• Keeping my kids busy can really be a challenge. Especially on long car trips. Our last trip we tried out I Spy jars. I originally saw this idea on Pinterest and I knew that it was a great idea for a car trip. I was looking for an activity that was engaging. Took more than five minutes to complete, and that could be done without too much noise. I know, that is quite a lot to ask. I made three of these jars, each with different treasures inside so that when the kids were done with one they could trade and do another. Genius right? The original poster suggested picking up small treasures from around your house. This is a great idea because it cuts the cost down significantly.

    This is a great idea because it cuts the cost down significantly.

    I did a little bit of this for our jars, but I also went to our local party store and found a bunch of tiny favors to put inside. I was hoping to get things that my kids wouldn’t miss by being in the jar, and nothing expensive either. I made the jars one at a time so I could keep things straight.

    The first step is to gather all of your goodies that will go inside of your jars (I used old peanut butter jars with the label removed, so mine were much bigger than hers and had many more treasures inside). Take a picture of all the stuff inside. Label your jar and the picture so you know which picture goes with each jar. I just used a black marker to write a one, two, or three on the lids. And I did the same to the pictures.

    To fill your jars just use white rice. Fill a bit with rice, add some toys, add some more rice, ad naseum. Until the jars are mostly full. I left about an inch open. Next, and this is imperative if you have little kids, glue the lids on your jars.

    The original post suggested laminating your pictures, which I think is an amazing idea. However, I didn’t have the time so instead I slid my pictures into plastic sheet protectors and taped them shut.

    When it came time to test these babies out I gave each of my kids a jar, it’s corresponding picture and a dry erase marker. As they found the goodies inside of the jars they were able to cross them off so they knew when they found everything.

    Overall this was a great activity. It worked wonders for our car trip. Plus, now that we are back home I just stored the jars in the car for the next super big drive.