We recently went on vacation. With three children under the age of ten. With a twelve hour drive—both ways.

This seemed like a good idea at the time, but as we closed in on the actual date, thinking about the drive made me think I’d had a major lapse in judgement. In order to ensure we all made it to the beach (and back), I was going to have to put a plan into place.

So we checked out 20 DVDs from the library. And downloaded a slew of free apps to our phones and iPads. But (weirdly) our kids get a bit sick of media after a while, so I needed to hatch a secondary plan.

Part two of my plan was to bring out one new entertaining thing every hour of the drive. Each hour I would unveil some thing they could fiddle with for at least fifteen minutes.

This seemed like a really great plan until I did a quick calculation of everything in my cart at Target, and I had a small heart attack. So part 2B of my plan was a challenge myself to find one thing to entertain three children each hour for a twelve hour drive, both ways, for under $100. (That’s 24 things, if you’re counting.)

I am proud to announce my victory, thanks to Target, Michael’s, and United Arts & Education. We’re back home, safe and sound, sanity intact.

My mother, who has been a teacher for about a zillion years, created this great activity that takes advantage of this concept—building an ocean under your kitchen table! On these freezing winter days, we can always use an activity to keep us invigorated indoors.

Simply cut out fish in many different colors, create some underwater plants, and hang them from under the table. In our house, some of the kids are too young to cut fish, but they eagerly get involved in drawing eyes, fins, and decorating. Add other marine life if you feel inspired!

Once you’ve created your ocean, hunker down for some play. Sometimes the kids just like to hang out under there, on their backs, taking in the scene. Other times, everyone gets on bathing suits and suddenly we have deep sea exploration on our hands. Turning out the lights and giving everyone flashlights adds a whole new dimension of fun.

Think you’re incapable of cutting out a fish? We’ve included a template for big fish, little fish, and seaweed. For the seaweed, simply cut the spiral, and then pull one end to unfold. Create a bigger spiral for longer pieces of seaweed.

Then crack out your goggles—you’ve got an ocean to explore.

DOWNLOAD TEMPLATE: PDF format

As I hunted around, I stumbled upon this template for a three-dimensional model of a volcano, which unfolds to illustrate the inner workings. A few clicks later I discovered I’d stumbled upon Canon’s Creative Park, which offers templates for hundreds of paper models. From dinosaurs to the Taj Mahal, there’s a paper craft for everyone. Some of them are pretty spectacular.

We set to work on building the volcano model. The design is beautiful and the instructions were easy to follow, but this is definitely for those with advanced paper skills and a good chunk of time on their hands.

It took us well over an hour to get it all together. (We’d like to blame our sluggish pace on the fact that in the midst of turning the office upside down, we couldn’t put our hands on a single bottle of glue.) But it was fun diversion, and I think I know far more about volcanos this evening than I did this morning.

As these cold days become more frequent, it’s time to start pulling from my stash of indoor activities for the kids, who I find jumping off couches and recreating pro wrestling on the living room floor if I don’t keep them occupied.

One of my favorites is the indoor sandbox. Instead of sand, we use cornmeal. (This is my sister Susie’s suggestion, so I give her full credit.) Cornmeal acts just like sand in terms of digging and pouring, but it doesn’t have the grit. Plus, it’s safe for little people who occasionally eat a fistful or two as they play. Just don’t get it wet unless you’re planning on making cornbread. Oh, and bring out a funnel for added enjoyment.

The box that holds our sand is actually an underbed storage container. At around seven inches tall, it contains the “sand” but allows kids to play easily on a tabletop or floor. And when we aren’t using it, we store it under a bed!

When the kids are done playing, a quick vacuum cleans up the mess. Or, if I ignore it long enough, the dogs do an excellent job as well.

While I adore many of the games built around this premise, I was delighted when my sister recommended The Orchard, a game by the German company Haba. (Haba has long been a favorite of mine for their toys.) The premise of the game is that all the players work together to gather all the fruit from the orchard before a puzzle of a raven is complete. When the puzzle of the raven is complete, it eats the fruit in the orchard! Suddenly I found even the two-year-old cheering on her siblings, working together toward a common goal.

And, um, it doesn’t hurt that the game includes these lovely, wooden pieces and real baskets which can easily be repurposed for other imaginary play! Haba has many other fantastic games, many of which include a cooperative slant.