Long car trip suggestions

[ckleist]

We'll be doing a drive to florida from michigan with an almost 3 year old and 4 1/2 year old boys. I'm looking for stuff to keep them busy when they aren't sleeping in the cars. I've got tonka magnetic books, lacing cards, magnadoodles. Maybe some small magnetic puzzle mazes. I'm looking for something like a rubiks cube that can be manipulated, twisted, make shapes etc but at their age level and that doesn't come apart. Looking for something that doesn't have lots of little pieces to get lost in the car and definitely stuff that doesn't make noise.

Also looking for suggestions for non-toy stuff to make the trip easier.

TIA!

[nfowife]

Do your kids like videos? You can get a dual system DVD player so each kid has their own screen. I think that would be money well spent!!

[uptooearly]

This thread has some great suggestions/ideas for traveling in the car. I have it bookmarked on my computer.

http://www.windsorpeak.com/dc/dcboar...=&topic_page=1

Sonja

[mom to little e]

I've seen plastic tray tables decorated and sold at a lot of craft shows and have wondered if they would fit with a car seat? DS does pretty well entertaining himself but often drops his toys and wants us to find them while driving. These little tray table have little side pockets where small toys or books could sit. I've thought about trying these for one of our upcoming long car trips.


Maryann
Mommy to Ean & Mia!

[twindad]

We just returned from a long car trip with our two year old twin daughters. We brought along some small bottles of bubbles to bring out at rest stops. The girls loved chasing the bubbles while we all stretched our legs.

I don't know if your boys like stickers, but our girls were entertained for long stretches of time with stickers. We also had several small, new toys (mostly found in the $1 section at Target) that we put in brown paper lunch sacks. Every so often we'd give them a new paper sack to keep things 'interesting'.

Good luck!

[ckleist]

thanks for the tips. stickers are big problem, they don't understand that they are meant to stick...it would just cause more problems than entertain them. I did find some small toys to keep them entertained but I think we are going to splurge on a dvd player

[pampamz]

We just returned from an 11hour drive. DVD player, hands down, kept us sane. They each had a screen (there was one on sale at Target that was very nice, 2 screens). I stocked the car with some new dvd's of programs they enjoy (Berenstain Bears, Franklin etc) + somew new movies.

Plus, I filled a bag for each of them that had toys that haven't surfaced from the toy heap for a while which was good for some time. I bought our 5yo DS a big construction book with removable (KEY!) stickers that he could place on the different scenes and remove as he wanted to.

Also, Crayola has marker books that only colour on the special paper in the colouring book (i.e. the marker is clear unless drawn on the page). It was also a hit.