How can I keep kids entertained on a road trip?

Question

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Answer 1

Bring plenty of games and movies that will keep the attention of the children during the entire trip. Games that require them to interact with each other, such as slug bug, looking for license plates from different states...... Portable dvd players are great as long as everyone can agree on what movie to watch.

Answer 2

The most important thing about kids on a road trip is making sure they can see out of the car to avoid carsickness.
Entertainment should not be about DVDs and headphones. Make them interact with you and learn about the scenery.
Are they old enough to make a sentence using the letters in a license plate as the first letter of each word? Have a treasure hunt: who spots the first black cow? The first silo? The first car with a flat tire? etc. How about if they make up a story about something interesting they just saw, like an old abandoned barn or the dogs in the back of a pickup?
Also, there are lots of travel size magnetic games like checkers that they can take along. If they are little, I found the Magna Doodle and blowing bubbles were great entertainment.

Answer 3

When we were younger, we always played a spelling game when we travelled. The object was to have a list of words and then use the road signs to find the letters in the words, you could not use a letter more than once, the first person to get all of their words spelled got to choose where we ate or the kind of food we would get. We also played "geography" as we got alittle older, someone would name a place in the world and the next preson would have to come up with a place that BEGAN with the last letter of the place before them IE Denmark.. Kansas.. Sudan.. New York. You could also play this game with words or animals or foods etc..
Lastly, we all played animal vegetable, mineral LOTS!! "IT" would choose a person place or thing and keep it in thier head.. then the others in the car got 20 yes or no only questions to try to figure out what the "something" was.. each player got to continue asking questions until they got a "NO" resonse, then it was the next persons turn.. once 20 questions had been collectively asked, they team has to make a guess or "give" If another player figures out the"thing" then they get to choose the next object...if the entire team is stumped, the "it" is "it again or can pass the "it"

Answer 4

When I was little (bn 4 & 6) we would go on summer trips to FL from NJ, really long road trip. The key for them was that we would leave at nite from NJ, because we had a station wagon they would spread out a sleeping bag on in the back and i would sleep for the majority of the trip. Because they were two drivers they would alternate who would sleep and who would drive. Usually by the time I would wake up in the morning we would be more than halfway there ( it was about a 20 hr trip). After that I would draw or play with my dolls, also they had me help keep track of where we were. As I got older I would read a lot while I was awake and we wouldn't always leave in the evening anymore. Ironically all that traveling by car for trips when I was a kid has stayed with me. Now I'm one of those people that jumps in the car with no estination and just starts driving. LOL

Answer 5

We spent 26 days on the road with my 3 kids, ages 6, 8 and9. We had the portable DVD player, but one of the games that soon became a favorite was the I spy scavenger hunt. Some one would give a list of three or four items that we would have to find. For example, a Fed-Ex truck, a sign with a red on it, an animal and a body of water. Only one person could call it each time we saw one, and each person had to get all four. Whoever did it first, got to pick the items for the next round. If there was one item that was really difficult, we would save it and look for it throughout the trip. (we needed to do this when going through the dessert and trying to find a body of water.) Many times my kids would help each other to look for the things, and they would notice other things because they were looking outside. It was a lot of fun, for me and my parents too. Now we do it even on short trips.

Answer 6

MP3 & DVD players are great to have on hand but they don't allow for as much family interaction. Our road trips always had conversations going back & forth, playing the Alphabet game, naming the states, the story roundabout (where one person started a story with "One day..." says a few sentences, then another would pick up the story thread...this was one game the driver could play as well). We'd stop every 2 hours for 10 minutes to let everyone stretch their legs, grab waters, etc.

One of our favorite Road Trips was when I gave each child 3 tickets, one each for Lunch, Dinner, and Stop & Explore. At any time, any one of them could spot something on the road they wanted to check out & we'd stop, no questions asked. The kids loved it because it gave them some decision power & they were all much more invested in the trip. It made for a memorable, fun, & free-wheeling Road Trip.

Here are some other links that I found where I work that offer other ideas & practical information.
http://www.activitiesforkids.com/travel/travel_hints.htm
http://www.tripwiser.com/trip_planner_article-Tips_for_traveling_with_toddlers?articleId=2#Traveling_with_toddlers_by_car_
http://www.kidzworld.com/article/4707-road-trip-games-and-activities

Answer 7

Make certain before you start that the kids had a hand in planning the roadtrip and deciding on things that they want to see on the way, this way they are invested in the trip and will enjoy it more.
Older kids may want their own copy of a google map to the destination, as well as brochures and tourist information.
For the trip itself, Pack a bag for each child that is small enough to fit in the back seat with the child. Include favorite individually wrapped healthy snacks (to prevent kids from repeatedly asking you to acquire something - this works really well if you have the kids help you make a package a snack mix of favorite dried fruits, nuts, small graham cookies, pretzles, mini marshmallows and so forth the night before you leave), a notebook for doodles, games, drawings or to keep a journal of the trip and small wrapped items for each day of the trip, giving them something new and exciting each time they get into the car. You can swap out what is in the bag when you stop at hotels in the evening or even add things that you pick up along the way.
Make certain with young children that what ever they sleep with, be it a blanket or a stuffed animal is packed and accessible to the child throughout the trip. Also make certain you have packed a nightlight for the hotel.
Pick a recording of a book you enjoyed as a kid, either on cds or download from audible.com and use on an ipod connected to the car radio (I suggest the cds as with the ipod there will come times when you have difficulty keeping a clear signal) and listen to the book as a family. Between cds you can talk to your kids about why you enjoyed this book and what they think about it.
Make certain you point out neat things that you see up ahead as you drive so that the kids will enjoy the scenery - remember, to most kids animals and weird roadside stuff are interesting.
Try to avoid electronic games and things that need batteries or make a lot of noises that might distract you while driving.
If there is more than one adult on the trip, it may also be fun to take along pictures of roadtrips from your youth and share the pictures and the stories with your kids as you go, with only one adult, this can be a fun activity while waiting for food in restaurants.

Answer 8

Well Jayrust certainly has a good idea regarding the portable DVD but you want them to also learn as much as they can from the road trips..you can talk to them about some of the sights on the way or have them takes some pics from the car with a disposable camera. Tell them they can make a scrap book for them when they get back home.

You didn't say how old they are though?

If they are younger, then have pack snacks for them of their favourite things and new games for them. Put for each child a little bag of new games and a little bag of goodies ( healthy snacks) Don't give them this till you think it is time to keep them occupied. They will be good for hours on end. Tried and tested I assure you .

Answer 9

My Dad's company transferred us from Pittsburgh Pa, office to Patterson,NJ, office when I was 6 years old... Is a 8+ hour drive from Patterson to visit kin in Pittsburgh... Dad gave me a map & told me to look for highway signs & look them up on the map... About 5-6 summer vacations later I had the trip almost memorised... I still keep maps handy 30+ years later... Compact Disk Players & Cassette players are another option & "Stuff" to schlep on trip... Perhaps purchase the kids "Langue Education CDs" so kids can learn how to schlep in French, Spanish, Galic, Manderin, Aribic, German, Cantonese, Swahilie, Farci, or Yedish... IF kids have a CD player, make sure they have varity of music... IF trip is long, every 90-120 minutes try stoping @ a road side Rest Aera, & get out of car for a 10 minute "Bending, Streaching, Walk around the car a few times Break"... AND get a map or twee so kids can take turns as Navagator...

Answer 10

I have 3 boys and we took many long car trips when they were young. The best tip I ever got was to have new things packed up in lunch bags and let them choose one every hour (or half hour or whatever you need to keep your sanity!). They don't have to do anything to "earn" the bags. You might even bring along a timer! The bags might contain games or toys or books or tapes or just unusual things to keep them busy. We got a lot from the dollar store. Once I got hold of a roll of yellow caution tape and put it in one of those bags. It was a bit hit! They just looped it around everything they could reach in the back seat! It was hilarious! When it comes to older kids, I have a tip for that, too. You're probably going to give your kids spending money when you arrive at your destination, so just figure out how much that would have been anyway and dole it out a bit at a time. Now, this one has to be earned. We drove from Chicago to Orlando and gave out quarters every time the kids got through 15 minutes without squabbling! That's a lot of quarters, but soon they could see that it adds up fast. Good luck!

Answer 11

Whatever you do, no electronics -- no DVDs, hand-helds, etc. Books, toys that require imagination, and good old fashioned family talking and road trip games will do. Somewhere in the 1990's, we began to believe that it was our JOB to keep our children 100% engaged and entertained. It is not. It's not our job to keep our kids from being bored (I tell mine, a bored person is a boring person). Besides, what's wrong with a kid being a little bored. There are some great life lessons in that. Think about the "old man" from a Christmas Story (or your old man for that matter). Now, do you really think he cared if you were bored? I thought not.