This month, parents share traveling tricks they use to make their road trips a little less rocky. Send your parenting hacks to ideas@kidsvt.com

We go to the library a few days before a trip so the kids can pick out books. The new books are only opened to read when we start the trip. We also put portioned snack bags in the front pocket of the travel bag, then the kids can help themselves when hungry.

—Erin McKechnie

The grabber tool! Use to pass snacks, books, tissues, etc. to those in the back or way back (for the minivan drivers) without wrenching your back, neck or arms. You can also use it to pick up things that are dropped from car seats. On a long road trip, every 30 minutes or hour, give everyone a jelly bean. Put it in a bowl, pick up the bowl with the grabber and pass it back. This gives a concrete marker of time for younger kids.

—Charlotte Miller

My husband and I invented a game we play with our son on long car rides. We tell him some obscure fact and he has to determine if it's true or false. If he guesses right, he gets a point. If he guesses wrong, we get a point.

—Emily Grimes