9 Best Tips, Tricks, and Activities to Entertain on the Long Drive
This is the perfect time for a road trip! With all of our original travel plans on hold, we’re hitting the open road… and finding the open states. Now, here are some survival tactics for the long drives in-between!
There is no one activity that will entertain your child for a 17 hour drive. Sorry. There’s no one activity that will entertain ME for a 17 hour drive. Below are the seven absolute best tried and true road trip activities that have worked with my kids ages 2-6… and I’ve tried everything you can find online (Except for the Lego table. That looks cool… but I worry about all the small pieces…). When you get to the end of list, and you still have twelve hours to go, just rinse and repeat! With a few hours in between, old activities are made new!
1. The Usual. 5 Minutes.
Each of these activities lasts for about five minutes, but when you’re in the car for 17 hours it’s good to have options! These would include travel bingo, scratch art, crossword puzzles, activity books, any kind of small container that you can move things in and out of, Wikki Stix, maps (the kids love an actual map of where you’re heading, so they can follow along!), coloring books, dollar store gadgets, and travel games. All together they can buy you at least an hour!
2. Magnets and cookie sheets. 10 Minutes.
The older the kid, the cooler the magnet needs to be. At age two, kids are happy to stick and unstick, or arrange in piles. By age 4, it’s more fun if there are animals or people to shape stories.
3. Snacks. 10 Minutes.
Munching is about as close to silence as you can get with multiple kids. They’ll need the extra fuel for the long drive, anyway. This activity can be repeated every hour, with zero complaints.
4. Books. 20 minutes –
– at about five minutes per book. Mix it up with sticker books, picture books, open-the-flap books. I don’t suggest the dry erase books because toddlers love nothing more than coloring themselves. If you want to do something with marker, make it washable! The water-magic marker books are also great for a road trip.
5. Backpacks. 20 Minutes.
Let the kids pack their own bag of entertainment. My kids each have a small back pack. Starting just over age one, I’ve had them pack their own bag. Whatever your expertise is in entertaining kids, you can’t come up with anything as good as what they’ll put in their own bags. My son (2 at the time) packed his brother’s swim trunks, his sister’s hat, his own pajamas, and a book. I did ask him about it, but it was what he wanted, so we stuck with it. Once we were loaded up in the van, he proceeded to take everything out of the bag, and put it back in, and take it out. This entertained him for 20 minutes! Kids like to be independent and they can be trusted to entertain themselves.
6. Kid music. 45 minutes.
Sorry, this won’t be fun for you. They’ll choose one favorite and want it over and over on each trip. BUT they’ll sing and clap and dance and forget that they’re stuck in a car. Make it an activity – not just background noise.
7. Audio books. 45 -60 Minutes.
If you choose your story wisely, this can buy you a lot of time. I’ve tried putting on a “mom book” and it resulted in several tantrums. No go. Here are some top picks:
Age 1-5 Cubbie Bear (from AWANA clubs, but you can order it online)
Age 3-6 Fancy Nancy
Age 4-9 Magic Treehouse (There may not be an age cap to these. I still secretly enjoy them.)
For everyone else, there’s Harry Potter.
8. Engage. 45-60 minutes.
Wait, what? Engage? With my children who keep whining and repeating my name over and over and over and over just to say hi? Yep. This is the best way to keep your kids happy, for the longest stretch of time, while making the best trip memories. Your kids are repeating your name because they want your attention. So give it to them! I spy, the alphabet game, who stole the cookie from the cookie jar, knock knock jokes, I’m going on a picnic, 21 questions, or even *GASP* real conversation. Struggling with what to talk about? Here are some starters. Connecting is always a win for all of you.
9. Naps. 60 Minutes.
Ok, maybe this is a bit optimistic and age specific; but, if you can travel over nap times, you can skip out on an hour or so of whining… if your kids will sleep in the car. Good luck on this one!
Now that the kids are awake, and annoyed that they’re still in the car, head back to the top of the list and start all over!
Not sure where to head for that long car ride? Check out some of our journeys!