Camping with kids isn’t easy. Packing, planning meals, gathering all of the supplies…it’s all a lot of work. And, as if that wasn’t enough, the unpacking is (arguably) even worse. But, I promise that the benefits of camping (even with kids) far outweigh the difficulties. It’s good for our physical, social, and spiritual wellbeing.

You might be thinking that there’s a pretty major problem with the title of this post, but nope! The 3 moms I’m thinking of were (probably) the some of the greatest Bible moms. We’re talking serious #momgoals here, but these mamas have no words written about them in the scriptures. We don’t know their names or much about their circumstances.

Whether you’re traveling for the holidays or taking a summer road trip, you probably dread spending long hours in the car with your toddler. Trust me, I get it. For my family, long car rides happen quite a few times a year, as we live a long way from both sets of grandparents. To make things even more crazy, we practice screen-free parenting, so we have to find other ways to stay sane during road trips. Today I’m sharing 5 great, Disciple Mama-tested toddler car activities to make the journey (almost) as fun as the destination.

Parenting, and especially discipleship parenting, is not easy. It’s not easy being patient when you haven’t gotten enough sleep for 2000 consecutive nights. It’s rough because the hours are terrible and you never get a day off. It’s hard because there’s a lot of really gross, really smelly, and even really slimy stuff you have to deal with on the regular. It’s frustrating because toddler logic (even on a good day) will stretch the limits of your patience, endurance, and probably even your knowledge of scientific, religious and philosophical truths. And, to top it all off, your actions teach by example (whether you like it or not) through it all.

Do you want to make it through the day without using electronic devices to entertain your kids? If you want to ditch your tech babysitters and go screen-free, here’s my list of screen-free activities to get you started. Each of these activities can be adapted to multiple age levels (I use them with my 2.5 year old (and some with my infant). And, bonus! Each activity on my list can easily work to support your discipleship parenting essential target teaching areas.

If you’ve worked with children as a parent, teacher, doctor, or in any capacity, you’ve probably read a lot about how screen time affects them, and there are many advocates of screen-free childhoods. There’s plenty of information out there, and it can be confusing to decide whether tech is good or bad for kids. Honestly, I see both sides of the argument.

A few months ago, I began thinking about blogging more seriously about parenting. It’s not because I’m an expert. I’m not. I’m 8 months into being a 2-kid mom, and I haven’t got the hang of it yet (and I may never fully master it). It’s just that I’m feeling more and more burdened with the desire to do what I can to help parents (including myself) raise kids who love Jesus through discipleship parenting. I’m pretty sure I make parenting mistakes every day. But the older my kids get, the more I feel the urgency of leading them into a relationship with Jesus.