For The Kids : ON THE GO : Travel Wisdom : A new book by a self-taught expert offers tips on how to make trips with children seem less rocky.

So you’ve just driven your family up the winding road to the entrance of Yosemite National Park when a panicked little voice in the back seat announces his McDonald’s Happy Meal is on its way up.

What do you do? If you’re Arlene Kay Butler, you’ve packed a little bag of cat litter for such occasions. Sprinkle it on a soiled area and it will absorb moisture and odor.

Butler, the mother of five children, offers that bit of advice from her own experience--so much of it that she’s written a book on how to travel with children and survive.

Her book, “Traveling with Children and Enjoying It,” hits the bookstores this month and it’s crammed with tips for parents about to embark on summer’s traditional odyssey: the vacation.

Her best piece of advice?

“Plan the best you can,” she said. “Then roll with the punches and be flexible.”

Butler, 37, a first-time author, got the idea for the book when she and her husband, an aerospace engineer, moved from the Salt Lake City area to Agoura Hills six years ago with their children.

“All of a sudden we had an opportunity to sightsee in Southern California,” she said. They went to museums. They camped. It wasn’t always easy, and Butler looked around for books on how to travel with children. She found little and began gathering her own information.

The result is a 284-page book filled with help on everything from packing to behavioral expectations, from discipline to activities that will consume time on the road, plane or train. A sampling of her tips:

* Rather than fold your child’s clothing, roll each day’s complete outfit together and wrap an elastic band around it. Clothes will wrinkle less and the roll takes up less space in the suitcase because it can be jammed more easily into nooks and crannies.

* Pack everyone’s sleepwear together in one bag. Then if you’re tired at the end of a day of traveling, you need bring only that bag into the motel. Do the same with swimwear.

* At crowded spots, like the beach or an amusement park, dress your kids in the same bright-colored T-shirts or bathing suits so you can spot them more easily.

* If you need to eat in the car, have children use a shoe box to hold food and drinks.

* Avoid motion sickness by not feeding your child fried, spicy or heavy food. Cut back on liquids, especially milk. Queasiness can be eased with crackers, gum or sips of soda. Seat the child in the front seat and have him or her focus on the road ahead rather than calling attention to the side of the road.

* Keep toys for the car in a lunch box or cake pan with a sliding lid. Tie infant toys to the car seat so they can’t be dropped on the floor.

Butler devotes a full 100 pages to activities, games and songs that children of all ages can do to pass the time.

Suggestions for entertainment items to bring with you include books, a cassette player for stories and sing-along tapes, magazines to cut up and make a collage (use a glue stick), workbooks with mazes and follow-the-dot activities, sticker and coloring books, playing cards and flash cards, pipe cleaners, sewing cards, paper bags for making puppets, magnetic bingo and paper dolls.

For older children, try a radio with earphones, vacation scrapbook, an inexpensive camera, knitting or crocheting. The Guinness Book of World Records can keep them entertained and generate games. Older kids also like reading maps where they can follow the vacation route.

Butler has other useful tips: Give each child a large manila envelope for collecting trip mementos. She suggests limiting each child to one expensive souvenir rather than many junky items.

She believes in using plastic bags of all sizes to collect dirty clothes, toys and snacks.

She also has myriad creative games for family members, like Who’s There, a game in which someone picks out an interesting house or car and each family member describes how they envision the inside and the people who live there.

For memory and geography games, she has lists of presidents, the 50 states and their capitals, and maps with and without the states identified. She also has a list of books and tapes that have proven to be winners with her children who range in age from 2 to 13. And she’s included the words to 34 popular children’s songs.

With five children, you might think that Butler has a score of vacation horror stories to tell.

But her enthusiasm for travel is as strong as ever. The family has traveled by van throughout the western United States, in Mexico and in Canada.

“Our goal is to see all of North America, then the world,” she writes.

Her worst experience was on a Labor Day weekend trip to San Francisco with the family. Failing to make reservations, they spent four hours trying to find lodging.

“It was nerve-racking for all of us,” she said. It’s best to keep cool in a situation like that, she advises, because children pick up on your tension.

Butler had little writing experience when she tackled her book. She prepared for it by taking a writing class at a local college, then managed to finish the book in three months.

She is a whiz when it comes to organization. In fact, that’s now what she does for a living when she’s not managing her children. She calls herself a professional organizer, or home-management consultant.

She speaks to groups and advises people about everything from traveling with children to de-junking their homes.

“I just did a kitchen for a woman in Calabasas,” she said.

Her organizational skills are evident in her book. She includes lists of what to do even before you set foot out the door, and what to do upon your return.

Her advice when the trip is over: Make sure you arrive home to a clean house and to a set of clean clothes for everyone.

FYI

Arlene Kay Butler’s book, “Traveling with Children and Enjoying It,” is published by Globe Pequot Press, P.O. Box Q, Chester, CT 06412. Cost is $11.95. Butler, who is available for presentations on traveling or home organization, can be reached at (818) 991-8314.