Geting Ready for a Road Trip Looking for Sanity Saving Suggestions

Portable DVD player is a life saver. We have done several trips 8+ hours with two small children. Recently instead of taking movies we already owned and instead of buying new ones we rented from Redbox. Idea is that you can rent them for the trip and return them ANYWHERE! Then on the return trip home rent new ones. Especially with Wall-E and Horton Hears a Who out...

Also you can have them pack their own "goody" bags...or at least the older ones. I had my daughter pack a backpac of things she wanted to take with her. I packed separte snack bag, don't forget drinks...sippy cups less mess! Don't forget you and dad in the snacks. You can also play games...I spy. With the older child you can play a game (sorry can't think of the name) of name that celebrity...someone says Handy Manny the next person has to name a known entity with their first name starting with the first letter of the last name of the person/entity just said. So the next one could be Mickey Mouse.

My daughter likes to make up her won songs...

Be prepared that a 10 hour trip can not only turn into 12 but possibly 15. Have you thought about driving through the night? We've done that several times too. Stinks for us the next day but is worth some peace. If you are not that type then I would say get them up SUPER early or don't give them a nap (for the younger ones).
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Hope this helps

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It's all in what you make of it. If you get or act frusterated your kids will sense that and act up. So keep an up beat attitude and just relax. Be sure to talk to your kids the whole time and not just sit up front and ignore them. Play games along the way, maybe sing some songs, and tell stories. The more interaction they have, the faster the trip will seem. I would highly suggest bringing along a portable dvd player, especially for the littlest one. If you don't have one, see if you can borrow one. good luck and have a fun trip!

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my little one's always liked the magnetic figures called colorforms, I'm not sure why but these usually kept them occupied also magnadoodles are great. Cracker Barrel has a great supply of cheap car games to take along.

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I can't really talk about the older kids, as mine are only 2 and 4. However, here are a few things I did when we had to make a 9 hour trip with them a few months back. I stuffed small brown paper sacks (like for lunches) with different activities and handed them out every couple of hours. I put in these sacks some crayons (or no-mess Color Wonders markers and paper), stickers, little cars, small snacks, coupons for music choices, and other things particular to their interest. When they started getting "bored" I'd hand out their surprise and it seemed to distract them some. Small doodle-pros are great for that age, they can write but not make a mess. Even colorful pipe cleaners that can be bent into fun shapes. We also brought kid-friendly music that seemed to keep their interest for some time (I love Brent Holmes music, Moose Tunes, Horse Tunes, Cow Tunes, etc. b/c it is informative, catchy, but not super annoying) . Try to think in terms of short spurts, not the entire trip. To make it from stop to stop, maybe 2-3 hours time. If you have a portable DVD, buy a new movie or check them out from the library (free!!). If not, consider borrowing one from someone. A new doll, book, etc. seems to help a little. For the 8 year old, maybe some of the I Spy books can keep attention for a long time. When you do stop, make sure it isn't at a sit-down, be still kind of place. Let them run around, maybe focus on eating in the car, or later, but allow them to expel all the energy they could possible have inside! Hopefully there will be some sleeping! My little one slept about 40 minutes in the 20 hours of driving. It was tough, but just do what you can do. Prayers, smiles, and little laughter are with you.

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I have made alot of road trips by myself with 2 toddlers. It's not the easiest thing to do;o) Always be looking out for Playplaces (McDonalds, Burger King, Chick-Fi-Le) Singing, I spy with my little eye, Who can spot the most of something.

I ended up getting a dual portable dvd player off ebay b/c I had 3 trips so close together, it helped quite a bit. I took movies that the kids had not seen in a long time and a few new cartoons.

Good Luck! You can do it....just play with the kids, let them take turns picking out the animals when singing Old McDonald :o) Merry Christmas!

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take chex mix and for the little one you can make one for him with teddy grahmas goldfish crackers stuff like that. See if someone you know has a portable dvd player it is a lifesaver. Play the license plate game you pretty much make up your own rules like how many different states you see along the way.

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Tried & successful game plan: have a goody bag of Dollar Store treasures & simple snacks....all individually wrapped for each child. Even a box of raisins becomes a special treat when wrapped as a present! Good luck.

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Bring lots of fun activities to keep the kids occupied, bring food they can eat in the car, you can always make sandwhiches ahead of time put them in a tupperware bowl so they dont get crushed and put them in a cooler, we bought a cooler that plugs into the cig lighter, bring fruit, like apples and bananas. Do you have a laptop you can bring movies for them to watch on it. If you dont mind driving at nite, possibly make the trip when they are sleeping so you can get the bulk of the driving done without lots of "Im bored or are where there yet". Stopping for 10 mins letting them stretch is a good thing. So when you stop they can stretch go use the bathroom.

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Well when we took trips when I was little and I did this with my kids when they were young. We played the ABC game. Like ok find what starts with a “A” then what starts with a “B” and so on.
Believe me when I say that you really can get pretty far up the alphabet by playing this game.
Although it might be a little harder in the winter time to do this but it still can be done…
And if you are driving at night look to see how many cars that have only 1 head light shinning.
Or you can look at other cars license plate and see what name you can make out of the letters for instance the plate number is
Cff42 cat finds food 42 times. You can keep this clean and fun.
I did this with my boys.
My little nephew (6years old) counts the color of cars he sees or finds like how many yellow cars are out there or do the slug bug game can do this with out hitting or slugging just say it sulg bug red or slug bug green
A slug bug is a Volkswagen
Good Luck and have a safe and fun trip.

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Hi B. -- First..good luck!

You may want to check out this website...
http://www.momsminivan.com/index.html

It has ideas for babies, toddlers, and older kids.

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I know that the older two could play travel bingo (if you can find it or maybe make it) putting objects on a card for them to find on the trip. Or do the alaphabet by the billboard signs. They have to do it in order.

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I found something at Circle of Knowledge toy store in Sunset Hills. It is a tube of clear plastic about the size of a thermos. It is filled with tiny beads and about 50 small items like feathers or small plastic toys or small cubes with letters on them. The items in the tube are listed at the end of the tube and it comes with a pad of paper that lists the items so you can check them off as you find them. Kids will turn and shake those things for a very long time looking for all the items.

I don't see why you couldn't take a large, used, plastic peanut butter jar, or something similar, and make your own seek and find tube. You could use something like rice, coarse ground corn meal or salt, or lentils instead of beads. Then you can toss in small items like a sea shell, button, ear ring, eraser, coin, fish hook, pebble, etc. You can even let the kids gather the items to put into the tube. ONE WARNING. Once you have everything inside, super glue the lid on so it doesn't get opened in the car!

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We have taken two trips this way, one when kids were 1 and 4 and another when they were 5 and 8, and this worked good for us both times. If at all possible, esp. if you have more than one driver, leave the evening before, maybe an hour or two before you will want to stop for supper. Eat supper, let the kids stretch, throw a football around in parking lot or something. Drive for a couple more hours, they get tired, go to sleep and you and your partner take turns driving and sleeping all night long. Then when the kids wake in the morning you should be almost there. Worked for us anyway. Good luck.

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We have a 2 year old and have just started making long trips with him so we bought a cheap portable dvd player and let me tell you it has been a life saver. My other guess would be to stop at like a McDonalds and let the little one stretch his legs out in the play area and hopefully the older two will be able to help keep him occupied the other times. I wish you all the best of luck on your trip I know little ones can make it a little more difficult.

M.

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