Ahh, the open road. Smell that country air... is that manure? Whether heading to Grandma's house or a long weekend, road trip season is upon us. What do you do to keep the kids entertained en route?
We used to play a lot of I-spy and 20 questions. On long trips, the license plate game (trying to find as many states as possible) was a good one. We'd also stock up on comics and easy to read books. We once took a trip across country with the Odyssey, read by Ian McKellan, which, oddly, the kids really liked.
Putting one in front and one in back helps keep the peace.
If all else fails, give them twice the recommended dose of Dramamine and they'll sleep most of the way.
I like the game that starts with, "Let's see who can go the longest without making a single sound." Offer a very big prize.
We also had an assigned seating rotation for van trips with our FIVE kids back in the day. This eliminated the fighting over who sat where. Not the whining and complaining, mind you, just the active warfare.
Finally, the best distraction we ever found were books on CD. We've listened to everything from Great Expectations to Treasure Island to Eragon, etc. To the former, I like to buy things the kids might not have chosen to read and that they had not been assigned in school yet. They loved them, and shushed each other in order to hear.
A lot better than looking at a bunch of kids with wires sticking out of their ears and listening to their own stuff in their own little worlds. At least with the books on CD, the trips took on a theme, and everyone had shared memories, which is kind of the point of a trip, which was sometimes hard to explain to the naturally selfish kids, but I mean, like, duh.
The Grandparents bought my son a portable DVD player so he could entertain himself on the long drive to their house, but that only seems to work for an hour or so. Otherwise he seems to really like zoning out and just looking at the country fly by.
If we do go somewhere in the day it is by train.. which is GREAT. We can go for walks, have snacks, play cards, talk to strangers, and I can nurse while traveling!
This may sound odd, but I'm a big fan of Playdoh in the car. It's not as messy as you think, and if you end up with little dried chunks in the seats, they suck up pretty easily. We have loved the games of timed shape calling (make a bug, you have 30 seconds, go!) or monster mask making or guess what the hell this is...
We used to play a lot of I-spy and 20 questions. On long trips, the license plate game (trying to find as many states as possible) was a good one. We'd also stock up on comics and easy to read books. We once took a trip across country with the Odyssey, read by Ian McKellan, which, oddly, the kids really liked.
Putting one in front and one in back helps keep the peace.
If all else fails, give them twice the recommended dose of Dramamine and they'll sleep most of the way.
I like the game that starts with, "Let's see who can go the longest without making a single sound." Offer a very big prize.
We also had an assigned seating rotation for van trips with our FIVE kids back in the day. This eliminated the fighting over who sat where. Not the whining and complaining, mind you, just the active warfare.
Finally, the best distraction we ever found were books on CD. We've listened to everything from Great Expectations to Treasure Island to Eragon, etc. To the former, I like to buy things the kids might not have chosen to read and that they had not been assigned in school yet. They loved them, and shushed each other in order to hear.
A lot better than looking at a bunch of kids with wires sticking out of their ears and listening to their own stuff in their own little worlds. At least with the books on CD, the trips took on a theme, and everyone had shared memories, which is kind of the point of a trip, which was sometimes hard to explain to the naturally selfish kids, but I mean, like, duh.
The Grandparents bought my son a portable DVD player so he could entertain himself on the long drive to their house, but that only seems to work for an hour or so. Otherwise he seems to really like zoning out and just looking at the country fly by.
We only travel at night.
If we do go somewhere in the day it is by train.. which is GREAT. We can go for walks, have snacks, play cards, talk to strangers, and I can nurse while traveling!
I've always wanted to do the train thing!
This may sound odd, but I'm a big fan of Playdoh in the car. It's not as messy as you think, and if you end up with little dried chunks in the seats, they suck up pretty easily. We have loved the games of timed shape calling (make a bug, you have 30 seconds, go!) or monster mask making or guess what the hell this is...
And if they get hungry, they have a salty snack.
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