Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums General Discussion Favorite activities for long car trips.

We have a 14 hour car trip (one way ) coming up next week and I am gathering some things to keep DD10 and DS4 occupied. We do have a DVD in the van, but my kids don't watch it a lot.

So far I have the game SET for DD as well as Traffic Jam. I got DS a game called Zingo and I have some magnets he likes to play with.

What are some good activities to do in the car your children like? I have spent previous trips hunting for rolling crayons and spilled goldfish crackers and I would like to keep things a bit more organized. Thanks for any tips you may have!

Jen

We just got back this week from a 20 hour one way car trip. You have my sympathies and I can totally relate.

A couple things we did - I had a cup available to put markers or crayons in (only allowed one out in the car at a time) and they fit right in the kid's cup holders in our van. If they can reach a cup holder, that might work for you! We had much better luck with not losing crayons or markers this trip.

My daughter likes magnet play sets (she's 4). We also got her a sketch art book that she loved. (there are lots of these available at the book store)

http://www.amazon.com/Princess-Bella-Scratch-Sketch-Princesses/dp/1593599722/ref=pd_bxgy_b_img_b

My son thought it was so cool, he found one for older kids at the zoo we went to. These are nice because all they need is the sylus that fits right into the book. The younger kid version was like tracing and scratching in the lines. The older kid version was free drawing. My 4 year old also had a couple sticker books that she liked a lot. I hid several things for her that didn't come out in the car until we were in need of something new.

In the car, I kept a refillable water bottle and a snack cup with a cover for each kid we'd just refill.

My 8 year old read a lot (he finished the Harry Potter series on our trip) and he kept a trip journal where he'd write everyday and he'd glue in our tickets, brochures, etc.

We've also listed to audio books in the car which has been really great. My husband has a mechanism to use his ipod with a tape player in a vehicle. We've had mixed results with the 4 year old on this. But my son would listen happily for a LONG time.

We also have a DVD player, a nintendo DS, and a leapster so we abused technology a little bit too. Good luck and have a great trip!

We have a whole load of things we do for long trips. I use lots of ziplock bags for all the stuff and only give the kids 1 bag at a time. They can't get another one until a) they've returned the current bag, with all contents, and b) at least 1/2 hour has gone by. We always have a lap desk in the car too (the kind that is soft on one side and hard on the other)

Activities: 1) cut up pipe cleaners to different lengths - they can spend tons of time making things out of them (also leave a few full length in a "surprise bag" that they do not know about for when they "absolutely have to have" a really long one)
2) small size playdough containers - one at a time to be used on lap desk only
3) silly putty
4) small notebooks with twistable crayons (only 3 per bag) and a small sheet of stickers
5) I've thought about window markers, but haven't gotten any yet, but since they wipe off easily, if I can find some before our next trip I'm going to get them.
6) A new activity book, especially the kind with the yellow markers that you color over the spots and things "magically" appear.
7) a snack bag with things they usually don't get to have (ok, we usually have lots of these
8) felt dolls with felt doll clothes - like paper dolls, but put a piece of felt onto the lap desk and then all of the dolls and their clothing stick to it - different shapes would work too to "build" a town or some other picture on the board
9) books on tape/cd - we get about 10 of these from the library before any trip
10) sing a long tapes/cds - not all little kid songs, but also some music we like - then we each get a turn at picking what we listen to. (The driver always gets final say about whether or not we listen to anything!)
11) a couple of new reading books that either they get to pick out or are surprises for them

I have to admit, we usually have to spend about 5 minutes or so cleaning up at the end of each day in the car, but it is well worth it for the peace we get.
We also have to the rule that unless it is easily reachable for either me or DH, we do not stop to get anything that has been dropped.
Hope this helps - we've been traveling long distance with DD6 since she was 4 months old (the first trip was a 14 hour plane ride).

We also make sure that we stop every couple of hours to give them some exercise (we were told once at a rest area that this couple had seen people exercising their dogs at rest areas, but never their kids) We have short races and play follow the leader to use up some energy - it makes a huge difference, for all of us.

When we've gone on long trips, we have printed out a list of the states (or even a map), and then we check all the license plates on the cars that are around us and see how many different states we can find.

All of the suggestions above are good. My children are all older than yours(13,17, and 21), but I think the 13 year old might be able to relate to your 10 year old a bit. We have an annual 8 hour car ride (yeah, nothing to long, I know), and we have started a tradition of bringing "Trivial Pursuit" on the trips. Not the game board, just the cards in their holder, so things stay organized. My youngest especially is obsessed with trivia and loves me quizzing the whole car on the trip. (you will be amazed at what your kids know!) Unfortunately, I don't know if your youngest will find any fun in this, maybe the junior version will work better? Anyways, when we are not playing trivial pursuit, all the kids just turn on an ipod (which in my youngest's case is filled with soundtracks) and, as she puts it, "thinks." If she gets into her "thinking" groove, she does not want to come out of it, and this can last for hours. A lot of times, when we arrive at the hotel, she is upset, because she was not ready to get their. Lastly, my kids are geography fanatics, but maybe your children would find interest in mapping your route in a road atlas? Or just looking at a road atlas is fascinating for my kids. I think my kids are sort of unique in their interests, so your kids could hate this, but, who knows, might as well try.

Lots of great ideas already (wow kimck - 20 hours?!). Here are a few more. Doodlepro, mad libs, road sign bingo for all (we found some cool old-fashioned ones with the sliding red windows; here's what they look like: http://www.boardgamegeek.com/image/234825), rubik's cube. I have to second the pipe cleaners, though i've never thought of cutting them!

We have Story of the World on CD and it is great for long car trips. We've also been listening to School House Rock CDs which we found at the library.
http://www.peacehillpress.com/index.asp?PageAction=VIEWCATS&Category=10

Each of my kids has a backpack which we fill with an assortment of "goodies" for each long trip. Items vary according to individual taste and age, but they include things like new books, colored pencils (less messy than markers) and paper, magnetic bingo, small stuffed animals, finger puppets, puzzle books (sudoku, crossword, mazes, etc), sticker books, wiki stix, old favorite books... and we allow short sessions of gameboy play for kids over five. We have thus far resisted getting a dvd player for the car. I worry that they'd never look out the window and see where we are if we had a movie playing.

We also listen to audio books. We go through the entire LOTR about every other year. We also have The Odyssey, some Mark Twain, and several children's tales by Odds Bodkin and Jim Weiss. Most libraries have audio books too, and we borrow for something fresh.

Thank you so much for all these great tips. I am already adding most things to my list of things to get this week. I will make a trip to the library. We usually fly everywhere and I have mastered the art of flying 8+ hours and we fly at night so kids sleep.

I like the idea of license plate game or bingo for DS. I googled and found some printable templates for these.

As far as lap desks: are there any particular ones that are better than others? I am worried about a lap desk flying in case of a sudden stop. Are there any that attach to a car seat? DS4 is in a car seat still, DD is not.

Jen

My son likes to play games with us on trips, so we have some made up ones that he likes.

Naming things in/on the body beginning w/ each letter of the alphabet, ie. abdomen, butt, chin, digit, ear, foot, (some of these require defense of why it should be allowed - anyone can 'challenge' someone else's offering). We do this with alot of different topics like foods, fruit, animals, and so on. DS likes doing these. Another variation is to pick a topic and each subsequent word has to begin with the last letter of previous, ie. apple, eggplant, tomato, etc.

DS likes to be the navigator and call out the next direction or the reporter that will tell us how many more miles we have to go in how many more steps and then figure out how long it'll take at the current speed. He also likes to look at the atlas to figure out what city/town we'll be coming up to next.

We also try to find as many states' license plates as we can. Maze books, puzzle books and all the other ideas we use too.

Good luck.