Riding in cars with boys (and girls)
Categories: Toddlers, Preschoolers, Fun & activities, Places to go, Toys & games
Wanderlust has struck my five-year-old."I've never been anywhere in the world," she told me recently. "Oh wait. Except for Ohio."
It's true that since we've been parents, our travel has been limited to in-state campgrounds and beaches (except for one apparently exotic weekend in Cleveland). Our vacation budget just isn't that large, nor is the level of energy I have for traveling with small children. But we do love a summer road trip and this year we have no fewer than four planned, all of them a considerable distance away.
When the kids were babies, we planned the bulk of our driving around sleeping and eating times. If the kids were snoozing or feeding, they weren't complaining. But now that they're older, I'm discovering that it's both easier and harder to travel with them. They no longer fill their diapers only miles after leaving a rest area, nor do they need to breastfeed in the middle of a traffic jam. But they also get bored really fast, their antsy legs wanting to run and play.
I've been slowly stashing away toys that are perfect for car travel, but I'm also looking for family games we can play in the car. We did a quick round of the alphabet game "I'm going on a trip and I'm taking..." last weekend, and it kept the girls occupied for a good half hour. I've done some looking around and have found a few, some of them oldies but goodies:
- The License Plate Game
- Counting Cows and Odds Evens
- Hue Hunt and Dig for Digits
- and finally, an impressive list of ideas to keep the whole family entertained!
How do you keep your kids entertained on a long road trip?
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Eva 5-03-2008 @ 11:38AM
I still try to go when she's asleep. We do a 4.5 hour trip regularly and I just leave at 6:30 PM, give her milk to drink in the car, and she eventually goes to sleep, and when we get there I transfer her to the travel crib.
We also regularly do a trip to Europe, which is just horrible and the only thing that helps a tiny bit is lots and lots of snacks.
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Mrs. Williams 5-06-2008 @ 3:40PM
hey so then you always try and leave when your baby is awake or asleep? yah that sounds funny. that made me laugh a little.
so i just wanted to post a comment about that. that sounded funny when i was reading it. will i have to go.
Vicki Porter 5-03-2008 @ 7:31PM
Books. Lots and lots of books. We keep a stash in the seat pocket for my daughter and also pick up interesting looking brochures at rest stops. She is three and really a seasoned traveller, but the kid can't ride in a car without a book in her hand.
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commonplaceiris 5-04-2008 @ 1:37AM
Oh I wish I could read in the car, thankfully I can at least knit. I used to get horribly car sick as a child (it's better now but I still can't read, or sew for long). At the moment my daughter's young enough that she often naps in the car, or just a running commentary of things we see, singing songs and lots of snacks will mostly keep her happy but I'm storing up ideas for the future.
One thing I remember doing myself as a child was having a pad of paper in the car which I'd just hold on my lap, then I'd gently hold the pencil with the other the tip on the paper and try to be relaxed and just let the pencil move with the journey and see what happened. I thought it was like drawing a map of the car ride. I could do it and look out of the window too!
We also used to sing and listen to music a lot. Look for the alphabet (in sequence) on car number plates or road signs. When we went on a school trip to France they gave us a map of France with the corresponding number from the license plate of each region and we would colour in the region on the map once we'd spotted a car from there. You could do the same with a map of US states.
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