This question comes from my reader Kelly:
I would like to know what are some activities that you do in the car when you travel with your little ones. I have a 6 (soon to be 7) year old boy and we will be going to Kansas from PA this June. Also what are some good snacks to pack. Will be about a 15 hour drive!!
Definitely pack snacks and keep any electronics (if you choose to bring those) charged with plenty of applications. One app in particular that I use quite often with the kids is the DISH Anywhere app. When I have time off from work at DISH, I like to take trips, and since the app lets us stream live TV anywhere we go, it’s nice that the kids can keep entertained on the whole way.
We had to drive from middle NC to far west TX with an 8 and 6yo. It was during school so I asked their teachers before we left for any work they might miss. We let them put whatever they wanted in their backpacks, mostly coloring/activity books, crayons, their woobies… The girl brought her DS(and actually shared!) and the boy brought some cars. They really enjoyed I Spy… us, not so much.
For snacks, I practically emptied our cabinets: granola bars, fruit cups, snack cakes I got from the bread outlet($1/box), the bread we’d just opened and the cold cuts and cheese I’d just bought from the deli(always ask for manager’s specials-I can sometimes get Sara Lee cold cuts $2.99/lb).
Drive at night. Take a nap the day before you leave and wake up super early so that your kids sleep in the car AND you miss morning traffic. That way by the time they’ve woken up its possible that you have already driven 4-5 hours or more!!
My 6 year old has her own MP3 player. It keeps her entertained for quite a while. I only download approved music too. As far as snacks go, I fix low fat popcorn to put in a baggie, granola bars and organic fruit twists.
Thank you sooo much everyone. These are wonderful suggestions and I plan on incorporating them all into the trip!!
I’ve got two kids – 10 and 8 – and we do a lot of car trips. Here are some of our “In-route entertainments”
1. Portable dvd players with headphones and car chargers – as others above have said, worth their weight in gold!
2. Nintendo DS games (or any handheld electronic games). Sometimes we surprise them with a new game from Gamestop for a long trip.
3. Audiobooks and radio plays on CD. I try to pick ones that everyone will like – kids and adults!
4. Reading aloud. We went to Tampa over Memorial Day weekend and I picked up a box set of Edward Eager books in a used bookstore (yay nostalga!) I ended up reading “Half Magic” aloud on the drive home – every time I took a break, the kids begged me to keep going. They were spellbound the entire way home!
5. Paper and crayons and markers for coloring
6. Books and puzzles (word search, kids sudoku, etc.)
7. Homework! My kids are in Kumon so they have homework every day. If we are heading out on a trip, they save it to do in the car.
We recently made a 12 hour trip with our five kids, ages 2-14. We are blessed to have a dvd player!! I also packed activity bags in individual sandwich baggies to pull out every few hours. If you’re driving at night, glow-in-the dark bracelets from Dollar Tree are great, as well as small flashlights. I packed each child a snack bag with both healthy and junk foods. They got to choose when and what they wanted to eat.
We always take the Leapster for the oldest two and book and coloring books. My kids all love books on tape or CD. I only give them protein and fat in the car- nothing nothing nothing sugary. Nuts, cheese, trail mix (maybe some dried fruit) but never juice boxes and just water or milk. have fun! Oh yes! Play the license plate game and have the oldest keep tabs of which states you find! My kids love this and once found 40 =D
I think a portable DVD player is worth its weight in gold. I don’t bring it out though until they have done everything else possible and are on a verge of a “breakdown”….lol. It is my last resort activity, but I ALWAYS have to use it! :)
We also do the dollar store toys and wrap them up like presents and let them open one every so often. We take magna doodles, hot wheels for the boys, a baggie full of legos for my oldest to put together.
As far as snacks are concerned, I like to buy the 12 variety pack of the snacks that have three different kinds of cookies, etc. My kids love those and since there are three kids, they each can have one of each kind. Works great!
We play ” Guess my animal.” Which has led to “Guess my ride,” and “Guess my villain.”
We do the you cant talk until u see this game. After a hard day at work my daughter would be none stop in the car and all I wanted was 5 mins so I was reading a magazine and it had a game that this mom would play so I tried it one time.I told my daughter who loves games we were not allowed to talk until we saw a pink car. Sh would go none stop looking for a pink car and it gave me at least 5 to 10 mins before she was talking by then we were home and I enjoyed the silence she is now 8 and we still play the beause it is amazing how quite it can be.
When we were young, traveling to and fro between Va. and Ga., my mother made a long list of things to watch for on the roadside. These could include certain billboard ads, types or color of cars, animals- on a reccent trip we saw llamas, and certain trees, crops flowers, birds. All non-electronic, kept us busy for hours, and there was a prize for the first one finished.
Portable DVD players, BEST $100 I EVER spent!! Also, we try to leave as EARLY as possible in the morning like 2 or 3am if it’s going to be a long drive. This way they tend to sleep for a little while you get a good head start on the road.
We also take games like travel bingo (which you can print offline) and it can take a while to play and with us, the ‘winner’ gets first choice of snacks/drinks when it comes time or choice of the next movie they watch.
Snacks – we generally get grapes, apple slices, animal crackers, etc. We try and stay away from the sugary snack cakes, but we do bring them along just in case we need a ‘bribe.’ :-D
Have fun on your trip!!
For my son (5) DvD player.. His Leapster2…. his treasure chest, a recycled tin i covered with paper and filled with toys from kids meals, dollar store items, and party favors he obtained.
I make up a notebook filled with timed activities for each of my 3 children. We play car baseball, travel bingo, do mazes, coloring pages, mad libs, etc. The book is categorized into days and broken down further in hour by hour. I try to fill the books with pages of things we will be seeing on our trip (like a trip to the aquarium day will have a sea themed maze, etc) I even schedule time in the book for lunch stops and dinner and of course, movie time. I put alot of time an effort into making these books every year. My kids keep them all year and love to look back on. It keeps them super busy and really makes me enjoy my time with my kids in the car ( I also make a master book for me, so I know what games are coming up) We travel from New Jersey to Hilton Head every year and this works great for my family!
Also, wipe off boards are invaluable! They can use them for their own quiet time free style drawing or for hangman. We love the shower board at Lowe’s. You can buy the shower board and they will cut it into 12×12 squares, making a personal slate sized wipe off board!!
Yes, the DVD player is great to have.
We also did an activity where every 100 miles the kids got a present to open. We had gone to Dollar Tree and bought crayons, coloring books, bubbles, card games, puzzles to put together on the trays we brought etc… This was fun for them and well, me too!
We played travel games like the license plate game (then marked a star on the state we found on a map we had printed out and laminated so it could be played over & over!) and scavenger hunt. Check out this website for great ideas…
http://www.momsminivan.com/
and
http://www.crackerbarrel.com/travel/travel-games/
We also bought some activity books from AAA:
http://www.amazon.com/AAA-Kids-Road-Atlas-Activities/dp/1562514709
http://www.aaaohio.com/
Cracker Barrel has books on audio you can rent (you buy the book on audio and when you return it, you get a refund minus $3.49 rental for each week you have it) and return to any Cracker Barrel. Your library may have something similar you can check out for free.
For snacks we did things like gummies, carrot sticks, raisins, potato sticks, grapes, homemade chex mix.
We LOVE road trips! They can be made into such a memorable, educational and FUN experience!
We let the kids (6 and 4) pack their own “car bag” with a few toys and books. Then they couldn’t complain that they had nothing to do since they were responsible for what they had. This worked great on our recent 3,500 miles vacation trek. My son quietly played transformers and my daughter read her books. They were so well entertained that they only watched a movie and a half over the course of our 5 long days of driving.
The DVD player is the best. Our library sells dvd for childen for a $1 so I stocked up. They had care bears, thomas the tank etc. I just went to target and got a clearanced out make your own book. I put a bunch of pictures of my girls when they were babies for them to look at and try and stick in the book. I got the coloring books from Amazon when they had that deal recently. The best idea is the dollar store.
Also don’t forget yourself and husband. I usually pack a little chocolate for us in case we need a pick me up too
We play “What’s in My Refrigerator?” The first person says something that starts with an “A”. Such as “In my refrigerator, I have an apple”. The next person says, “In my refrigerator, I have an apple and a banana.” The next person says, “I have an apple, a banana, and a cabbage.” And so on, through the alphabet. It can be challenging for an almost 7-year-old, or even for an adult depending on how tired everyone is, but the possibilities are endless, and it’s a lot of fun. If you want, you can get pretty silly and even make it specific to a certain subject using something Disney related, such as “In my refrigerator, I have an Ariel, a Belle, a Cinderella, a Donald,” and so forth. Our 7-year-old and 13-year-old daughters love it, and they can take turns picking specific subjects. :)
My daughters favorite car activity is her “magic board” I bought one of those stove eye covers for a buck at the dollar store and a pack of dry erase markers. Great cheap way to play and learn. I play games with her. Like Can you spell truck? and stuff like that. She loves it
We drove 20+ hours with a 3 and 4 yr old last summer. The traveling DVD player definitely was a fav with the kids. I surprised them with a few new movies I found at a resale shop. I also really recommend books on tape/cd (check your library), the periodic surprises and traveling trays for eating and coloring. Some of our surprises were new notebooks, coloring pencils, matchbox cars, pipe cleaners, stickers, glow sticks (for night travel), pez dispensers, and other treats.
Another thing that worked wonders for us was each child was given a money bag. Every so often they earned some change. That was their spending money on the road. When we stopped at a gas station if they wanted a treat I simply had to ask if they had enough $. And they got to chose if they wanted a lollipop now vs. an ice cream later. Losing $ can be a penalty if the kids start fighting as well. That all up to you. Good luck!
Some libraries have children’s books on portable players called Playaway View. They’re also available in audio form called the Playaway. They are sturdy & mostly drop safe. They’re currently testing them out in some markets so not all libraries have them just Google it & go to their site to find out if your library has them.
I also pack gaming systems (Leapster), Brain Quest flash cards, laptop, & Playdoh. I found some single color packs that come in a resealable bag with cookie cutter for $1 @ Walmart for our trip. It entertained my kids for hours on the plane.
As for snacks my rule is to pack the kids’ & family favorites even if they’re not overly healthy. You want to try to keep them happy on long drives. It’s not the best time to see if Timmy will like beet chips. ;)
Portable dvd players are always great to play your favorite disney movies on. I also mix peanuts, raisins, and m&m’s. Its a easy mess free snack.
I go to the dollar store and get a few little toys, coloring books, travel games, etc. and wrap them up. When the start getting restless, I hand out a present to open up and it keeps them occupied for a little while. Also, I have found those little peel and stick books at Cracker Barrell. I have made travel bingo cards. I buy a new movie for the portable DVD player. I like to take individually packaged snacks (animal crackers, cheez its, raisins). They are easier to hand out while on the move. I hope you have a great trip!
You can do an Amazon search for “car seat tray” – there are a lot of trays that work great with car seats and booster seats that will give kids a “desk” for coloring. I really like Color Wonder products – they don’t make a mess if (and when) they are dropped. I also like putting small toys in baggies, and pulling out one baggie at a time (toy cars, figurines, etc). I think GoGo Squeezes make a great car snack if you have a kid who is relatively good about not sqeezing it too hard. (My three-year-old does fine with these in the car.) Good luck!!
When my kids were younger, I would go to the dollar store and buy a bunch of treats. I would put them in brown lunch bags and write numbers on them. At the top of every hour I would call out a number and they would get to open that bag. Sometimes it would be toys to play with or sometimes snacks to eat. But they loved getting a new gift every hour! :)
Love this!! :D
That’s so cute! I would love to try that with Disney princess goodie bags from Party City or somewhere like that on our way to Disney World… thanks for the great idea!
I do something similar with my 2 year old – except I wrap each “gift” in newspaper. He enjoys ripping the wrapping paper open the most (although remember to bring a trash bag to put the stuff in)! Also, I get the “surprises” on clearance after Easter, Christmas or I just wrap up some of the Happy Meal surprises that I keep in a big bin.
We take our portable DvD with headphones and a good supply of movies/ gi joe cartoons too. He got a Didj last year and we take that plus various games. We also stop about every 2 hours or so for bathroom breaks at Target- this allows him to get out and walk around before we get back in the car–he also brings his GI joe toys in the car and plays with those in his seat—have a great trip :)
Our portable DVD player with headphones (very important) and any hand held games he might have. We have taken numerous trips with our now 4 year old and these two things alone have been life savers. Oh and coloring books or since he’s older a portable art tray.
I have always chosen a good book and read aloud. For those who can’t read without getting carsick the library has many books on tape.