No iPad Required

That summer road trip with the family doesn't need to be stressful. Stratton Lawrence, a father of two, shares his secrets to pulling off a successful and screen-free!-drive

- Stratton Lawrence

MAYBE IT'S MY OWN childhood that makes me so wary of screens in a car. Back then, my family and I would be packed into a 1972 Volkswagen Super Beetle, the dog and the hamster cage in our laps in the back, for epic 1,000-mile journeys between New York and Florida. Yet I have joyful memories of those long slogs, which left me with a lifelong lust for the window seat.

Today, my family takes our road trips in a full-featured minivan, which even has a screen for each passenger that drops down from the ceiling. Not that my two kids, aged four and six, know they're there. Since 2020, we've logged thousands of miles on road trips from our home in Charleston to places as distant as Montana and Baja California, Mexico.

These trips with little ones in tow might've been easier with a stream of PBS Kids, but my wife and I have resisted the urge to switch on the screens. After all, we put reasonable limits on their TV time at home, usually around an hour per sitting. Why not in the vehicle, too?

So far, it's worked. Here's a closer look at the bag of tricks we pack in the space between our captain's chairs up front.

Hands-on activities