Tuesday, March 10, 2009

Any ideas for me?



Well our vacation is quickly coming up and I'm trying to get some things figured out.
We will be driving to Tennessee.
That means 11-12 hours in a car with 3 kids. We've got the dvd thing covered already but I'm trying to figure out some other things for the kids to do in the car.
I'm going to go to family fun.com because I know they have some print outs that will be fun for the kids.
Anybody have any fun games that you play in the car or any other travel ideas for me?



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14 comments:

Sandra said...

We're making a 16 hour road trip to Texas this summer so we'll be in the car for long period of time too.

What I did with my kids when I drove down from Idaho to Arizona (15 hours)was:

1 - bought them each a disposable camera and let them take photos of the trip to make a scrapbook
2 - printed out maps showing were we were going and they got to keep track and highlight the roads and towns as we went so they could see how close we were to our destination.
3 - We did the DVD movies too, but also, we bought the kids those inexpensive games that you can plug into the tv...they have like 6 or 7 games in each and they worked perfect in our car portable dvd system.
4 - Snacks, lots of snacks...
5 - They each had their own small plastic container with lid and their own toys that they got to pick to play with

Other than that, we stopped at least every 2 to 3 hours to stretch our legs...and we also made sure to stop at a few McDonald's or Burger Kings with the play areas...we ate, they played and by the time we got back in the car, they were tired enough to just take a nap or watch a movie.

We ALSO tried to plan our trips to leave late afternoon or night so they would spend most of the trip sleeping.

Just a few ideas. :)

Growin' With It said...

when we moved from oklahoma to oregon 2 years ago i stocked up on EVERYTHING. videos, crayons, activity books, music, all sorts of stuff. and in the 5 days of driving, guess how many videos they watched? 2...they were happy as clams to have their daddy's attention and to see the "world" while riding in the coolest penske moving truck evah. so obviously i'm outta ideas! enjoy it though, whatever you do.

Melissa said...

We always played the license game or the alphabet game.

Diane said...

We used some of the ideas above too but here's a couple more ideas for you... we had a tin cake pan with a sliding cover for each of them so they could put coloring books, activity books, or whatever inside the pan along with pens, markers, and/or crayons. they could take out what they wanted and use the lid as a desk. Another thing we did (actually my Mom did this for them when we went to DC and NC) was have a number of little gifts for each of them and every hour or so they'd get to open another gift... something like an activity book, disposable camera, gum, candy, etc. This gave them something to look forward to and also incentive to behave so they'd get their next gift! :)

Rachel Slagle said...

i used to like trying to find license plates from all the states. i would keep a list of which ones i had seen. a new thing that i read about is trying to find all of the states on the sides of uhaul vans.

when we drove to denver, dillon enjoyed watching movies... cars (i think three times) ratatouille (like six times) and veggie tales (just twice). he had other movies, but kept asking for those ones.

Rachel Slagle said...
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Rebekah said...

The Alphabet game is what we play most- my one son is the biggest CHEAT. lol

A Stone Gatherer said...

I've got nothin'. BTW I told Halle she has to scope out what is cool to do down there. We may go down there this summer.

Aspiemom said...

We have played several games that my son loves still.

#1 You pick a category. We use Animals because that's what he loves. He'll name an animal: Lion. My turn is next and I have to name an animal that STARTS with the LAST letter, which would be "n". (Newt: Turtle: Elephant...)

#2 He also likes the rhyming game where you take turns saying a word and they have to say a rhyming word very quickly.

#3 We also play the alphabet game.

#4 Once it was a 2 hr. trip, so I loaded up on coins before we left. I told him for each camper he saw he'd get a dime, each airplane he'd get a quarter, and so on. He really liked that one!

God's girl said...

Where you going in Tennessee? If you come to Chattanooga look me up I would love to meet in person!!!

Okay well we travel ALOT so what we do is find really neat travel activities like those magnetic things and little books with little markers...lots of movies....Nintendo DS is a great thing if you have one. I have them bring some little toys and they play that too. We play some of those I spy games....It is a long time in a car but we make those trips and all works out okay. I know it will be great!!
MUch love,
Angela

Shauna said...

They have some good kids talks on cd to listen to. And fun kids cd to sing along to :) ♥ Hugs!

Shauna said...
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All My Blessings said...

We always stocked up on puzzle books that are age appropriate. We would race each other finishing word searches. That was the most fun.... we usually drove at night so the girls would sleep all night and not be so crabby the next day....Kae

Joanne@ Blessed... said...

My advice is to be stocked with Benadryl! Give LARGE doses when needed.


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