Badges of Fun: August Badge

For the month of August, Disney Family Fun is challenging us to Hit the Road!  The idea of this challenge is to make the most of the last days of summer by taking a trip with the family.  They give great ideas on what you can do to entertain the kids in the car, whether it be across the country or across town. 

To earn their badges, the girls need to complete one of the following activities:

1. Stock Your Car
For this activity, Family Fun gives several ideas on how ways to keep books, games, toys, and activities contained and organized.

2. Make the Miles Go By
In this section, there are a lot of fun games to play in the car.  One activity that would be fun for long road trips is the Surprise Balls.  This is where you hit up the dollar bins at Target and grab a bunch of goodies and wrap them in tin foil.  Then, every so often, toss a ball to the kiddos and let them open the surprise!  Most of the games are a little advanced for Taylor, especially.  Heck, when I was a kid, my brother and I had a blast counting cows and tractors... Yeah, Indiana road trips are awesome!

3. Pack Easy-to-Eat Snacks
There are some great recipes in this section for simple, healthy travel treats!  These, again, are for longer road trips.

This badge is a little tricky for us because a lot of the activities are a little too advanced for my tots.  We are going with Stock Your Car and creating the Stuck-on-You Box!  I was leaning toward this activity but wasn't sure what kind of pictures to use.  Mom suggested that for Jaden, make each letter of the alphabet and a picture to go with that letter.  Then, she can use the box to match the pictures to the letter or learn to spell simple words.  For Taylor, she suggested to use simple, familiar pictures that Taylor would be able to recognize.  Then, from the front seat, Mike and I can play along!  We can prompt Taylor to, "Find the kitty!"  We can also help Jaden sound out words and match her letters to her pictures.

Another activity we are going to do is design a map.  The girls love to look at maps in the car so I though it would be fun for them to make their own!  I'm going to have a bunch of pictures of houses, trees, businesses and places we visit often, street signs, etc.  Then, the girls will be able to place them on a map.  They can place the objects anywhere on the map that they want.  They will know to put Bisque It by Gramma Karen's house and Dunkin' Donuts.  Jaden will know that she has to pass through the tree tunnel to get to Gramma J's house.  When they are done with their maps, I will laminate and fold them just like a real map!  Because these activities are for the whole month of August, we will spend several days completing them.  I'm sure the girls will love creating and using their boxes and maps!

If you remember, the girls created wind chimes to earn their June/July badge.  Here is the final product hanging outside their playhouse: