Tips for Keeping Your Children Happy and Entertained When Travelling in the Car
If you’ve traveled in the car with your kids for any length of time, the following phrases probably sound painfully familiar:
“Are we there yet?”
“I have to go to the bathroom.”
“Mom, Billy’s hitting me.”
“I’m hungry!”
“Dad, I’m bored.”
“Are we there yet?”
Keeping your kids entertained in the car can be a feat even when you’re just making the ten-minute drive to school or to Grandma’s house. It can take wells of patience when you’re talking about going on an actual road trip with the kids. But it can be done. Believe it or not, road trips create some of the best memories your children will have of the family travel you did while they were growing up, so it’s worth investing a little bit of time and energy in making sure that they’re entertained. Besides, car travel is often the least expensive route and you want to take advantage of it without going crazy right?
Here’s how to keep your kids entertained during car travel so that you can all have a great time on your road trip:
· Pack wisely for the car but make sure that you pack plenty of different things for each of your kids to do to stay entertained on their own throughout much of the road trip. Each child in the car should have their own little backpack or bag of things they can enjoy by themselves throughout the ride. Depending on the age of the child, these bags might contain items such as:
o Books, magazines and other reading material; bring mini-flashlights if you’ll be driving at night but the kids will be awake.
o Video games
o Personal
o Mp3 players with headphones.
o Multi-colored pen and drawing paper
o Stuffed animal
· Choose seating in the car wisely. You know your kids best so you know if they can sit next to each other in a car for a long time without bickering or not. It may be unconventional for one parent to ride in the backseat but putting a teenager up front while you spend some time in the back with the kids can make a world of difference in everyone getting along. Do what’s right for your family.
· Enjoy group activities. These will vary greatly from family to family. Some families like to play road trip games like the game where everyone tries to find the letters of the alphabet in order on the signs as they pass. Other families do sing-alongs. Others just talk. If you can get the whole family engaged with each other for awhile, the time will pass more quickly and the memories will be more lasting.
· Bring snacks. When kids get bored, kids get hungry. Obviously, you want to keep things as healthy as possible, but road trips are a time for a little bit of indulgence. Bring smart snacks - not something that will cause a sugar high in your kids while they have to remain strapped into their seat belts - but bring stuff your kids will consider a treat.
· Remember to take breaks. You may want to just drive straight through until you get there, but your kids need the trip broken up for them. Take regular breaks and make them fun ones. Instead of just stopping at a rest stop, figure out where en route is an interesting diversion and make the journey part of the trip itself. There are plenty of interesting things right off of every highway that your can do as a family without spending a lot of money. Explore them!
Try to think of traveling with your kids in the car as an adventure which can be enjoyed by the entire family. Having the right attitude about the trip will help convey the fun of the entire experience to your kids, so you’ll be a lot less likely to hear those tired old refrains of “I’m bored” and a lot more likely to create great trip memories for your kids to treasure over time.
All Traveling Kids Family Vacations is a resource for families who like traveling with their kids.
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