travel toy suggestions

[strawberry_fields]

Our family is going on a long road trip this summer. I am hoping to make a travel "kit" for each of them. I will put some toys, snacks, travel stuff (like a pillow pal) into each of them. I want to go beyond the usual color wonder books and leapster games that we usually bring. And dh is very against a portable DVD player. He wants it to be "family" time instead of the kids vegging out in front ot the tv the entire time. My kids are a 10, 7 and 5) Any suggestions?

[Jann in TX]

When our older girls were little we traveled A LOT... frequent 14 hr car rides...

 

anyways... we had a bag of travel games. Our favorite was a deck of cards... we would play "Crazy 8's" and use a plasic dish (rectangular thin Rubber Maid type--maybe 4 in by 6 in)) for our discard and draw piles.

 

We also had a set of magnetic travel games that got plenty of use.

 

There are LOTS of great audio books for family listening too!

[*Jen*]

Some of the non electronic favorites in our car are Etch a sketch, magna doodles, the mini travel games (connect 4 and sorry) and Clipboards with random coloring pages, Road sign bingo and scavenger hunt lists.

[skissugar]

simply fun has some great products called "chat rings" they are great for conversation and finding out tons of information about each other.. great for long car rides..

 

map for each child with the route highlighted.. as well as a ruler if you want them to estimate distances (for the older kids obviously)..

 

audio books

or anybooks you want to read aloud to them..

 

wikki stix

 

individual dry erase boards with markers

 

some stores carry pads of paper that have travel games on them like license plate game, i spy, etc..

 

 

I package new dollar tree type toys and give my kids gifts every so many hours..

 

Bubbles for rest stop fun..

 

here is a list i found online:

 

 

 

• Dry Erase Board (approx. 8x10 in. Also serves as lap board)
  
• Dry erase marker
  
• Pack of 24 crayons
  
• 4 washable markers
  
• Pencil
  
• Pencil Sharpener
  
• Stickers
  
• Temporary Tattoos
  
• Activity Book
  
• Drawing Paper
  
• Construction paper
  

 

 

• Writing paper
  
• Two (2) age appropriate crafts
  
• Playdoh/crazy putty
  
• Stencils/ruler
  
• Spiro graph drawing toy
  
• Color your own lacing cards
  
• Color your own bookmarker
  
• Handheld maze puzzles
  
• Puzzles
  

 

 

• Folder that includes loads of mazes, word finds and crossword puzzles
  
• Games: tic-tac-toe, hangman, plus many more car/plane games!
  
• Weaving boards
  
• Scratch-n-color paper
  
• Tissues
  
• Individually wrapped hand sanitizing wipes
  

 

[hsmom27]

I'm assuming you've been on enough car rides to know if one of yours gets car sick? I have one (out of 5) that gets severely car sick, and one who eventually gets car sick. Most of the above things are a big no-no unless we wanted DS to be sick. If you're not sure, I'd limit activities that require vision to 15 min at a time, interspersed with 15 min of a listening activity. Usually DS can handle that, but it's enough time to find out if whatever activity is making him feel ill.

 

I know that's not what you asked for, but we learned our lesson the very, very, very, very hard way:glare: and I wanted to bring it up, JIC.:tongue_smilie:

[Wendi]

You know, once my ds (about 5 at the time) entertained himself in the car for two hours with a package of assorted colored pipe cleaners. He made all sorts of things with them.

 

Wendi

[aggieamy]

Lots of great suggestions posted already! I'm not a big fan of "princess" stuff but my kids love these puzzles on car rides:

 

http://www.amazon.com/Princess-Sticker-Puzzles-Lee-Publications/dp/B000RN2576/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&s=toys-and-games&qid=1274378867&sr=8-3

 

Each page will keep them happy and busy for upwards of thirty minutes while they merticulously place each sticker to find out the picture. I wish they had more of them because we've already done all the ones that they have.

[JudoMom]

I print out/made copies of different logic and coloring and activity pages and have them spiral bound at Staples. The boys really enjoy these (I've also used 3 ring binders, but found that they'd open the rings and then all the pages would fall out). Stickers are great, too (I've gotten a ton at the dollar store).

 

I've really found that less is more. My guys typically take the activity book I make, colored pencils, a book or two, and a stuffed animal. We do listen to audio books as well.

[thescrappyhomeschooler]

travel bingo-

 

http://www.momsminivan.com/printables.html

[Entropymama]

My kids are younger (8, 6, 4, 1) but we play a lot of 'alphabet' games... either looking for the letters in order on signs or coming up with lists. We might do animals, for example, first person has to come up with an animal starting with 'a', next person has 'b' and so on. Can do this with states, cities, countries, people we know, foods (specific or broad categories), and on and on. We also go around the circle with math facts (first person 1+1, next 2+1, etc.)

 

I Spy books are fun for hours. Books on tape or CD's from the library so they're new.

 

And dollar store toys!! Who cares if they break or lose their pieces? :) They get a new one at each stop.

[lynn]

What I have done was: stickers, colored pencils, notebooks for each child, word search books for older children, 1001 Things to Spot books from Uborne or the like, finger puppets. Also, check the party supply areas in your store you can find various party favors the handout throughout the trip.