As parents one of the big things you have to think about when taking a trip with younger kids, especially a long trip, is how to entertain your kids for the car ride. I remember and appreciate the things my parents used to do for me during long car trips to my Grandparents house. I have thought of some other ideas and perhaps you can share some of your ideas with me.
For this trip, I am going to purchase one of those travel tables that attach to the car seat. It will sort of resemble the one pictured below. This will allow my son to play with his little car toys (he likes to line them up), color (his new favorite thing) and have various snacks. Snacks were a huge consideration for the road and for when we arrive. To ease the burden a bit on having to bring large containers of goldfish that will probably end up spilling all over the car, we decided to buy some individual packs to save us a little bit of trouble. Thankfully Target had a great sale on packets of goldfish, cheese mix crackers and little chocolate chip cookies.
My son loves to have us point things out while we're on the road. Be it farm animals, a big truck (that will be easy on 95) or something interesting. I remember as a kid my parents who knew the landmarks going up to my Grandparents house and would show me the barn that would "smile" (it had two windows up top and a big barn door that faced the road)and the lake made of jello (not really but I believed it and always wanted to stop there. Thankfully I can remember some cool things on 95 to point out to him...if he's awake.
I will also be giving a small present to my son for the road trip. Something under $5 that will keep him occupied as he opens it (I'll wrap it to make it more special) and since it is new hopefully that will entertain him for a while as we travel down the road.
Lastly and THANK GOD, I will be storing DVDs in the car for my little guy. I feel so lucky to have a DVD player for him as he can watch his favorite show, Sesame Street. I wish I had such things when I was a kid to entertain me for an hour or so at a time, but when I got older Game Boy kept me busy enough.
Planning a road trip with kids certainly is an adventure. You have to think about so many things and ways to entertain them. We'll of course make several stops to stretch our legs and let the little guy run around. Hopefully he'll sleep most of the way through it. Do you have any great ideas on how you entertain your kids on long trips?
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There is a great website for traveling with kids:
http://www.momsminivan.com She has great ideas for games to play and snacks to pack and she breaks it out by age level, too.
With Teressa, I wrapped little gifts for her to open along the way. Some had little toys, some had snacks, and some had movies. I gave them out at certain intervals, like every 60 or 100 miles.
One thing she mentioned that I hadn't thought of when I was looking for a travel table, was to get one that is soft and not hard. That way, if God forbid you get in an accident, it won't be as harmful. One Step Ahead has a really nice soft one.
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