Need Car Friendly Activities for a 18 Month Old

Didn't read through all the responses too see if anyone mentioned it, but Color wonder for coloring. It is the special makers that only work on special paper. Great from in the car because you don't have to worry about marker getting everywhere!! I bought some for my son (3yrs old) when we made the 6hr trek to Disney a few weeks back. They have books on shapes, animals, etc. And for my daughter (9yrs) I got the color explosion stuff. Same thing, only works on special paper.

Good luck and safe trip!
S.

The portable DVD player was definitely a lifesaver for us on car trips. My daughter also enjoyed the coloring books that comes with the little wands you fill with water to color the pages with. When they dry they can be used again and again. If it isn't attached just take a piece of string/yarn to tie the wand to the book so that if it's dropped, the wand isn't lost under a seat.

Good luck and safe travels!

I don't know if you have a store called The School Box near you, but that's where we buy activities for long road trips. You may want to check one out. Another idea is to leave the house around 3 am and let your kids sleep for a good part of the trip. Then you stop for breakfast, drive, again for lunch and stop at your midway point. Find a hotel/motel with a pool. Go to bed when the kids go down and hit the road early again the next day. We've found that the early departure makes the drive a lot easier.

Good luck! Be safe!

There is an etchasketch toy that has the pen attached by string, there are wipe off coloring books with crayons specially designed for the books, play children's songs and use hand gestures to go with the songs (itsy bitsy spider, etc.)Play counting games (one, two, buckle my shoe). Frequent stops at rest areas to let the child stretch her legs is critical as you do not want the child to develop clots from sitting in one position for too long. Make sure her favorite snugglies are available as well.

We have played children's music (familiar to my daughter) in the car as well as played a movie for her on our laptop. We also try to use meal times as part of the traveling--snacks and meals seem to always help pass the time. You can also try reading books. See if you can time your trip so that you do snack, dinner, and hopefully sleep during the trip. It'll be harder on the driver to drive late in to the night, but it may make for a more peaceful trip. Have a safe ride!

Is there any way you can do most or all of the driving at night? That is what we've always done with our daughter and it has worked great. She just sleeps the whole time. We would try to leave at or almost at bedtime. We would be tired after, but it is better than listening to our screaming child for several hours.... ;-) Good luck and have a nice trip!

Get a DVD player immediately! That is my saving grace when driving from GA to MD to visit mom and family!

Here's an unorthodox suggestion... maracas! Seriously, the last road trip we took, I let my 2yo take her maracas with her, and I made her a couple of cds full of "her" music. When she'd start getting cranky, we'd hand her the maracas- instant party!!!

I take 2-3 trips from Atlanta to Detroit a year by myself with my 2 kids (2 & 4). The only thing that has ever helped me is a DVD player. Even if your not big on TV it will save you & your own sanity... which after driving for 8 hours you will need to hold onto for safety reasons. Also, you might think it will only take 12 hours but with kids it will never be as short as you think it is. ATL to DET was 12 hours alone. With kids its now 18 hours.

I use the aquadoodle, one of those magnetic pen/tablets, any toy that makes music/sound, and DVDs to keep my 2 yr old occupied. The DVDs have become a necessary evil, but I try to divide them up by taping 30-min shows he enjoys from the TV, and then a toy, then a show, etc.

Hope this helps!

In car DVD player and take a lot of stops to let her get out and run around.

I pack a brown paper grocery bag, one for each child, filled with dollar store stuff and other goodies. About every hour they get a small suprise or when they have been good for a while. It keeps the ride interesting and helps with behavior, sometimes they have to earn it. It may be sugar free food, fruit in tupperware, dry cereal, new crayons, books, plastic bugs or other small toys. My daughter had a strap on tray for her car seat, they sell them if yours doesn't have one. She played with small tubs of play doh, $.50 ones. If you give her a lolly pop make sure you can stop about 30 min later to wet wipe her down. I also let my kids travel in junkie comfy clothes and then they change right before or when we get to our destination. Bring some relaxing / boring music. My kids always go to sleep with Pavarotti. Don't be afraid for you and your hubby to switch drivers and also get in the back and ride with her occasionally. That really makes my kids excited.

Oh! You can go online to Chic Fil A and print driving directions on your route. It will show all the chic fil A's along the way. Not sure if anyone else does that but I call ahead to some of them and ask if their playground is indoor or outdoor. I don't do outdoor. It helps me when my kids go nuts I know 15 miles away there is a clean playground to save my sanity. Have a folder with some maps, chic fil A maps and other areas along your way the kids can stop and look around at. If you are excited they will be, for your son make it an adventure, an exploration! My son loves discovering anything and everything.

Bring a blanket so you can change her in the car. Finding a clean bathroom is like finding the holy grail. For your older one, I bought a foldable travel potty seat I keep in a zip loc bag. You unfold it and it's a potty seat so they don't have to sit on the nasty toilet seat. It's only $10 at Toys R us. I have also taken my potty seat . Mine has a cover, it is also a stool, and I keep a large bottle of water to rinse, a bottle of clorox spray to clean, and toilet paper. If they need to go ""NOW""!!! They can.

We travel A LOT. 8-10 hours is nothing for my kids. Stopping a long the way helps, it adds to you trip time, but letting them run ,makes them tired and a sleeping child on a car ride is beautiful.

Hope I helped! J.

We found that a DVD player (ours is portable since we don't have a built in one) was our best travel accessory. We brought a bunch of movies and shorter episodes and it really helped us out - also helped get our son to nap in the car -

Good luck.

I agree when we moved to Ga from Del the portable dvd player was our life saver we had to make the trip in 1 day, our daughter was about 20 mos at the time. We still bring it out only for long road trips and for us it works like a charm, lots of Barney, wiggles ect. We didn't buy one that was only for cars but we did buy a carying case that had speakers so it could be heard easily. How about a travel aqua doodle? Those are clean and easy. Bring lots of snacks. What we normally do is stop somewhere for lunch that has a kids playground and let them stretch their muscles for about 1/2 hr-45 minutes. 6 hours should not be that bad. Good luck!

I recently took a trip with my 18 month old and found that a square magnetic board kept her busy with different magnets. I took along several different shapes and styles of magnets for her to play with. I purchased the board at an office supply store. It's about 12"x12" and a good size for her lap.

My son is 19 months. He still likes this Fisher Price hand held music player thing that we've been using for a long time in the car. I strap it to a seatbelt so that he can still retrieve it if he launches it. It plays a bunch of tunes when he pushes the button that lights up, and there are a couple of little dancing animals. It has a blue handle on either side. I saw it at Wal-Mart recently. This has saved us on long road trips, but my son's attention span is probably 1 minute shorter that your daughter's, and he doesn't mind the repetition of this toy. (May drive you crazy after a while, however). He won't even watch T.V. so I haven't tried the DVD player, but that will no doubt be a life saver when he's older.