rose Posted February 12, 2017 Share Posted February 12, 2017 We're going to heading on the road later this week and have a 16 hour drive ahead of us. I just spent the last hour picking out audio books to download at the library when I have more bandwidth. Ds5 is probably my worst traveller but he's starting to get a little easier. I think that he may finally be able to play the alphabet game. I was thinking that the 2yos would probably be entertained awhile by looking at pictures and having pictures taken of them on one of our multiple phones. One gets car sick though so we'd have to keep that to a minimum. I was thinking that there must be some fun games that we could play with our cameras, like making optical illusions. I'm kind-of dreading the travel and so I've been wracking my brain to come up with a plan to make it sane. At least we travel in a converted school bus so we can forgo seat belts and the little ones can roll around on the benches that we left in for while we're driving. They're designed to be safe without belts. Everyone who travels much with littles needs a bus in my books. :D What are your best travel tips? Do you have any road trip tips besides sedatives or muzzles? :P Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rebcoola Posted February 12, 2017 Share Posted February 12, 2017 Bubbles for the little people and perplexus for the biggers. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Peaceseeker Posted February 12, 2017 Share Posted February 12, 2017 I used to make little 'surprise bags' with items from the dollar store, like little toys, new coloring books, bubbles, mini etch a sketches, etc... We use to get a new movie or two just for the trip, and back then (pre digital!) that DVD would be in the surprise bag. I would strategically pull things out at every hour or two of the trip, especially if I felt someone was going to get fussy during a long section. Yes bribery is one of my parenting techniques, lol... but it worked and I had long peaceful trips to the beach with two toddlers eagerly awaiting the next 'surprise' from their bag. It became a yearly vacation tradition when they were littles. As far as I was concerned it was $20-30 well spent! 4 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted February 12, 2017 Share Posted February 12, 2017 Honestly don't over think it. Feed them. My kids want to each about twice as much on long car rides as normal. Save some super duper special treat they don't know you have, in case of a real meltdown. Stop somewhere they can run and move for fifteen minutes every three or four hours. One new thing. Something small, like those pads of paper where you write with water. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rachel Posted February 12, 2017 Share Posted February 12, 2017 Plan for stops to take longer and let them stretch their legs. I agree don't overthink it, if you take too much stuff if just ends up all over the place. Switch out audiobooks with music. One of our best long road trips ever was when I had 45 minutes from the time I knew it was happening until we hit the road. My kids were 4,2, and baby. They packed their own backpack (and clothes, nothing fit right or matched😂) for the trip and I grabbed our library book bag. It happened so fast I couldn't worry about entertaining the kids and they handled it beautifully. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Alice Posted February 12, 2017 Share Posted February 12, 2017 We've done a couple of really long road trips, multiple days of long driving. We got a bunch of tiny toys and things from the dollar store and they could open a new one every so often. I wrapped the items which made it more exciting. Even things like paper clips became a fun toy...they made chains. My SIL also wrapped snacks for them so the idea was they could have one a day (we were on a 2-3 week road trip). We saved those for the end of the day. We let them watch one movie a day and tried to save it for the end. Audiobooks were also good. And we stopped a lot. Dh was good about looking up goofy places to stop and we would make that a destination. So a 12 hour trip became broken up into multiple little pieces. We would tell them "only 2 hours to go" and then stop for 15 min and get back in the car. When we did stop we would make them do some exercise....like some races or jumping jacks as a family. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rose Posted February 12, 2017 Author Share Posted February 12, 2017 Bubbles for the little people and perplexus for the biggers. Don't the bubbles leave a sticky mess inside the vehicle? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wintermom Posted February 12, 2017 Share Posted February 12, 2017 Snacks DVD players with fun TV shows and movies More snacks Audio books The beauty of traveling with littles is that they are strapped up. It's the parts of travel where they're not strapped up anymore that was always the toughest for me. Chasing down toddlers is exhausting. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lucy the Valiant Posted February 12, 2017 Share Posted February 12, 2017 We've had good luck with loose "schedules," too - after 2 hours of driving, we're going to watch a movie, and then "quiet time" for an hour, then lunch, then a game, then audio book for 1 hour, etc. Gives them a way to mark time. Also, getting "bored" in the car has led to some very sweet memories in our family - deeper talks, weird games, group singing. <3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dmmetler Posted February 12, 2017 Share Posted February 12, 2017 I used to stock up on the little toys that appear in the Target holiday section when they were 75% off and put them away for trips. Matchbox cars, Polly Pocket, crayons (I bought a class set of HWOT flip crayons when DD was 4, and those little boxes came in handy for the next 5 years. I always had a couple in my purse) and little notebooks, stuff like that. If it got lost (we were usually flying), no big deal. I have been known, when stuck in airports with unexpected delays, to offer part of my stash to other parents with bored, fussy kids, too :). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rebcoola Posted February 12, 2017 Share Posted February 12, 2017 Don't the bubbles leave a sticky mess inside the vehicle? Only if you spill big bunch but we had those toddler ones. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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