Traveling with Children - Car Tips

[jujubee]

Traveling With Children – Car Tips

We all love to take vacations, but we dread the long hours in the car with the kids. Let’s share some tips to help make those long drives more fun!

[jujubee]

~Portable DVD players are the obvious choice, but some (including me!) don’t own them.

~I let my DD pack her own “car bag” this year. I gave her one backpack and let her put any toys in it she wanted. Some were totally impractical for the car (blocks), but I didn’t intervene. Packing her own bag made her feel like a big girl, and she never once complained that I forgot her favorite animal, or whatever.

~I packed her a “secret surprise goody bag” for the car. Hid it under my seat, so she didn’t have any idea where things were coming from. I included new coloring books, pack of crayons, pens, stickers, $1-store books, and other little $1-store surprises. I was able to pull these out randomly when the boredom set in, and it was fun for her to get a new surprise every 60-miles or so.

~Car bingo! We bought a set of these this year and DD played with this for hours! You can also make your own reusable ones: Draw them up or print them online. Slip into a clear page protector and use crayons or dry-erase markers to mark the items. This will clean up, and make them reusable.

~Don’t forget to pack the snacks, and a pack of wet wipes!

[Jenna26]

Drive at night, if possible! That's what we're doing in 2 weeks - it's an 11 hour drive, without stops. We are leaving at bedtime and hopefully will not have to stop too often.

I agree with the "special bag" thing - my MIL mailed my DD a package today full of activities for the car - a travel Doodle Pro, gel pens, crayons, coloring books, stickers, etc.

We always played the Alphabet game as kids - anything outside the car counts - signs, license plates, etc. Count from A to Z.

Play the State License Plate game - see how many of the 50 states you can find.