Let's Talk ROADTRIP!!

[aly321]

Ok ladies... we are getting ready for a road trip to Manzanita, Oregon. It will be a 14+ hour car ride with 3 kiddos!! What are your ideas for keeping them busy in the car??

We do have a DVD player, but I need LOTS of other ideas too!!:)

[scrapperjade]

There was a fun article in the new Simply Sweet magazine - all about travelling with kids for long periods of time. There were also some fun hybrid ideas too!

[Sarah8914]

Oh I need ideas too! Our trip is 20 hours! Ugh! And with a 4 month old... i'm worried about that one.

Have you seen this site? It's kind of cool1

http://www.momsminivan.com/index.html

[Darcy Baldwin]

We do a map that the kids to get to mark off to show where we've been and how far we still have to go. I laminate it (or even put in a page protector), and use 2 colors of wipe off marker - or just erase it and start over.

We do snacks/toys/coins/markers for every 100 miles or every hour or whatever increment you want. That way, there's something new coming all the time.

DVD's are good ;) - but in our car, we usually can't really see our player until evening, so we can't count on them during the brightest part of the day.

Books on tape. We LOOOVE listening to books on tape. Hank the Cowdog is a great one, or any favorite story book authors you love.

Nintendo DS or other hand-held game systems have been a savior for us, not only on the long trips, but even for some shorter trips at home or at dr's offices. We don't use them to keep our kids busy all the time, but there have abeen a few times that they've really come in handy.

Personal MP3 players. They're really cheap at electronic stores now, and while you can't do things from Apple on them, you can get buy songs from lots of other places now, or record your CD's at home and convert them to MP3 and put them on the players. We also do our audio books this way so we can listen to our own stories if that's what we want to do.

Momsinminivans has great ideas for lap games for kids, car games, etc. It's a great site.

One of our favorite toys for the younger set were half baking sheets, the kind with the taller lips than typical cookie sheets that are sans lips. They contain things like cars, magnets, etc. You can use a wipe off marker to draw game boards, play, then get rid of it :)

[joelsgirl]

We believe in sedation.

[ditzyscrap]

For the Simply Sweet magazine, I whipped up a set of BINGO cards using La's "Button It" element pack - the kids absolutely LOVE it. It was really easy to make too...

[lhaslem]

We believe in sedation.

amen:)

[AlliJ2008]

I always pack those color wonder markers & coloring books. They are great b/c they don't write on anything but the books.

[scrap2day]

When I was a kid we went on a cross country road trip and my mom packed backpacks full of fun stuff for the little kids (games, coloring books, puzzle books, $ store type stuff). This was given out at the beginning of the trip. We didn't get toys at other times during the year other than birthday & Christmas so this backpack was a big deal.

I like Darcy's every 100 miles/hour handout idea too. I think the point is to make the ride as much of an adventure with little surprises.

We used to do something called Surprise Ball at birthdays but it would also work in this case. Mom would take tons of little toys, Smarties candy, stickers, etc. Wrap these little items one at a time with crepe paper streamers (wrap little toy with crepe paper until it forms a little ball, then add another toy, continuing wrapping. You keep doing this until you have all of the toys/candies wrapped into what is now a ball you can hold in your hands. You don't have to make it too big because you might want to have a 2nd ready for later in the trip or for the ride back. Just make sure there is the same number of items for each child. The point is not to encourage arguing in the backseat. LOL). Then during the ride you hand the ball back to the 1st kid with instructions to start unwrapping until they find a surprise. Once they find their surprise they should then hand the ball off to the next child. This goes on and on until there is no more surprise ball left. This is also good because it takes some time to unwind to find your surprise.

I like also taking the write-on wipe off games and coloring books and we had the talking books on tape. (I know, I'm dating myself).

When all else fails we have been known to start a trip late afternoon, get some miles behind us, stop for a quick dinner (Happy Meals), back on the road. By this time it is starting to get dark and the kids usually fall asleep. Drive for a little while and call it a night. Carry sleeping kids into hotel. Obviously for safety's sake stop if the driver gets tired or there are just too many semis on the highway. LOL.

I will have to say this was all before portable dvd players. I think those must be wonderful for road trips.

[livelys]

We gave Alex an ipod loaded with audiobooks and music - and he was a very happy boy for most of our recent 5 hour car journey. If your children are young enough, Raoul Dahl is always a good bet and all of his are available - and Horrible Histories have just come out, which are wonderfully ikky for children.

We also played 'spot the ???' by having a picture list of objects he had to see en route and tick off, and he likes playing 'list 10 things' too - i.e. name 10 cars, colours, boys names...

I usually pack a bag for him to have in the car with snacks, drinks, colouring stuff, ipod, and anything else I can think of so he can pick and choose what he wants to do for a big portion of the journey.

[newfiemountiewife]

We do a huge road trip most every year, halfways across country.

- I keep them on the same schedule (meaning, they eat at the same time they normally would)
- Keep drinks to a minimum to prevent multiple potty stops and diaper changes
- Everytime you gas up, make everyone go to use the washroom, even if they say they don't need to go. Because they will make you stop again 10 minutes later
- replenish snacks/drinks at gas up time as well
- I have a picnic basket with regular snacks, and a plug in cooler that keeps drinks cool, and it's much cheaper than buying small bottles of juice for $2 every time you stop
- DVD player, crayons and coloring books, our two oldest have Nintendo DS, they also can take a couple of small toys, like a Transformer or Barbie, and they take books.

We start driving early in the morning, so we can get the longest part of the day over while the kids are still sleepy. Sometimes they can get back to sleep when we get in the car first, but that's rare.

Most of the time I do this trip by myself, without my husband, so I've gotten pretty good at it. I also need to make sure I eat and get a break, but mostly I just push through until I get there. I always end the drive around 5-6 at night (if we leave at 6 am) so they can settle in a hotel and get a good night's sleep, and a good meal.

Basically at gas up time, we do most everything we can, to prevent the small stops on the side of the road. Not only is it dangerous, but 10 min here, and 10 min there, can really add on to the trip.

We haven't done the trip in two years now, so next year when we go, I will have much older kids, and hopefully that will make keeping them occupied a little easier. My kids travel VERY well, and I don't usually have much of a problem. Knowing they will see their grandma at the end of the trip usually keeps complaints to a minimum.

[carriesmom]

My kids are too little to be occupied by most things. But when I was little my grandfather made us these tub tots. They were small was tubs with a hard wooden lid that slid on and off. My mother painted the top and every road trip we filled it with books, art supplies and little games. It was great because we had a hard surface to write on and everything was contained in one place. We also played the alphabet game, where we call out the letters as we see them on signs and race it get to Z first. We played travel games, car bingo, and the license plate game. When got older we listened to walkmans.

[aly321]

These are all wonderful ideas... thanks so much! I am hoping that I am totally psyching myself out for the worst possible experience! I really want to the trip to go well and be a good experience for us all! :)

[jessica31876]

My BFF drives from FLorida to West Virginia probably once a year and they try to plan the trip when the kids would normally be sleeping. So they usually leave later in the evening/early morning hours. It is nice because they get through the really conjested areas when everyone else is asleep and not out on the roads and the kids dont get so bored/whiny about sitting for so long with nothing to do. Im sure they do wake up but they are usually alot closer to their destination by the time they do that it doesnt seem as bad.

[crystalbella77]

I haven't read the other replies...but try to buy some special and fun toys (that don't make a lot of noise, lmbo) and then give them to them in the car when things are getting tough. :)