Prepping for a long road trip with young children

[LoveIsGentle]

This summer, we are looking at a big family vacation. This will likely be the only year for this to work for us, and there will be a lot more driving than I would prefer with our kids as young as they are. There will be 4-5 days out of the trip with us driving 8-9 hour stretches (with as many stops as time allows, but all the same, significant time strapped into car seats).

We'll have minimal space in our van for activities, but I'd like to start collecting ideas for entertainment.

I'm also debating caving and buying a dvd player for the car

Suggestions? Our oldest will be 11 so he won't be too hard to plan for, but our youngest three will be newly 5, 3, and 3.

[CelticJourney]

If you have no options for stopping and breaking up those times, then it's time to cave now and get that dvd player....maybe two.

[LoveIsGentle]

They're all fairly decent travelers, and we'll break the days up with as many stops to stretch legs/snack/etc as we can squeeze in. Once we reach our destination there will be four days of little to no driving, thankfully, before we have to head home.

If previous shorter vacations are any indication, they'll all do fine until the last hour, hour and a half, and then get antsy. The in between stuff along the way and when we get there will be so fun for everyone and I'm excited for that, at least.

But oh yeah, I need a good list of things for them to do just in case.

[Aerynne]

I don't think you have to get a dvd player. They will get used to it and be fine.

One of the best things for kids (though it doesn't work at all with kids under 3) is to map out your whole route on mapquest. Have stops along the way, so on mapquest you would plug in your starting point, and then B would be about an hour in, then C would be another hour or so, etc, so they can say "Hey, look, we got to Springdale" or whatever and then have the miles driven and miles to go written by each stop. It gives them a better idea than just being in the car forever, and looking at that even helped my dd1 when she was 3 and we drove about that long in a day.

I usually make my kids a bag with things to do- coloring, mad libs (for older kids), some fun books to look at (First Thousand Words is a fun one for the younger kids, Where's Waldo for older kids), play "I spy" games where you, for example, look for all the white cars or license plates from different states. For your older child you could have a goal to see a license plate from every state by the time you were done (we almost saw every one on a road trip we took that was only 1500 miles round trip).

[ValiantJoy07]

If you have an ipad you can download tons of movies onto it through the amazon app (or apple store I assume but we use the amazon app and I bout 2 or 3 seasons of their favorite shows for $10 each and downloaded them onto the ipad).

Then I used this case with a bungie cord wrapped around the center and fastened securely between the 2 front seats.

We've since upgraded to this

way cheaper (if you already own the ipad and some media content ) than having a DVD player installed and also then having to lug DVD's around on our trip.

Between new episodes of Doc Mc Stuffins, 2 seasons of Little Bear (already owned), and some seasons of Little Bill (already owned) and a few favorite movies we already owned via amazon: the trip was AWESOME (about 13 hours of driving in one day and 7-9 hours 3 other days with kids age 6,4,2) and LOTS and LOTS of snacks (I mean I kept a giant basket at my feet and ikea plastic cups and sandwich baggies and just kept filling them potato chips, cereal, grapes, cashews, strawberries, blueberries, watermellon in small pieces- messy but kept them happy).

I hated Doc Mcstuffins because they watched the same 4 episodes the last 4 hours of the trip..And Frozen...I had bought that for $9 during some special earlier in the year and we watched that a few times on the trip.

Anyway, it worked really well for us.

---------- Post added at 03:16 PM ---------- Previous post was at 03:15 PM ----------

Oh and I had an old kindle fire with a few TV shows downloaded on it if some one got crabby about watching some thing (mainly Elmo for my youngest for Desperate Times).

The kids each packed a back pack with things they wanted to have in the car with them...Mostly a few beanie babies, transformers, and sunglasses )
At their feet they had a basket of favorite books, a clip board each for coloring some crayons in a ziplock bag for each of them. We also picked up a JUMBO Melissa and Doug coloring pad and that filled up HOurs of entertainement for the older two.

[OnAMission]

We save movies for that last desperate gasp when we must get back in the car one more time for one more push.

Plenty of (preferably not too crumbly) snacks, water bottles, books, travel coloring books for those able to keep the markers on paper, lots of kid-friendly music and audio books (doesn't have to be kiddy music necessarily, but stuff *they* want to listen to), a few very small toys for each child, and a blanket to be snuggly warm if needed can go a very long way.

We have to steel ourselves to have at most 3 hours, and preferably 2, from the beginning of one stop to the next because children have small bladders and get cranky with full bladders. We have some CDs with children's songs, and we also listen to dramatic music, such as Phantom of the Opera, as well as movie soundtracks such as Sound of Music, Frozen, Beauty and the Beast, or Mary Poppins. When DH can't take it anymore we do "Daddy music" for awhile

I really like showing the distances to the kids! We will have to add that to our trips! DH taught dd1 about the mile markers, and she announced the mile numbers, every 0.2 miles, for at least 20 miles on one trip On another trip, as we were desperate to get to the end, they asked for an ETA. We were close enough that DH could give a decent estimate, so they announced how many minutes we had left every minute for the last 39 minutes. At least they weren't crying?!

[MegMarch]

I only have one kid. For trips I put away a few favorite toys and books beforehand so they are "newish" for the trip. I also buy small toys on deep discount to have on hand. I just picked up some snap together My Little Ponies from Target's Easter clearance that might be good for this kind of thing. If we have fast food I save the kid meal prizes for travel.

I found some sticker books that my daughter loves and can manage all right on her own. They are faces of princesses in one book and animals in another and you add sticker eyes, mouths, etc. Target and Walmart both have them. If yours are more sticker savvy, the Usborne sticker books are great.

Snacks that require some work like string cheese or fruit leather that tears into strings, or nuts that have to be cracked (messy though) keep us from going through food too fast in the car.

The Kindle Fire is fantastic. I use it for tv/movies, game apps, etc. And I can take it away

[mamacat]

I would have a game where everyone runs around something at the leg stretching stops,also might want to consider a potty of some kind in case you cant get to a public bathroom soon enough or get on a stretch of road w/o a bathroom. Travel magnadoodles for each.books on tape.A throw for each one.Non spillable sippies or water bottles for each.Lots of wet wipes for hands and trash bags to keep the trash at bay that you can tie up and throw out at each potty stop

[CelticJourney]

Bubbles - I always traveled with bubbles for rest stops with littles

[gerberadaisy]

I would cave on the DVD player. You get to decide when, where, what, how long, etc. I only have 1 kid & it was a huge hit on our long trip from NYC to Branson, MO Fall 2013. One major draw back I found was that even if he was incredibly tired he wouldn't necessarily fall asleep with it on. It did save a TON of crying on his part & headache on mine.

The other thing I would suggest is a hand held device. My little guy has two little "computer" things that are learning & games without any add ons - one's a hand me down & the other is a leaptop We used those before but for his birthday he got an InnoTab3 & we've added games, apps, stories, art, etc. The games etc. go up to 8 or so so you could potentially use it for multiple children. We got ours for about $30-$40 on sale with Kohl's cash & Kohl's Promotional gift card so I'm not sure what the actual price is but IMO, it's been worth it.

Having said all of that, my little guy was not interested in the magna doodle we bought him earlier with that trip in mind. We also had bought re-useable stickers which he was not interested in. The only thing that kept his attention long enough for me to catch a nap while hubs was driving was a video or his "computer".

A lot of the other ideas here are great (the map game, etc.)

[LoveIsGentle]

We actually have those exact Leaptop computers and took them with us for a day trip last weekend...during which both two year olds found it hysterical to push the "I" button repeatedly for 30 minutes straight, laughing maniacally until I ended up pulling over and hiding them for a bit. I think I might look into some of the other options you linked though!

Thanks for all the suggestions so far! Keep em coming!

[kiloyd]

YES! Get a portable DVD player!!!! It will save your sanity!

We have one we use for trips.

[MaybeGracie]

We've done that sort of road trip several times (sans DVD player), and often just me and the kids without another adult in the car. Such is life when you live far from family and cannot justify that many plane tickets.

What has worked:

Stickers. Many stickers. I give them half on the way there and stash the other half for the trip back.

A bag of pencil crayons and a clipboard of lined paper each.

New library books related to their current obsessions. Last time was All The Star Wars Books. I even checked out doubles of the same books just to cut down on the fights.

Pre-portioned snacks: yogurt-covered raisins, licorice, veggie sticks, grapes, apple slices, etc. A reusable water bottle each.

Individual bags. They each have their own bag with their snacks for the day, a garbage bag, a few cloths, and their activities (paper, stickers, writing utensils, books, maybe a couple of small toys, glow sticks if we'll be travelling in the dark, etc). When their snacks are done, they're done. It's worked way better than when I used to be constantly dolling out food to the back seats.

Family audio books. Narnia, Peter Pan, The Hobbit, Charlotte's Web, etc.

Outhouses. Whenever possible, we stop at rest areas along the highway rather than gas station bathrooms. It's just so much easier, and it often gives them more of a chance to stretch their legs and run off some energy. Weather depending, of course, but totally worth it.


What has not worked:

That ridiculous idea about wrapping small trinkets/snacks and handing them out once per hour over the trip. Don't do this. I got so fed up with the whining about when it would be time for their next parcel that I gave up and handed the whole bunch back just to be done with it. That was maybe three hours into the trip. Terrible idea.

Stopping frequently for breaks (other than washroom breaks). I know it's completely opposite from the typical advice, but frequent stretch-your-leg breaks end up being huge headaches when they don't want to get back into the car. ESPECIALLY if you've stopped at a playground. We just power straight through 10+ hour days (2000+ km over 2 days) so we can be done with the driving part and get to the fun part. If we don't stop, they don't whine.

[Saoirse]

I had to fly across the country with my two oldest when they were 7 and 4. I found little things at the dollar store and Wal-Mart to wrap up as gifts. The flight was 5 hours so they got a new gift each hour. Not only did they have the fun of opening a new present, they got a new thing to play with each hour. If they got bored before the hour was up, they switched.

[houseforjoy]

color wonder coloring books
sticker books
new regular books
audio books
snacks
covered drinks
dvd movies
car games (like the abc game, each person tries to spot all the letters of the alphabet thru liscense plates,signs etc)
memorizing games
silly song cd's