When parents take their child on the very first road trip that they’ll remember, they naturally want it to be as fun as possible so that there will be more trips in the future. If you’re looking for a great way to introduce the idea of a road trip to your child, these four books are perfect. Each one shows off the best things about going on a road trip, to get your child eager to go with you. They also address the pitfalls of a road trip and how to get through them together.
Clifford Takes A Trip
This Clifford the Big Red Dog tale is about Emily and her family taking a road trip to the mountains for a vacation. Naturally, Clifford has to stay behind because he’s too big. Clifford is depressed that he can’t go with them and eventually follows them anyway, using his sense of smell to track where they went along the highways until he joins them at just the right moment.
Arthur’s Family Vacation
In this story, Arthur is frustrated because his family is going on a road trip to the beach, and he wants to go camping with his best friend instead. What’s worse, the trip doesn’t turn out that great, with constant rain storms at the beach. The Arthur books are more advanced than the others in this list, and this one is great book for school-age kids who are reluctant about going on a trip. They can relate to Arthur and see how he learns to have fun with his family, even when things don’t go as planned.
Fred and Ted’s Road Trip
Fred and Ted is a book series by Peter Eastman about two dogs. Fred does things one way and Ted always does things the opposite way, but they’re best friends no matter what. They go on a road trip in this story, and face quite a few of the problems that you might experience on a real road trip, like older roads, car trouble, weather, etc. They make it through in the end and have a great time, which will serve as a reminder that just because you hit a snag on your own trip doesn’t mean it’s ruined.
The Night Before Summer Vacation
Packing isn’t the most fun part of a road trip, but this rhyming book series examines the day before a big event, such as summer vacation or other things that children look forward to. In this book, the kids see how families prepare by making a list, working together, remembering everything each person needs to bring, packing food, and more. Like Arthur’s Family Vacation, this book also dedicates a page or two to showing how families can have fun even when the weather won’t cooperate.
These four children’s books are all a good choice if you want to introduce the concept of a road trip delicately and get your children on board. With one or two of these books by award-winning authors, you’ll have the kids eagerly counting the days until you hit the road.
Image via Pixabay
