[Mattiez]

on keeping kids occupied on those long car trips? We have done a lot of travel but very little of it by car. Any good tips that just make the time whiz by?
Mattiez

[MaddiesMama]

As resistant as I was of it, the DVD player is really the key to our happiness in the car. We also read books, work on flash cards, and bring out a few new toys that we got at the dollar store just to have something that is shiny and new.

[ItalySarah]

How old are the kids? We play games, like counting how many different state license plates we see. We also do games like making cards before the trip of certain things to look for. Random things, like scare crows, flannel shirts, big fruit...etc. For smaller kids, we have lots of snacks, and kids songs!

[MelissaS]

DVD player is great if it's a really long trip. We do that and play games, color, etc. I usually have a CD of kid friendly songs that they love to sing along too.

[JessP]

We do movies. Mine are young enough that I also try to plan the trip around a nap time if possible to help kill some of the time. It really depends on how far we are going. We haven't gone to far since they were babies. I don't know how they would do for more than 4 hours. Course trips take longer for potty breaks .

[Panther]

My best tip is to travel late at night or early in the morning so they will sleep in the car. The roads are also really clear at 4am so the journey does, literally, go much quicker!

We play games where someone thinks of an object and you have to ask them questions and they can only answer yes or no. The person who guesses the object goes next. Mostly we play the animal game, where all the objects are animals, but you can do anything your kids are interested in.

And sometimes we turn the music up really loud and sing along. It's important to turn it up loud because we are bad singers and the music needs to drown us out.

[jhryerson]

One of the best things I found on our last trip was the travel aquadoodle mats. both my kids loved(2 and 4) these and played with them for quite some time. Other big hits were the modelling clay, (less crumbly than playdoh) with some popsicle sticks, can make little puppets out of them and change them regularly so they don't get old.