If you are looking for ideas to keep your kids busy on a car trip, here are 5 of my favorites:
Make a “busy book”
This is really easy- I just get a 99 Cent binder and fill it with the cheap pack of notebook paper. I then get one of those little pockets that fit into the binder and fill them with crayons, pencils, markers… whatever you want them to have in the car (base this on their age).
Library books
Get a few new books from the library and have your kids read as many as they can, while keeping track of how many they have read. When they get to your destination, they could earn money to use at the beach (so many 10 cents per book for young kids and go up from there.)
Leapster
You can find these really cheap now on Craigslist or at a consignment shop. We bought on recently for $30 and it included 10 games. To me, this was worth every penny because it kept our three-year-old busy for our four hour trip.
Use Netflix.
You can find out how to connect your laptop to the internet (for free) while you are in the car here. I wish I would have known this years ago!
Listen to Music.
If you can stand it without being tired yourself, bring along a relaxation CD. This puts our little ones to sleep every time. I take away all books, movies, etc.. .and put this on. I put the music all the way to the back, so that we don’t really hear it (it is very soothing, although it doesn’t make me sleepy at all.)
My other tip: I actually keep this in my car and put it on anytime that they get loud. It instantly calms them. (shhh… don’t tell them my secret weapon)
Here are a few packing tips if you are taking a trip with kids and a few more tips for taking a road trip with kids
Great tips, thank you . 😀 We might be taking a 12 hour drive in the near future, so I’ll have to keep these in mind.