Hi,
We are arriving in Barcelona on 9th September via ferry from Italy with a car. Our plan is to spend 3 nights (ferry arrives in evening) so really only 2 days, exploring Barcelona.
Our oldest daughter aged 14 needs to be at San Lorenzo de El Escorial, about 50km outside Madrid on 21st September to attend school there for a month. She is in a Spanish immersion class in Brisbane, Australia so is fairly fluent in Spanish though none of the rest of can speak anything other than English. The plan is for her to pick up as much language as possible as she is missing out on lessons here for 3 weeks prior, when the rest of her class learn the colloquial Spanish. We can visit Madrid after we have dropped her off as she will do a weekend trip there with her classmates.
So where to we go for the intervening days? We are trying not to rush too much from place to place, but I have no real desire to go for single nights here and there as for this many people apartments are cheaper and the minimum stay is usually 2-3 nights.
Our thoughts were to travel down the coast to Granada, Cordova and Seville, but apart from this I have no idea where to go and if there is a better route than freeways as we will definitely need to stop at least overnight on the way. Any itinery suggestions would be greatly appreciated. Reading suggestions for other people everyone suggests flying out of Barcelona as there is not much between there and Southern Spain of interest for a short trip. This is of course not possible due to the car. The kids are pretty good travelers as we often travel long distances here with them. A full day travelling though does not hold much appeal for the driver!
After we have dropped off our daughter we are heading up to Paris with the 3 boys aged 12,9,7 to fly out on the 29th September. I am less worried about this but have booked absolutely no accommodation after the 11th September. So suggestions of 1-2 spots to stay en route to Paris would be appreciated too!
Many thanks
Katie

That is a long post and I will restrict myself to just one aspect of it.

"if there is a better route than freeways as we will definitely need to stop at least overnight on the way."
If you are referring to the drive from Barcelona to Granada, Cordoba and Seville, there is no alternative if you want to just stop for one night. If you had a week, that would be a different matter. You will need an overnight stay anyway.

I have done that drive, twice. It was boring (very few views), stressful and costly (tolls). I am in no hurry to repeat the experience.

There are direct high speed trains (AVEs) that run between Barcelona, Cordoba and Seville. That would be my first choice.

I'm sorry but your info is, to say the least, confusing and that's why you're getting so little response!

If your daughter needs to 'polish' her Spanish, Barcelona may not be the best place. Most people speak Catalan. Of course, they will be swapping to Spanish to talk to her, but you can pick up so much of a language just by hearing it in the street... And in Barcelona she will hear mostly Catalan.

Mosslings' daughter will be studying outside Madrid, and they have a car so will drive.
Unfortunately you have only 9 days to travel before you deliver your daughter to San Lorenzo so you are forced to take the toll highways which are good and fast, if expensive. It doesn't much matter where you stop between Barcelona and Granada. In fact, there are hotels right on the highway. Spend the nights of the 13th and 14th in Granada and see the Alhambra and the tombs of Ferdinand and Isabella and perhaps the Albaicin district. On the 15th go to Cordoba to see the Mezquita and spend the night or two. Go on to Seville and spend 3 days there. One the 20th head north and stop in Toledo on the way to San Lorenzo. Have fun !

Thank you for the advice.
For those that are confused basically I wanted to know if there was anywhere worth stopping for between Barcelona and Granada given the slim timeframe we have.
We have given up on the original budget we had so adding some more tolls in will be just part of that. And I think worth it in this case.
Then how much time in each place was the next question so thank you for answering that too!
Is there a white villages drive somewhere?
Having remembered now about Catalan we may cut our stay in Barcelona to 2 nights.
Thanks

Most villages in Andalucía are "white villages" so you really cannot go wrong. I live in one, just outside Ronda, but it is little known and does not feature on most tourist itineraries.