How do you keep your kids happy on a road trip???

Are kids really supposed to be happy on a long car trip?

When we were trying to get custody of DD (before the adoption) she was still required to have regular visits with her bio-mom who lived 13 hours away (one way) by car. There wasn't any good way to fly to her location because she lived in a very rural area. At the time DD was 1.5 to 2.5 years old. I drove that trip every 4 to 6 weeks - 13 hours there, stay for a couple of days and 13 hours back.

First of all, expect the trip to take longer than you plan. Young kids need lots of stops and time to run around. Fast food play spaces are great. Don't worry about them eating (they can eat in the car), let them climb, run and simply be silly for a few moments. If the weather is with you, find a place where they run around outside - like a park. If you want a good gift, definately have a GPS so you quickly find food, parks and gas stations even in unfamiliar places.

As far as in the car, we have never used portable DVD players very much. Personally, I find them boring. Some kids take to them well, but you know your kids best so you decide.

With more than one kid in the car, one of the fun activities is to give them all walkie-talkies and have them talk to each other. Yes, I know, they are sitting right there and can hear each other but, for some reason, the love to talk and play 'telephone'. My older grandkids love to use those little electronic pet games that interact with each other such as text messaging to each other. Even the littlest kid likes to pretend to join in.

The best entertainment we had was the CD player. Books on tape are much better than a DVD player, IMHO. But what the kids really loved was comedy CDs. Hubby and I would pick up various comedy CDs at the truck stops. They would be so funny, hubby and I would laugh so hard we could barely see the road. DD never got the jokes, she was too young, but she loved to see us laughing and joined in anyway. If we put on a music CD, we'd play 'air band' - everyone is assigned their own instrument - and we'd play along with the music. It is amazing how much energy it takes to dance in your seat.

Lastly, most bathroom breaks were spent at a WalMart. There is almost always a WalMart. Each trip DD was allowed to chose a car toy (coloring book, magnetic board game, doll - something inexpensive). On one stop she chose a wind-up music box (it is called My First TV but that isn't what it looked like). She played that music again and again, long after the inside of the car grew dark. As a matter of fact, that's a good time to break out the DVD player - after it is so dark the kids can't do anything else.

We just did 17 hours (NY to AL/GA and back). Our boys are older (11, 9, 9). We took a portable dvd player for each with lots of movies AND HEADPHONES. We took Gameboy - type things for each kid, with a ton of games. We went to the used game store a few days before take off and bought each a new (used) game to play.

Each kid packed their own activity bag. It included books to read, crayons, markers, etc. of their choosing.

I printed pages off the internet - like a map of the US where the boys kept track of license plates from each state, bingo, etc.

I know some of these may not work due to the age difference, but hopefully it will spur some ideas.

Oh, and one the way home we left around 2 pm and planned to stop for the night. I fell asleep right after we left AL while dh drove, so around 10 pm we swapped and decided not to stay overnight and we drove straight through. The kids (and dh) were all asleep. We got home around 6 am, and tossed everyone in their own beds. I think we all slept until at least 10 am. That day was a little rough for dh and I but it was worth it to drive with everyone asleep.

Jello shots.


Oh - sorry. That's how you keep ME happy on a roadtrip!

We go on lots of road trips!

My kids love their Melissa and Doug Magnetic Pattern Block set and it comes in a travel bag. They loved it so much I got one for each child and I'm normally the kind of mom that makes them share not buy each their own. I got my older one a magnetic usa puzzle, anything magnetic is fun.

They love their travel size magnadoodles.

They also bring lots of books and small toys and I keep them in a basket between their seats. We do have a DVD player in the car, but I normally don't put on more than one movie b/c they are 5, 4 and 2. Sticker books are a big hit in my house and I pull out a new one after a few hours on the road when they start getting bored.

They also like the leapster, leappads, and they have the Leapfrog turbo twist things which are nice- we have math and trivia. However, just like the movie I limit how long they play mostly b/c I don't want to hear it over and over, so it's for my sanity! I don't want them using something electronic the whole way either.

I'll try to think of more! They have those soft lap desks for travel so you could bring crayons or something like that but we haven't tried those yet.

Gosh Cookie2 pretty much covered it!

We're going to VT in July. It stinks to visit VT in July!!! My SIL is getting married. It will be a 11 hour drive for us. We decided to cut it in half. We're staying in a hotel after 6hrs on the road. We plan to let them play at the beach for the afternoon and finish the trip the next day. It just isn't worth it to us to stay in the car that long.

I don't have the website handy but there are several websites that have ideas for games to play in the car like I Spy. The younger children can look for shapes on road signs, etc.

I always rent or buy new movies to take on trips. They are much more interested in them than the collection they've seen a million times. All the activites in the world don't engage them like a new movie.