Meet trick #1, the plain old clip board. Sometimes I give them plain old paper and sometimes when I'm in a good mommy mood, I print off some coloring sheets of their favorite characters. These I keep in a secret stash in the front seat to be used only when needed. Then I distribute them one at a time, again as needed. The web is absolutely inundated with coloring sheets. Here are some of their current favs. Here and here and, oh, here too.I also found some great printables at this site. LOVE the scavenger hunt lists and the bingo cards. Looking forward to trying cootie catchers and cat's cradle.
Books. So simple yet so effective. They each choose a few before we head out. And both girls can be quite content looking through and reading them.
One of our road trip routines if for each girl to choose a few (2 or 3) small toys to bring in the car. These go into their cinch sacks that accompany us on every road trip. I don't know what it is about holding a My Little Pony or Polly Pocket, but it entertains them. Okay, the cinch sacks are our unofficial road trip bags. All their car entertainment goes in there - books, clipboard, toys, tissue (they love having their own tissue pack. seriously.)
The last trick that I occasionally employ is to drop a puzzle or small hand game into their cinch sack. Something like this number puzzle. You can find these types of puzzles at thrift stores. Totally great for the car.
I think that's all I got. What about you?
Books. So simple yet so effective. They each choose a few before we head out. And both girls can be quite content looking through and reading them.One of our road trip routines if for each girl to choose a few (2 or 3) small toys to bring in the car. These go into their cinch sacks that accompany us on every road trip. I don't know what it is about holding a My Little Pony or Polly Pocket, but it entertains them. Okay, the cinch sacks are our unofficial road trip bags. All their car entertainment goes in there - books, clipboard, toys, tissue (they love having their own tissue pack. seriously.)
The last trick that I occasionally employ is to drop a puzzle or small hand game into their cinch sack. Something like this number puzzle. You can find these types of puzzles at thrift stores. Totally great for the car.
I think that's all I got. What about you?
8 comments:
Are you kidding me?
DVD's!!!!!!!
And now that we have an iPad, it's much, much easier to have movies, books, and games available.
Dana
Dana, you're so funny! you mean you don't want to torture your daughter during car trips that way that you were tortured? Isn't that the dream of every parent. ha.
love the comment about them lovin' having their own tissue packs, Ebi-kun HAS to have his own tissues and hanky, folded just so, in the shorts pocket for kindy. The tissue packs here even have a space to write your name on! Wish I had read this yesterday, I could have popped some in the package!
We have to discourage books now as Jacob had developed car-sickness this year. A big bummer. "I spy with my little eye" is a big car game for us. Also, I have to give a shout out for the Sesame Street 40th? (35th?) anniverssary CD. It has some popular adult songs changed into kids songs. I didn't want to do DVDs on our last car trip but then ended up holding the book up between the seats so the kids could listen to the book on tape. Next time I will try to get two books!
Well, we have tried them all. I have to say once they learn to read chapter books, it is so much easier!! Can't wait until Nora gets there.
We love the classic car games "I'm thinking of", 20 questions and "I'm going on a picnic".
Looking forward to printing these out for the next road trip. Magnets on cookie sheets are always great. http://babalisme.blogspot.com/2010/05/fairy-tale-paper-doll-printable.html
Love books on cd and of course we resort to dvd's a bit on the long trips.
The girls and I are going on our Montana Road Show the end of the month. 5 towns, 10 days, 30+ car hours.
fab ideas.. you have me thinking. we plan on having our 2 week summer hol break after the baby comes, and dedicated bag is just the thing. currently i remind them 15 times to get into the car while they carefully fill the 'things to do' satchels! bridgetx
Oh yeah, forgot the most important part. FOOD!!! All house rules go out the door on car trips. The girls look forward to pop tarts and sugar cereals to snack on. Whatever gets us there happy and sane!!
jojoebi - oh, well next time! May come sooner than expected as I just saw the Alice in Wonderland fabric in your shop. Not sure I'll be able to pass that one over.
Palmer- Too bad Jacob gets car sick. I do too. So far Eva seems to be okay reading in the car. Hope it stays that way. Bryce can read in the car, so maybe there is hope for her.
Lisa - Thanks for the fairy tale printable. Don't even think I'll save that for a trip, the girls will love it. Magnets on a cookie sheet sound great, but that is too much planning/prep for me. I'm always last minute. Good luck on your Montana trip! Yes, food. I keep gummy bears in my purse.
Bridget - Congrats on baby #3! The sacks are nice too because they learn that they can't take anything with them that won't fit in the sack.
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