How Do You Keep a 3 and 2 Year Old Occupied on a Road Trip?

My girls are 2 & 4 and they love post-it notes and pencils (no mess). They can stick them anywhere and they are easy to clean up!

My daughter and granddauhter live on hilton head, they come get me off and on. Books, games you can make up (name some blue things, name some green things). Don't expect to make the trip without a break. Take snacks and drinks for them.

I live in hilton head & its only a four hour drive. my 3 yr old watches a movie on the dvd player & plays w/ toys,eats, colors, listens to stories & sings songs. Try playing i spy. they might not be good @ it but its funny to hear what they come up w/. the time goes by faster than u think. good luck.

This seems archaic now, but 14 years ago, we bought a TV/VCR combination and plugged it into the cigarette lighter for watching movies while travelling. Now, they have built in DVD players in many vehicles. I guess we were visionaries. Amazingly enough it took 3 movies to get to Orlando, an 8-hr trip for us when he was 3.
Stopping often helps so much for everyone to stretch. From Atlanta there's not much interstate, so stopping at McDonald's or a safe play area, even for 30 minutes, will take the edge off. Most guys don't like stopping so often, but even he will be more relaxed when you arrive at HI. We did not find HI very family friendly, so good luck. Use abundant amounts of sunscreen!

There are movie DVD players that you can hang from the back of the front headrest if you need to get one. With small children, use singalong games, or small gaming systems if they can hold them. If you have room in the car, bags of toys that can be changed between breaks will help too. You know your children best, so you can pick which activity to use until the next stop so there's a variety of entertainment, without using movies for the entire 6 hours.
The most important part is you're going as a family, so cherish this time. My son leaves for college in 6 weeks.

There are some awesome ideas you have already - I travel about 2x/yr to PA which can take us anywhere from 9-13 hrs one way depending on the time of day we travel. We travel with 3 children ages 4, 2 1/2 and 8 mos.

You can do it! DVD players can be a life saver. I also let each of my children pack a small bag of their toys they want to keep with them. Books are great! Also have baggies of snacks ready so you can just hand it to them. I take several sippy cups already filled with milk so I can give to them as we drive. Their favorite CDs are great too. If they have a favorite blanket, pillow, stuffed animal, etc, it can help make the trip more bearable for them.

I also go the the Dollar Store before a trip and buy some new things for them to play with. It helps to keep their interest when it is something they have not had before. I spread out the 'new' things during the trip. We also try to stop every 2-3 hrs to let them walk around, play, and get out of the car seats.

Have a great trip!!!

PS - I also take a potty seat just in case they have to go and we are not near any restrooms.

I take a portable DVD player with their favorite Disney movies or if they like to draw, magna doodles and etcha schetches are great and inexensive. You could also try to play games along the way like I spy.

No problem -it's actually about 4 hours if you drive fast! We did it last year with my 2 year old son and just completed a 10 hour one way (7-8 hours with no kids) trip to Anna Maria Island in south Florida with a 3 year old and an 8 month old.

If you have an in car DVD player or can buy a portable one -DO IT! It's fantastic -the movies keep them mesmorized! I also got one of the trays from One Step Ahead that belt around their mid sections so they can color, play with clay/playdough, stickers, etc. Stickers are BIG! I also got a ViewMaster from Walmart. Loved it when I was a kid and my 3 year old loves it. Only 7 or 8 bucks plus extra cards. Stop at a rest stop about half way through and let them run around. Also, Dramamine is fabulous!

I don't know if you have a built in dvd player or not but if you don't I would get one and either have it installed or just get one of those small ones that you can plug into your car. When we had a big vandura years ago and my baby girl was about 3, we kept her occupied with videos. Now for our granddaughter, we take a portable dvd player whenever we leave the house for more than one hour. SHe has quite a collection of movies. We also take along books, coloring books, crayons, lots of snacks, games (I spy), maybe a dry erase board and water soluable markers, wet wipes and a great imagination. Good luck!

Since I teach Kindermusik, my first thought would be to take along your kids' favorite CD's. Wee Sing has some good sets with auditory and print to match--lots of old favorites. Some instruments that are not too loud (egg shakers, jingles)would keep them interested for a while. But just singing along to the songs they know would be great.

Maybe some puppets (socks make good hand puppets) would help the fun last longer. Make up silly words or phrases and have the kids repeat them with the sock puppets. Doing this will actually serve to help them learn communication skills, practice forming vowel and consonant sounds, recognize vocal inflections and rhythms, etc. Allow the kids to have turns making up their own silly words and you repeat them.

Do some fingerplays with motions. You can find lots of them online; just Google fingerplays for preschoolers.

Don't forget the books! Sit in the backseat with a child on each side, and read to your heart's content. If you can't read while you are moving (I can't), find a good CD with children's books on it. It's always better to have the book to look at, but sometimes this is not possible. They may be content for awhile just looking at picture books quietly.

Check out www.momsminivan.com/toddlers. She has lots of good ideas!

I would think that sharing a plan with the kids before you start would help. Something like we will read for ___ minutes and then we'll rest. Next we'll sing for ___ minutes and then we'll rest. Next we'll look in the surprise bag. ETC. I have found that children handle most things a lot better if you tell them what to expect ahead of time. You may even write it down and check things off as you go. That helps us visual learners. :)

We do lots of ativities in Kindermusik class that give parents ideas for interacting with their children. You might want to look up a class in your area at www.kindermusik.com

Happy travelling!

We just took an 8 hour road trip with our twin almost 2 year old daughters recently and they did much better than expected (we left around 8AM). We took CD's they like, lots of their favorite books and little toys blankets/stuffed animals, etc. Also, our daughter who likes a paci got to have hers on the whole trip, something we don't do at home (she only gets it to sleep). We don't have a DVD player and frankly, I'm not a huge fan of those for toddlers. We sang lots of songs, and timed the trip where they would take their nap after around 3 hours in the car to break up the trip. Then we stopped right after their nap for lunch so they could have a break. They did really well with no crying/whining until about the last 30-45 minutes, but also we were riding along the coast at that time, so that did make it bearable - they were excited about seeing the ocean. We broke down and downloaded a couple of Signing Time videos on my husband's IPOD, which are the only video's they are allowed to watch at home. I think your kids will do better than you think! Oh, also, I prepared our girls well, telling them we would be "ride, ride" all day to the beach several times. I have no idea if this helped or not, but it seemed to! Best of luck and have a great trip! F.

Ditto on the dvd player, plus if you can use the port dvd player when you get there if you need it.

You have had great ideas. Whatever you buy or bring from home make sure it's a suprise. I would pack some toys from home a month before and give them 2-3 at a time for the car ride. Since they haven't seen the toys in so long it was like new again. Coloring books, play doh (onle if you have a tray or table for his seat), books dvd player. Look in the travel toys section of walmart, DOLLAR STORE (the best), Cracker barrel toys are great, and look at learning stores. www.lakeshorelearning.com it's off the 285 on the cumberland mall exit, but look at their map carefully and call for directions. Since it's a driveway right next to the 285 exit it's easy to miss. Also look at the School box and other educational store. They have a lot on sale now since schools out.

Good luck J.

I'm sure a lot of this has already be suggested but we travel from SC to IN at least once a year with a now 3yr old and a almost 9yr old.....DVD players!! we have the kind that can either play together or seperate so one kid can watch wiggles while the other watches something else. Crayola color wonder markers will be great too because they can only color on the color wonder paper-not your car seats!! Books, handheld toys, etc.

Have a safe trip!
S.

We just drove from Atlanta to Orlando with my 3 year old son and what I found helpful was a travel Magna Doodle. I didn't let him see it until we were in the car. I got him a few small toys before we left an surprised him with them. Also, I made vaious snacks and put them in the small zip lock bags. We have a childrens CD by Bare Naked Ladies that has cute childrens songs, but they are not too hard on the parents. It has songs that are easy to sing like "7 ate 9" and "Polliwog in a Bog". He really loves them. Good Luck!

coloring for just watch that they don't put them in their mouths. Board books, new toys they haven't played with before, a cd of kids songs. I'd also recommend an in car DVD player. It's a god send for us. We had a laptop that played DVDs and on our trip back across country from WA to MD it was a necessity. My oldest was almost 2 then.

Having done that trip several times...with 5 children no less...Do they like to watch movies? CD's with kids songs helps. Books, play "I spy". Lots of snacks to "bribe" them with. Also, tell them what they are going to see when they get there...ocean, seaguls..whatever you can come up with. Stop a couple of times to use the rest area's and let them run around for a few minutes. Stop for lunch somewhere with a play area and let them play hard. Keep them running the whole time you are out of the car so they really burn some energy. We also left before the kids were usually up so they went right back to sleep when we got them in the car. Good luck.

Get travel size Doodle Pro's. Then you don't have to deal with a bunch of crayons or markers. Get one for each so they don't fight over it. Target has this toy called a Hair Ball. It is a plastic ball that has 1000 little plastic "noodles" coming off the ball. It is stretchy and they seem to think it is hilarious. I got 2 for our plane trip and it entertained them for almost an hour! Doodle Pros are also at Target.

DVD player. It saved us on a two day trip.

some coloring books and colored pencils and if they have a favorite toy or stuff animal