How to occupy a 3-yr-old on a long car trip?

T

Tracyfish

New member
Any suggestions? We're taking a trip soon (about 10 to 11 hours). Other than the DVD player and coloring books...any suggestions for making the trip not such a hassle?
 
My kids have the small Doodle Pro things and they love them. DVD, snacks, maybe a small backpack packed with "surprises" you can pull out when needed?
 
sorry for all the posts, but i keep thinking of things. :)

something we always did was stop at places to eat where he can run around for a few mins. that will help a lot!
 
Ours isn't quite as long but we're leaving tomorrow am for Branson and I packed a gift bag with an activity set and a coloring book for each of them, plus we have Kung Fu Panda when all else fails. LOL
 
Here are the things we do (we do a 13 hr trip about once or twice a year).

*lunch bags for every hour you are on the road. Put in a new little fun thing to open or snack to have. At each hour, give a bag to the child to open and have a new toy to play with

*Snacks. you can NEVER have too many snacks. Seriously.

*get a metal cookie sheet and magnetic letters or symbols to play with. It can also serve as a writing surface, or turned over and painted with a bit of paint, a surface to drive cars on (you can paint a track and tree's etc) while keeping the cars somewhat contained inside the sheet).

*magnadoodle or the new travel size aquadoodles

*snacks. seriously. LOL

*Crayola magic pens/paper

*books

We also keep a little plastic container next to their seat to have a few hand toys in that they can pick up on their own, a few books, and a stuffed friend or two for play. We would stop at someplace like McDonalds every 3 hrs to play and potty, then eat in the car.

We used this site to come up with more activities.

This site has a fun little game that we're going to do for our Christmas trip this year, but done to the level of each child (older child gets harder geography things, younger gets the easier stuff).
 
One thing we did with little ones before a long car ride was gather as many McDonald's toys that we could get our hands on. We literally had DOZENS and DOZENS of them collected from friends and thrift stores and garage sales.

Then, on the trip, periodically pull a few out for him to play with. As soon as he's bored of those, pull out some new ones. Those little suckers kept Cameron entertained for hours on end.
 
some of those crayola books that have the magic marker things that dont make marks except on paper.

looking for things along the way like a pink car (or some other off the wall color), a horse/cow, bird etc.

you know that game punch-buggie(for volkswagon bugs)? You can change that to hug buggie and everytime you see a volkswagon bug you give a hug.

you can play I spy-even for little kids that can be fun.

magna-doodles are loads of fun.

if you know of landmarks along the way you could make him a map with your digi stuff and have him put stickers on the map for those landmarks

if you put something down where he is sitting and watch him you can let him play with play-doh

make a cd with kiddy music from his favorite tv shows to sing along to
 
Last edited:
oh make sure to stop periodically to let everyone stretch their legs, use the bathroom and get a snack

you could get an older gameboy or gameboy color (they have them on ebay still really CHEAP!!) and a game or two. Little kids love them and they do have games which little kids can play. My daughter went to New Jersey with her grandparents when she was like 4 or 5 and they bought her one and she played it the entire time on the plane
 
wow you guys are good!!!!

the only thing I was going to add is special snacks, not just reg ones. Ones they don't usually get and you could get a few cheap toys that are new as well.
 
Whiskey!!! Well, not for him of course, but how else can you keep your sanity. LOL!! So kidding, I would never condone drinking and driving.
 
we have done a few long trips (16 hours of driving in two days, once a year and six 7 hour trips a year) and my daughter is almost three and a half. She loves having her favourite music on, and a few DVDs, but she really just loves to talk with us and play car-games like looking for cows out her window, or playing eye-spy. Last trip we had we got four new DVDs and she didn't even want to use them! She sleeps well in the car though, and is generally a happy kid. I did have a bag of special snacks and treats to pull out.
I made special 'necklaces' with fruitloops, cheerios and a handful of candy beads and lifesavers. Those kept her quiet and happy sometimes. She liked to count them! *LOL*

OH one more thing I forgot. My daughter is a playground addict and we have found two playgrounds on the 7 hour trip that we stop at each time (one is beside a mcdonalds that we eat at) and on the longer trip we found a few too to let her out and run around. We also really enjoyed 'nicer' restaruants once a day during the drive to give us a chance to face each other, chat, colour together and just relax before hading on the road.
 
Last edited:
Yup, like the PP said, stop at playgrounds. The bigger the better, in my DDs opinions. :)

We also have kiddie CDs to play on the car stereo. Not too exciting for the driver, but it works.
 
Wow thanks...you guys have all kinds of ideas. I am well stocked on the snacks...if you knew my kid you would understand, have a few toys that have been packed away in the closet for a while in anticipation of this trip, and now I am off to gather some of these ideas you suggested.

Darcy - love the cookie sheet idea...L.J. is obsessed with driving little cars and trucks all over the place.

Melissa - I'm not driving so the whiskey sounds good to me LOL
 
OH! A personal MP3 player or cassette/cd player...my little one LOVES to listen to his pooh stories in the car. So we ripped one to MP3 format and put it on a player (we don't have ipods, but have cheaper MP3 players for each of the kids for stuff like this), and he can listen to pooh while we listen to music or have quiet, whatever.
 
One thing that really works for my daughter is books on tape (or in our case, CD) You can check them out of the library, and they totally capture my daughter's attention (as well as my hubs- he cracks up right along with her! LOL!)
 
I saw once in Family Fun (I think) where you have a mystery bag with different activities/fun things and they pull something out each hour. I think they might have even wrapped each thing. I thought it was a really fun idea. I haven't taken a road trip since I saw that idea, but I think I'll try it out next time. The last road trip we took from California to Utah and back, DS was fascinated enough with movies on the DVD player and slept. But he's more of a maniac now and so I'm thinking I'll need more tricks up my sleeve to keep him entertained.
 
driving at night ^_^

I drove 7+ hrs with kidlet.. uhm.. a year ago? anyway.. way up.. we went overnight.. PERFECT. way back............. >< not perfect. we stopped at.every.single.rest.stop. stank.
 
everyone's suggestions are perfect. We do a few 10-hr and 13-hr trips a few times a year (10 hours back "home" where our parents are, and 13 hours to where my FILs family is and where hubby used to live), and our must haves are ...

*snacks, lots and lots of snacks. lol
*portable DVD player and 3 DVDs picked out by each kid (there are four of them after all. lol)
*portable gaming devices (PSP and GB Advance) and all the games that we own for each.
*special car-only activity sets purchased by my clever brother (aqua doodle, coloring packs, uno travel game, cards, etc)
*books, books, books, books!
*cars for the boys, Bratz for the girl
*travel pillows and their special blankets

I am really lucky - ALL my children travel well, as we've always done long car trips. We only stop when we need food or gas, and they never complain. None have ever gotten car sick, but we always bring an old ice cream pail and keep on the floor in the back seat just in case.

The other thing we have started doing as they have gotten older? Before we leave, the two oldest ones get a notebook, and in that notebook we ask them to find 20 things along the trip ... like pink car, purple house, birdsnest, hat on a fencepost ... they love it!
 
Last edited:
I don;t have much to add but my DD loves her little magna doodle~so that is a super choice~

even though it is messy I always pop popcorn ahead of time and make eaah kid their own little snack bag of it~
 
LOL, the Benadryl doesn't sound bad!

We try to travel at night when we're going on a long trip...sometimes Rachel will sleep the entire time, sometimes she doesn't. I can now quote the entire 'Milo and Otis' movie due to our last trip to NiNi's house.
 
LeeAndra said:
Benadryl. :p
Click to expand...

LMAO!

stickers, fruits, playdough

We traveled to Vegas (~8 hr) and DVDs kept them busy. We left early in the morning, about 4 am so they slept halfway there. When they woke up we stopped for breakfast, and had about 4 hrs left to go.
 
We also make sure to plan our stops where he can run and get some energy out. Yes, movies and snacks are the best distractions. I also make sure to have his beloved stuff animal (though we rarely don't have that) and a bunch of little matchboxes and Happy Meal type toys. Good luck!
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Community platform by XenForo® © 2010-2026 XenForo Ltd.
Back
Top