Driving from Illinois to Florida - with a 2 and a 4 Year Old!

We drive to Destin almost every year and have since our kids were two and four. It is an 18-19 hour drive. I STRONGLY recommend that you break this drive up into two days. We would take the first day and drive until we couldn't take it anymore (10-12 hours) and pull over for a good sleep, eat a good breakfast and continue our journey. We arrived rested and ready to play!

That said, the Dollar Store is your friend. Find some cheap toys, coloring books and crayons. They also have some "modeling clay" (not play doh) that the kids can squeeze and mold without making too much of a mess in the car.

I also recommend TV trays, or lap trays. I found some years ago at Wal-Mart that were metal and had short, fold down legs and they fit right over the car seats. They were awesome. It made eating meals and snacks so much easier and drawing/coloring/clay time was much more fun. Just remember to bring wipes to clean them up.

Other must haves for the car: baby wipes for cleanup, water, snacks, extra batteries for toys, keep an extra change of clothes handy for any accidents, and lots and lots of patience.

Yes, the drive is long, but we have had some of our best memories in the car and it really brings us together as a family. You will have a wonderful time. Good luck!

Go with God, C.!

Seriously, you have to actually talk to them. The ipads and headphones will only get you so far. Make up games - funny ones. I Spy With My Little Eye is one.

Wear big bibs on them in case somebody upchucks.

You have to let them run around some too, when they are awake - rest areas are great for that. Be careful driving overnight - getting sleepy while driving is dangerous.

Bring sippy cups and snacks. You'll be exhausted when you get there (and they will have slept - not fair!)

Hope you'll get over the sleep-deprivation soon enough to start enjoying your vacation!

Dawn

One way....24 hours???? Ughhh!!! Next time SouthWest Airlines!

i know this will sound unbearably archaic, but i loved long drives with my kids because that's where we had our best talks. yours are very small, of course, and this drive is very long, so having alternative coping techniques is 100% necessary. but i'd put the ipads and headphones and movies and toys away and only bring them out when absolutely needed. watching the world outside the car and talking about it is a magical opportunity that is almost completely overlooked these days.
khairete
S.

Best of luck to you! We did this last summer. We survived but it did take a toll on sanity!! Everytime we stopped we let them run, run, run. One of us would from time to time sit in the back with them and talk or read with them. My kids were 4.5 and 1.5 so very close in age to yours.

Good luck.... you couldn't pay me enough to go on a drive that long. We fly if a drive is over 2 hrs, just not worth the risk of being on the road, losing sanity, and getting to a destination dead tired.

Make sure you stop a LOT and walk around.

Have a great time!

Well we don't let me my kids play with the iPad very much, so this suggestion may be too old school for your kids but my 2/4 year olds love a portable CD player and headphones. We have some kid song CDs and they honestly listen to those things for an hour at a time. They were so excited! My 4 y/o would probably sit and listen/sing songs for half the trip.

Other than that, I'd say go for Color Wonder markers and little action figure type people. I bought some cheap-ish Barbies and Spider Man guys at TJ Maxx and kept them hidden until our trip. You could also do those glass markers and let them color on the windows or maybe even play with some window clings. You could also get some toy cameras and have them take pictures along the way?

The one car game we can all play (the 2 y/o is definitely the wild card;) is the cow game. It's very simple and works like this...you count cows on your side of the road (yes sometimes you have to guesstimate) and you keep score until you get to your destination, the team with the most cows wins...EXCEPT that if you pass a cemetery anywhere along the way, all your (on the side of the road that the cemetery is on) cows are dead. Even my 2 year old gets excited to find cows on his side. He doesn't really get the rest of the game, but he doesn't seem to care! ;)

I would do lots of snacks and a water bottle for each girl. Possibly you can even make popcorn and keep it hidden for when they watch a movie. It might make it more fun and allow them to pay attention the whole movie! ;)

Also when you stop for food, maybe let them play the entire time you're stopped and then they can eat in the car when you're on the way. That way they get more exercise and then have an "activity" for the car.

Good luck!

You will be surprised how good they actually do for the most of it. But, they will start melting down towards the end.
My kids, surprising did not sleep through the night when we drove.
We have driven from STL to Destin, which with kids is about 16 hours. I strongly suggest breaking up a 24 hour drive with the kiddos. Drive as far as you can and then stay somewhere and let them get some decent sleep and they will be refreshed.
Have fun! Drive safe!

We did it when our kids were two and five. We left at 5am while they were still sleeping (yes carried them to car) and drove until they woke up and had breakfast. Our son had carsickness so we would stop and eat at a rest stop which was fine since we got to stretch our legs. Most of the rest stops we stopped at had playgrounds. We kept to a schedule and stopped every 3 hours to take a break. It seemed to keep everyone happy and the videos and CDs did help too. We did do the trip in 2 days so we made it to Florida the next Morning when the house we rented was open. Be Safe and have fun in Orlando!

We've done the drive from Illinois to Florida three times now with kids as young as 17 months to 5 years old. We always leave around 8:00pm (our kids bedtime) and drive straight through. As long as you and your husband are able to stay awake, it works great. The kids sleep from the time we get in the car until about 8:00am the next morning. We stop for breakfast and let the kids run around a bit then we're off and driving again. We have a DVD player in the car so the kids will watch a movie and I also have a big bag of coloring stuff. Then it's lunch time - we all get out, eat and run around and then back in the car. Another movie or two and we're there! My kids don't usually get to just sit around and watch TV so they're usually ecstatic watching movies in the car. The time goes by quickly and my husband and I take turns driving and "napping". Good luck to you! You'll do great. :)

I did a drive from CT to FL (about the same distance) a few times when my kids were little. Driving at night works great. We would drive for about 12 hours and then stop late afternoon before rush hour would start. Dad would go take a nap and I would find something to entertain the kids, like a playground, pool or McDonald's playscape. I did this before the days of electronics (ipads, dvd's etc).

It's really not that difficult. I brought some books on tape, a cd with silly songs that we could all sing to, magna doodle. We played I spy.

Make a few stops at rest areas and get out and take a short walk. Kick a ball around. Play tag. Just release some energy.

We did the drive from Chicago to Jacksonville about a month ago with a almost 3yr old and a 10 month old. Doing the overnight is great (esp if you can sleep in a car).

Stop for dinner at a place with a play area and spend some time wearing the kids out. Stop at rest areas for snacks and "stretching the legs" (and of course, potty breaks!). Play games (who can find a red car first? I Spy, let's count the cars, etc). Sing songs for as long as you can stand it.

Have fun!

Run to the dollar store get a few things to wrap as prizes, use them when needed. The four year old will appreciate this most. Colored pencils(crayons melt in the car trust me), paper,portable DVD player as.you can rent and return to redbox there and back, little travel games like monkeys in a jar , play I spy. Have fun sleep when you can.

To add to the great advice already given---

Take the potty seat and put it someplace handy. We put it on the floor in our van in front of our two year old (it has a lid that makes it a stool). She used it to help climb up in her seat, but we used it for the OMG somebody has to pee RIGHT NOW emergency. We have a 2 y.o. potty training, and a 4 y.o.. We just let them sit in the van to pee, used a wipe (put in a bag when done), and poured out the urine on the side of the road.

Also, if you have a smart phone use it to find play areas on the way (or look today). When you stop at McD's, you and hubs eat while you let the kids play. Then you feed the kids in the car. This maximizes play time and limits your stop.

When you stop at rest areas, play some outdoor games. Let them do some relay races, explore, and play follow the leader. A few places have playgrounds. USE THEM.

It'll be the last 2-3 hours that are the worst!!! YOU know you are getting close, but they don't have any idea. That's when you pull out the new games, books, etc. that they haven't either seen in awhile or are completely new.

When we travel, we let them pack a handful of things, and then we pack a bag of toys & books that they haven't seen in a long while.

We also play, "School Bus, Boat, & Camper." We all keep a look out for the three and keep track of how many we see. 2 y.o.'s LOVE school buses, and ours still calls out boats when she sees them -- even when we're not going on a long haul. We count how many going one way and compare to how many we see coming back. We've also played UHAUL vs. Penske. :) One team gets one company, and the other team gets the other. And believe it or not, it helps the adults stay alert. :)

Good luck and have fun!!!

I strongly suggest you not try to drive straight through. We have driven IL to FL when the kids were very little and even now that they are 7 and 10. Stop frequently. Spend your 1st night in Nashville and your 2nd night in Valdosta, GA. Use the swimming pools, get good rest and you will all enjoy your time in Orlando rather than try to catch up from the exhaustion the first few days. If they are sleeping while you guys are driving and awake, who will have the energy and patience to care for them when they are awake? Use your iPad to search for reasonably priced hotels in these cities. Once you find one that sounds good, go directly to the hotel's website and you might find a price similar or better. We have AAA and I reserve this rate. They always say you must show your id at check-in but they never ask for it. Good luck and have fun.