ideas for long car ride?

[maryj426]

We are driving to the port....9 hour car ride with a 2 year old any ideas on how to make it easier on her? We aren't driving overnight as we did that this summer and she refused to sleep hardly ever sleeps in the car and it completely wasted our first day of our vacation we had to take turns sleeping and she didn't go to sleep until the middle of the day so we were all so tired it wasn't even worth it.

[cantwait2cruize]

Nyquil:d

[BLAMBKY]

We are driving to the port....9 hour car ride with a 2 year old any ideas on how to make it easier on her? We aren't driving overnight as we did that this summer and she refused to sleep hardly ever sleeps in the car and it completely wasted our first day of our vacation we had to take turns sleeping and she didn't go to sleep until the middle of the day so we were all so tired it wasn't even worth it.

 

:rolleyes: Plan on taking about 11 hours? We have done the 9 hour drive with our kids (they are now 15 &12) their whole lives! We would stop at play place restaurants. (I know, I know but you do what you have to do sometimes!) We would stop at rest stops. We would take turn letting child run off energy, while other is ordering & going to the restroom. Often we would get one parent's food to go. We used DVD players, books & toys they had never seen. We would take foil! Yes, often momma would sit in the back with them. Hang in there! Now my kids are easy travelers and we all (GASP!) ENJOY our car trips together. Get a beach towel & put it under car seat. SPILLS happen! :p

[mitsugirly]

New interesting toys to keep their minds occupied is what always worked for us and car trips. My youngest gets a new toy, she is occupied for HOURS playing with it. :)

[Keith1010]

New interesting toys to keep their minds occupied is what always worked for us and car trips. My youngest gets a new toy, she is occupied for HOURS playing with it. :)

 

Excellent advice. We used to do this on our car trips when the kids were very young.

 

Keith

[topspot]

Portable DVD player and LOTS of movies, little new toys wrapped up (adds to the excitement of a new toy), crayola makes write on the window markers,:D

[soozenw]

Depending on how much she still chews on things, crayons/colored pencils and a notebook will keep my 18 month old busy for good stretches of time. Or Color Wonder. I love that stuff. Then you don't have to worry about her coloring on everything in sight. But if she is still one that puts everything in her mouth, that might be a bad idea.

 

I agree with the new toy idea as well. And if you have to drive over any mountains (and you child isn't used to it) talk to your peditrician about giving her Dramamine/Benedryl to help with motion sickness.

 

We are driving 20 hours in the spring from Indiana to Florida for our cruise, but we are doing it overnight. If you have any tips after your drive, make sure you come back and post them! :)

[kandibear0]

Our road trip kit includes: new books (our 2YO loves the simple I Spy books), pipe cleaners (fold over the sharp edges before hand) to bend into all kinds of shapes, new matchbox cars, and 'mixed snacks' (cheerios, pretzels, puffs, teddy grahams, etc mixed together).

I am a big proponent of having kids check out the scenery along the way and interacting with each other (singing songs, looking for certain things out the window,etc) What is the point of driving, if you are not going to enjoy the scenery on the way?

 

You can do this! Just be patient and ready to entertain! And enthusiastic, they sense fear! If it helps, we are driving to Tampa from Minnesota to enjoy a week in the Carribean in 2012 (with a 2YO and 6 YO).

[Onessa]

We live 6.5 hours (one way) from Gma and Gpa and try to get up to visit every few weeks. DD (now 16YO:eek:) has taken the trip with us since she was just a few weeks old. At the early pre-school age, audio tapes with kids stories and activities were our #1 go-to. We had most of the Madeline series on tape (yes, tape - she's old!) and they had the stories that she could follow along with in the book (or not as she pleased) and then songs afterward. We also had kid song tapes to which the entire car was required to sing along.

 

DD was always a bit fastidious and really enjoyed playdough - not for all kids but if yours is not inclined to eat it, throw it, smear it all over the place, it worked for us. A plastic cutting board and some of those very small party tubs.

 

Sticker books (Dover press), DVDs on your iPad or laptop, and plenty of finger snacks. Mix them together and make a game of sorting them out. Fruit Loops and multicolored goldfish crackers are nice that way - sort fishes from loops, OR sort Red from Blue.

[mitsugirly]

Excellent advice. We used to do this on our car trips when the kids were very young.

 

Keith

 

I also did a "gift a day" on our recent cruise. Each day/night when we wanted to do something that I knew I "might" have a problem with her sitting still or whatever, I brought a new present for her. Kept her occupied for a long time and she looked forward to it every day and was a "good girl" for her present. They weren't expensive items. I didn't pay any more than $4 for any of them. I tried to have something that represented each day and where we were going and what we were doing. (First day, she got a Southwest airplane because we were flying Southwest. On the ship, a new book for kids about a cruise ship. For the day in Roatan, she got a beanie baby Monkey because we were visiting the monkeys, in Cozumel, she got a beanie baby dolphin-we swam with the dolphins, Costa Maya-she got beach toys because we were going to the beach...well, you get the idea). :)

 

Another thing, since people have suggested crayons and such, we got my little one the little thing (not sure what it's called) that you take the pencil attached to it and draw on the surface (surface is white and it marks gray) and with a little swipe of a lever at the bottom, it erases and you have a clean slate. She loves it.

[nothriver]

my daughter was still in a rear facing car seat at age 2, so as a single mom, I couldn't see her. I found that kids music was always the best bet, always. no matter what I tried, nothing holds her attention like a good sing along. Toys fall on the floor or just aren't as much fun to play with when your strapped in... we have a portable DVD player which never really caught on with my dd for travel but she enjoys it at home.

 

Sometimes the oddest things work the best. I read of one mother that bought a ton of dental floss and her child enjoyed pulling it out. I personally like post it notes, my daughter just likes to stick 'em on stuff, and then you have them handy to cover the sensors on those oh so scary auto flush potties.

 

We don't stop often when we drive, but when we do, we take long breaks and try to move around. Some rest areas have some pretty good trails. We've even walked the aisles of Walmart in bad weather.

 

On the other hand, sometimes it is best just to barrel on through. Some trips we only stop for gas and drive thru, you can shave hours of your overall travel time. typically we stop every 3 hours when we travel but occasionally we drive our F150 which gets 800 miles to the tank and we just drive and drive and drive and drive!

[meggie711]

I agree with the other poster, you can do this! We took our 2-year-old on a 7+ hour trip to Tennessee and a 3+ hour trip to Disney, both this summer. He does nap in the car, but his naps are 45 minutes to an hour tops. Our Tennessee trip began at about 4pm, so we had the evening/winding-down time on our side. On our Tennessee trip, we used a portable DVD player. We brought along his favorites, but also brought new movies. He spent the first part of the trip just riding. When he started getting a little fussy, we gave him a snack and let him ride a little longer. Then we started a movie. Then we stopped for gas, and used that as an opportunity for a diaper change and quick stretch. Then we rode a little longer with a movie. Then we stopped for dinner (ate in the car). Then we did more movies. He napped once or twice in between. I realize my reply is very play-by-play, but we planned the trip like that. We didn't get in the car, get his movie going, get him a snack and drink, and then drive 7+ hours hoping for the best. This worked very well for us. A great trip! Although he is a car-sleeper, he would not go to sleep that evening. We pulled in around midnight, and he laid down and went right to sleep.

Disney, although it was a much closer drive, wasn't as easy. I would have thought the closer distance would make it easier, but maybe we were just cocky. He was in a bad mood, I had just ran a 5k race, and we were all ready to see the dang mouse. lol

Happy travels!

[Onessa]

I. . . . (not sure what it's called) that you take the pencil attached to it and draw on the surface (surface is white and it marks gray) and with a little swipe of a lever at the bottom, it erases and you have a clean slate.

Magnadoodle

[mitsugirly]

and we were all ready to see the dang mouse. lol

Happy travels!

 

That made me chuckle! Awesome. :D

[mitsugirly]

Magnadoodle

 

YES! That is it. But we have the one that has a story book with it at the bottom, so double the fun.

 

Here's our little ones:

 

[palaeologus]

When DD was two (she's now six), we started making the eight-hour beach-vacation journey into two four-hour ones and spending the night in a hotel in between. We further subdivided the four-hour legs into two-hour sublegs by stopping for bouncy-castle play at local chain outlets (Pump It Up, Monkey Joe's, etc.) and visiting local kids' science and technology museums. In between, we relied on iPod Touches, audio books, kids music from familiar TV show soundtracks, and toys like Travel Aquadoodle and Bendaroos. We also got mileage out of magnetic pattern cards from Melissa and Doug. The key for us was to slow down our progress and to take it nice and easy so that car trips in the preschool stage didn't elicit groans and dread during the elementary stage, and it seems to have worked for DD. Good luck no matter what you try!

[Mom2B&Z]

I think you need a variety of plans and an open mind :D

My boys travel best when they have a chance to run around and blow off steam every 2-3 hrs. Any more and it becomes a bit chaotic! We stop at places where we can either play outside, or in the winter at a mall where we can run in hallways.

On top of what others have suggested, we like listening to books on CD. I load them on my iPod and we all say the story together ;) We've also done cookie sheets with magnets, new toys (have been hit or miss), hiding some old favourites and bringing them out for the trip. We love playing games in the car, the best ones are we make up ourselves! Right now the family favourite is we all pick a colour and spot/count transport trucks with that colour. First one to 10 wins! It gets fairly competitive ;) We will also spot letters or numbers on licence plates, words on the exit signs, give one of the kids the map to follow...the possibilities are endless.

If you really get desperate, there's always children's Gravol. Not that I advocate drugging children, but when we travel I will sometimes give them a dose to fend off car sickness (they are both prone) and help them fall asleep at their usual bedtime. I purposefully arrange our travel plans so this is an option.

[maryj426]

Wow thank you so much to everyone that responded!!!! These are all great tips! I will def try some out and come back and share our expierence and maybe some new ones my DD is at the stage where she loves fidgiting with small things and i love the gift of the day idea however i have searched and search for small toy ideas and cant find much that will keep her attention for a while but i love the dental floss and post it ideas sometimes the simplest ideas are the best thanks so much she will love it and who care if she makes a mess in the car we can clean it up!!! no problem about the mountains we live on one and she (KNOCK ON WOOD) has never gotten car sick so hopefully we wont have any issues with that my mother is going with us so she will be in the back seat with her so that will help with handing toys and maybe snacks and yes the frustration of toys dropping to the one spot you cant reach in the back seat without pulling the car over. She does have a magnadoodle and loves it i think it will hide until the car ride so she will miss it and its flat enough to fit easily in the suitcase for a good dinner toy as well. We dont have a DVD player but im going to see if i can find someone that would let us borrow one i think it would be beneficial the whole cruise because she loves watching sprout so i could get some of those shows on DVD

[maryj426]

Well we are back from two 10 hour long car rides and my daughter did great. We were prepared with a bag of new or toys she hadnt seen in a while so new to her and she did great we stopped maybe 3 or 4 times along the way. We brought a lot of the suggested items and they were great tips some of the best toys she loved playing with were cards we found some princess ones and since she is only two she has no clue what they are but she loved counting them and having so many of them. My smart phone was a huge savior i was able to go on you tube and pull up her favorite cartoons she loves Cailou. I also video taped it on my phone off of the computer so that when we were on the ship i could show her the video of it without having to be charged for data on my phone. We also brought a small book bag that she was allowed to pack and bring with her and she would be able to put what she wanted in there when we left the cabin as well so she would have toys with her wherever we went. We doubled this as the diaper bag when we dropped her off in camp carnival. Any questions and i will be glad to answer them.

[momof3cruisers]

Our road trip kit includes: new books (our 2YO loves the simple I Spy books), pipe cleaners (fold over the sharp edges before hand) to bend into all kinds of shapes, new matchbox cars, and 'mixed snacks' (cheerios, pretzels, puffs, teddy grahams, etc mixed together).

I am a big proponent of having kids check out the scenery along the way and interacting with each other (singing songs, looking for certain things out the window,etc) What is the point of driving, if you are not going to enjoy the scenery on the way?

 

You can do this! Just be patient and ready to entertain! And enthusiastic, they sense fear! If it helps, we are driving to Tampa from Minnesota to enjoy a week in the Carribean in 2012 (with a 2YO and 6 YO).

 

This is exactly how we tackle a trip to FL from MN too. We make the drive prety much yearly and have since our kids were ages 6, 2 and 1. Slowly, slowly with the distractions. We also bring at least one picnic type lunch to eat at a rest stop. We all feel better not eating fast food on the road. Generally, we get to the RS, we all use the bathroom and then DH plays tag or catch with the kids while I get lunch ready. Bubbles are great for the rest stops too.

 

And yes, color wonder is the best thing ever created for car trips!

[mechcc]

Every child is different and every child reacts to trips differently. So read these boards and other travel boards and figure out what you think will work with your child. However, it seems that for the under 3 age group they like what is familier. The favorite DVD's from home and the favorite foods. The 4 to 7 need a combination of familier but spiced with new experiences - they also respond well when they are told up front what is going to happen. Over 7 - take the clues from the child.

 

No I am not an expert. My qualifications come from being a mom who traveled with small children due to military service. Youngest said later that he always felt comfortable because we had told him what was going to happen.