My girls are 4 and nearly 2 and we will be driving 21 hours straight on vacation. I am taking bags of toys, coloring books, and snacks but was looking for other activities or suggestions of was to entertain kids trapped in car seats. If you know of any neat products, etc, please help.
I will be doing much of the entertaining, but will also need to sleep so I can take a turn driving.
We will not have a TV.
Amanda

If you know someone who has a leap pad you can borrow, they are awesome for in the car! Too much for your 2 year old, but your 4 year old would enjoy it. Also, if she knows her alphabet, she might enjoy playing the game where you find the letters of the alphabet in order on the road signs and billboards.

The other thing you might want to look into is renting a tv/vcr combo. They are not too expensive to rent and ours was a lifesaver when we did a similar trip with 5 kids last summer.

The two year old will be the toughest. They just have such a hard time sitting still for long periods.

Good luck to you!

Colorforms.
We took a 24 hr trip a few years ago, my kids were 26 months and 11 months at the time. My 2 yo loved the colorforms, she stuck them on the window tho which was fine with me. It gave her a ton of room to play with them.
A flashlight. I don't know why but kids love them.
A wipe or wet washcloth, once again not sure why but keeps my kids happy for a long time.

lots of food

lots of drinks

our kids enjoyed Magnadoodles for our last trip - I like them because the pens are attached and don't actually write on anything other than the magnadoodle

Books on tape are also good. I get sick reading in the car - so we play story tapes in the tape player. You can either buy them, borrow from the library, or just read books that you have on tape in advance. Then you can play the tape and have your kids follow along with the books (or just play the tape). Tapes of kids songs are good as well.

We just got back from a really long car trip. I packed two big canvas bags filled with books and put them on either side of Sam's carseat so he could help himself. We bought lots of different music. Also: activity books (mazes, dot-to-dot, coloring books, etc.), lacing card thingys, and a child's road atlas book.

Good luck!
:)
Tara

Not a suggestion on activities to do cause I'm at a loss there too. Had a BAD trip last week with Amber as she's not used to be still very long, & our trip was only about 7hrs....

BUT I did want to suggest,,,TAKE A POTTY CHAIR!!! First trip I went with my mom to IN, we took it and only needed it once. This last trip we took with dh,,we needed it about 5 times & didn't take it. Taking it this time!!! OH & PILLOWS for when/IF they fall asleep.

You could play I Spy with the 4yr old, great to learn colors & objects ;)

Good Luck, you're gonna need it if your kids are anything like Amber LOL

bubble tumblers - they can blow them for hours and not spill

paper and blunt plastic safety scissors - you want the kid that they really, really can in no way hurt themselves with since you will be in a moving vehicle. But mine can cut confettin for hours. We just vaccume up the mess after the trip

stories on tape - look for Jim Weis at your library before the trip

little snacke that take a while to eat, like dry cereal or sunflower seeds. Again, you'll vaccume later, but it prolonges snack times. . .

stickers and a little blank assignment pad - I got this one from our Daisy Scout leader. I buy a few assorted packs of stickers for each kid and they decide how they are going to arrange their "albums". . . some pages may be inscect, some may be fish, some may be blue things, etc.

Lyrics to kid songs for the whole family to learn together. We get a kick out of "on Top of Spaghetti" and "miss Lucy". I'd forgotten a lot of the words from when I was a kid, so it was fun for me to learn them again. Also, along these lines, we would challange the kids to memorize some favorite nursery rhymes. Figure each repetition is good for a minute, right?

we would stop frequently and pick up brochures at visitor centers. I would read out loud about the areas that we were driving through, and the kids would look at the pictures and make up stories about what they thought went on in those places.

Good luck! That's a looooong drive. . .

Kids a disposable camera and let them take pics of whatever they wanted. We went to California it took 19 hrs and dh did not want to stop but I made him I could not hold it that long. No super bladders here. lol Also walmart sells mini radios for 5.00 and hand held computer games for around the same price also. My kids loved it. Between the radios and the games they never made a peep. Accept when they had to potty. Here is another idea hold off on giving them beverages until you know you are about 20-30 minutes to a potty that way they need to potty when you get close to a rest area.

I second the MagnaDoodle...my 19-month old LOVES it...and obviously, it would work for an older one, too.
A roll of Scotch tape will keep a 2-year old busy for half an hour. A waste, I know, but easily cleaned up and not expensive.
We are going on a 10 hour trip in 2 weeks, so I feel your pain!
Good luck,
Gretchen

how about a cookie sheet with some playdoh or clay.

for food. Corn on the cob. Keeps my ds busy for a long time.

wet wipes for clean ups!!!! a must!!!

hth

To just quickly add to the cookie sheet idea...

If you have a metal one, fridge magnets (as well as any other magnets... like if you have magnetic poetry things and your kids can read...) will stick to them. That could keep them busy for a little while. Plus, they won't fall off.

~Amey

Jim Weiss story tapes! He has some great ones for children your little ones ages.

We have to travel a lot for our medical special needs children and I don't know how we managed until we got these tapes. I love listening to them too!! (and so does our 13 year old son, but he'd not actually admit that) :D

Hugs,

Michelle

Originally posted by gretchen

A roll of Scotch tape will keep a 2-year old busy for half an hour. A waste, I know, but easily cleaned up and not expensive.


I LOVE THAT SUGGESTION!!!!! We travel a lot for medical and I know my 3 year old would like that. :) As long as he does not then think *all tape* is his. :eek:

Michelle

One more suggestion :)

We travel 12 hours one way for medical and the drive across half of Nebraska and then South Dakota is pretty much void of rest areas.

We learned years ago to take one of those potty seat tops and a ice cream bucket. (empty, of course) The little potty seat will fit right on the bucket for an instant potty. Also take wipes and plastic sacks in case you have a BM to deal with, otherwise you all will be going "eeeeewwwww" at the lingering smell. *lol*

That portable potty is a must when we travel more than 2 hours.

Hugs,

Michelle

Thank you for all of the suggestions. I am packing today and many of the suggestions will be going along. I just hope we make it ;)
Amanda

I have to ditto the tv/vcr combo suggestion. We drove from MN to PA last summer and it kept all 4 kids (then 15, 7, 7, 3) entertained the whole way. We literally did not hear a peep the whole trip. When they weren't snacking or sleeping, they were watching their favorite movies. We invested in a few new movies too and that was their favorite part. My 2 older boys brought their Game Boys so they didn't have to always watch the movies.

We also made a bunch of short pit stops and let them run off a little restless energy. There are an amazing number of really nice rest areas if you travel the interstate highways.

I have to admit that I was very nervous about the trip. With 4 kids (2 of them have high functioning autism and ADHD), it could easily have been miserable for everyone. However, it was the nicest road trip we have ever taken.

Ok I like the tv/vcr suggestion. So here comes a dumb ?? how does it work in the car does it run on batteries or what.? I would like to do this sometime. Is it a special kind of tv/vcr for cars ?

Thanks

The roll of tape, scissors, stickers and paper have worked wonders for our trips. Jim Weiss tapes are excellent! I also get those party blower things that you blow in and they pop out a tube of air. boy that is hard to describe. We also bbring a frisby and football to get energy out at pit stops.


Aphrodite