Friday, 29 July 2011
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How We Survive Long Car Rides With Our Young Children
This is a guest post from Kidsumers
My husband and I have recently braved a couple of long car rides with our three youngest children. Since they can end up brawling on the shortest of trips, we wanted to make sure they were occupied for the trips. I have tried a lot of things but these are the things I found most useful on our trips:
- Travel trays: Each kid gets their own tray that has a cup holder and a pocket for storing books, writing utensils, etc. There are fewer spills and dropped toys this way, and everyone has a flat surface for colouring or games.
- Colouring book/Activity Book: I found some awesome travel activity books for Kellen and Avery at our local book store and a colouring book for Griffin. The activity books kept the kids occupied for hours.
- Magnetic activities: Dropped items is a big source of stress in our vehicle. Someone always drops a toy or pencil as soon as we start driving! Games and activities that are magnetic are perfect for avoiding this problem. Unless they drop the whole game…
- Homemade Activities: Create some bingo cards of things the kids will see on their trip and play a game of travel bingo; or make an alphabet chart and have them fill in each letter with a town they see on the trip…see who fills the most letter.
- Electronics with back up batteries: I pack as many of these as I can including a portable dvd player, game boy, ipod and mp3 player) and I make sure everyone has headphones.
- Books: Avery likes to read novels while Kellen likes to learn about things like historical events or natural disasters. I stock them both up with lots of books, and I include some age appropriate books for Griffin.
- Cameras: If you are comfortable letting your child handle your camera, or if he has one of his own, you can let him take pictures of the scenery along the way. Kellen loves to take pictures and I enjoy looking at what he has deemed photo-worthy on the trip.
- Maps: Let them track the trip and monitor the progress along the way.
- Food and drinks: This is a big one! Pack lots of easy to open, non-messy snacks and drinks. I like the non-spill water bottles and snacks arranged in small containers so that everyone gets their own container.
- Pillows and blankets: This will help them be comfortable and encourage a little sleep time during the trip.
- Baby wipes: They are great stain cleaners and quick wash cloths!
- Make lots of stops! It slows down your overall travel time, but makes it far more pleasant. Plus, kids need lots of bathroom breaks and there is nothing worse than a three year old screaming he has to poop when you are driving on a major highway with no rest stops in sight!
How do you keep your children entertained during car rides?
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Comments (7)
Two words: Color Wonder. Mess free and my oldest LOVES it. We are leaving tomorrow for a 10+ hour car ride and bought him a brand new one just for the trip.
We have a Cool Gear travel potty since we are potty training. It folds up and uses gallon zip lock baggies... just dispose at the next rest area. That way if our 3 year old or 1.5 year old has to go and we are no where close (even happens in town, ie. leaving library or grocery store and I am by myself with both kids, cannot pull over at gas station, take out one child, leave the other one in--would never do that without someone else in the car!, or by the time I get both kids out of the car and ready, sometimes we don't make it all the way to the bathroom), we just pull out the potty, unsnap the one who has to go, and let them use it and dispose of it at the next place with a garbage can (gas station).
@JM_in_SC@xanga - That sounds really useful and practical! I'll definitely look into that when my child is old enough to use the potty. Thanks for sharing!
It's always bothered me that some parents give their kids electronics and shit, on car rides. Along with those built-in mini televisions, which the kids can spend hours staring at instead of out the freakin' window! When I was a kid my family made a LOT of trips from Florida to New York and back (we made it a three day trip), and I never had anything aside from a couple of books and a window to look out of. I took a lot of naps in the car too, but we talked a lot as well, and stopped at fun places along the way to stretch our legs and enjoy ourselves.
I think that with all this media junk, kids are establishing shorter and shorter attention spans. You'd be surprised at how kids figure out ways to entertain themselves.
My three year old has been on lots of roadtrips. The key to a successful one with small children is to LEAVE IN THE EVENING! Seriously, drive the night through if you can. It's much easier on the kids if the vast majority of the car ride is spent sleeping.
My favorite game to play is the ABC game. It can include the whole family, if your children are a bit older, and make the time pass quickly.
Lets say we pick animals. The first person starts with A, and says alligator, the next person has to say alligator, then something with a b, and so on.Whoever messes up is out, and whoever is left wins that round.First you pick a category: Animals, cars, countries/towns/bodies of water, food, etc.
I love tracking the trip on a map, I started doing that when I was younger.
Yes, make sure your children know what a map is.