they never outgrow that.

SPEAKER_01 23:45

No, and it makes for such great memories and helps the you know pass the time so that the journey is enjoyable too. Because I think that's just as important as having a good time once you get there.

SPEAKER_00 23:54

Yeah, they're funny. Now they know with those bingo things, they're like, Mom, can you take this route? Because they know that if they do it, they'll get their bingo first. They know how to get it done.

SPEAKER_01 24:03

That's awesome.

SPEAKER_00 24:04

I love it. It's fun. So I just I think anytime you can make the trip, like, yeah, that that's part of, like you said, is part of the journey. Like that's part of the vacation, is the trip. And it's really funny. You um saying the thing how you keep your list, which is a genius idea. And I'm wondering if maybe you told me that last year because I would you made me think of it. I have a 4th of July because we always go to the beach for 4th of July for the week. And I have a 4th of July packing list. That's the only one I have because that's the only consistent thing we do. But I was like, oh, I have to remember use that at 4th of July. So when it comes time when I complaining about packing, remind me that I have the list on my phone because I probably won't remember.

SPEAKER_01 24:39

I love it. Well, sounds good. This has done great. And for our listeners and viewers, too, if you guys have tips and tricks, let us know. Or if there's more specific questions you have about different seasons that you want us to go into more depth, just let us know.

SPEAKER_00 24:55

Yeah, this is great. All right. Thanks, everybody. This was so fun, and welcome to real life and grandbabies coming to visit. Have a great week, everybody.