Great Ideas to Occupy Your Children on Long Car Rides

Summer time is here and a lot of families go on road trips. It's time to visit the grandparent's, or just go have some fun at a amusement park or a great destination full of fun and adventure. But, you have to get there, this can be long and boring. Sitting in a car for all of those hours. For myself, I always bring some reading materials and some good music that I really enjoy. Having someone to talk to always passes the time. Children; well that's a different story. My brother has 2 kids, 5 and 7 and for the last two years has went to visit his in-laws. This is a 8 hour drive from his home. I asked him "how do you keep the children from going stir crazy?", these are what he does and it has worked.

First a portable DvD player is a life saver, some vehicles have them already installed. Go to a discount store such as Wal-mart and let them pick out a couple of movies that they both agree on. Some Wal-marts have a big bin of $5.00 movies. Get four if you want, then they can always watch them if they get bored at the grandparents house. Then head over to the food market, buy food that mom usually won't let them have much of at home candy, chips, cookies make this ride
really special and something for them to look forward to. When they get back home they can have fruit, yogurt, and cheese snacks again.

Look for some travel games in their age group, there are many, even a simple deck of cards can keep them occupied for a while. This was my favorite a - sing a long, get a couple of Cd's that they love and take turns listening and singing to them all together. This is great as a family event. Hand held electronic games, they have several different ones. Now when I was growing up we didn't have all these fancy electronic devices, my mother would pack crayons, pencils and paper. As we were driving along she would tell us to draw something we thought was interesting or unique and write a little story about it, then when the vacation was over, just like show and tell in school - we would look at each others drawings and tell about it. A new coloring book and crayons are always nice