We have an upcoming family vacation. It consists of a series of short to long car trips broken in the middle by a 5-day stay somewhere. The first day consists of 10 driving hours, meals & rest stops adding time. There’s also a six-hour day, 2 4-hr days, one 8-hr day, and a 7-hr day.
We’ve got two kids, 8 & 4 year old girls. Putting them in a Ford Taurus for the ride. 4-yr-old’s in a car seat still, 8 year old on a booster.
Is this a recipe for insanity? Both girls are what one might politely term “hyperverbal.” I’m extremely apprehensive about spending 39 hours in the car with them. Anyone got some suggestions on how to make the trip more survivable?
I have taken long car trips with my two girls who are about the same age. Before we left I loaded up on on a variety of small games and toys from an educational type toy store. I let them open up a bag of new stuff every day it kept them from being whiny in the morning anticipating the new treasure bag and once in the car they were engrossed in the new stuff for hours. They liked stuff like Magnet fairy dolls, lace up boards, word puzzles, tic tac toe/checker sets, Wikki Stix, bendo’s people they also brought along their Leap Pads & CD players. Books on tape for all of us to listen to. stuff like Kiplings Just so Stories, or classics read by Jim Weiss.
We all got very sick and tired of fast food and appreciated a sit down meal at a family rest like Cracker Barrel. When we stopped for the night I usually had reservations ahead of time at a hotel/motel that had a pool - great for decompressing after a full day on the road.
Along with the magnet fairy dolls, lace up boards and chlorophorm, a DVD player or a laptop with a cigarette lighter adapter can work wonders. Just let them watch a movie while you drive.
You might also drive some of the longer parts at night while they sleep.
I second the DVD suggestion. They make DVD players or VCRs that strap on to the back of a seat and plug in ot the cigarette lighter. Between movies, shows and normal napping, it will make your life so much easier.
We survived twelve hours in a car with a three year old because we had a VCR player to keep him occupied.
I’m sure the sensitive people will show up and moan about mentally challenging activities, bonding time and the contribution of the entertainment industry to the decline and fall of Western, Eastern and undiscovered civilizations but when you are looking at several hours in an enclosed space with irrational children a movie will save your sanity.
My parents once piled all 5 of us (11 and under) into an Aerostar and drove us from Michgan to New Mexico and we LIKED IT! It took four days each way and we stopped in a crummy little hotel each night and we LIKED IT! We didn’t have any of those newfangled contraptions like DVDs, or Game Boys, or books on tape; we had to read our OWN books and get carsick, or play the poke-each-other-in-the-head-till-Dad-tells-us-to-knock-it-off game, and we LIKED IT!
well, we survived, anyway. As did my parents. Try making stops every couple of hours, where the kids can run around for a few minutes. In lieu of fast food, we packed a big cooler with sandwich fixings and ate picnic lunches at rest areas. I also recall that we picked out new coloring and puzzle books ahead of time that we were NOT ALLOWED TO OPEN before the trip, which made them more fun when we finally got to use them in the car. How sneaky.
We are doing this this summer twice with a 4.5 year old and a 6 year old.
Once by car to Florida to visit the mouse. Once on a plane to Germany.
I’ve picked up a variety of hand held games for them, twistable crayons ( less likely to melt and no troublesome crayon paper for them to tear off in fits of boredom.) Paper/notebooks/coloring books. Leap Pad. Stuffed animals, dolls, tea party, skee ball machine and a tilt a whirl. Ok, the last couple were completely fabricated.
There are thingies that attach to the back of the front seat that make a desk/command post for the kids for their stuff. If you are in a mini-van I don’t know it they will work. In a regular sedan, they are perfect. They cost about $10 at Target and come in a variety of Scooby Doo/SpongeBob and Dora themes. They are great for containing the disaster.
Jim Weiss story tapes are excellent. I love his stuff.
If you do a VCR/DVD thing, make sure you have headphones. Listening to Spongebob or whatever for 5 hours doesn’t bother me a bit, but my husband can’t handle the repetition.
Don’t forget about games you can play with the kids. Slug Bug can be modified to Slug Volvo or Slug VW. Nothing like kids wailing on each other in the back seat to bring fond memories back for them in the future and a migraine for mommy now.
If you are driving in a van of some sort, you can cut potty time’s in half by taking a 5 gallon industrial food type bucket ( with lid), put a plastic bag or three inside it, a potty-toddler seat to go atop of it (some models work like a charm.)and just pull over on the highway for a quick piss. Bribery will work wonders for even the most recalcitrant pissers. Make sure you have a top that seals up tightly and it then can be used as foot rest or stored between the front seats. Then drop it off (double bagged) at a gas stop in some public trash can.
Remember, it’s not a True Family Vacation unless you can get all of Dad’s veins in his neck to stand straight out and have him mutter under his breath about how he could be doing something worthwhile rather than whatever it is he is doing right now but has to schlep the family somewhere.
The suggestion about bags of toys and games is good. There are other things, as well. “Spot the license plates” should work well with the 8yo - looking for license plates from other states and provinces, as in the northern US, particularly, you are likely to see some Canadian tags (and keeping track of how many different ones) is something I found absorbing at around that age. The younger one, unless she is a really precocious reader (not impossible, I know!) probably can’t participate in that, but there are variations, such as looking for particular cars/vans/SUVs/etc., looking for vehicles of particular colors … There are lots of variations. If you’re going for some distance in a rural area, you could watch for horses, cows, etc. This is usually quite exciting for city kids.
Yet another game that plays well in a car is “20 questions” (you did say the 4yo was also hyperverbal), which can become engrossing, to say the least. It’s been a very long time since I had this problem, so I’m drawing a blank at the moment on other verbal games. Maybe someone else can mention some?
I refined the “bag of cool new stuff” trick by individually wrapping the stuff and allowing each of the kids to open one package every hour. They never once forgot to remind me when it was time. The Dollar Store was a bonanza for stuff: markers, gel pens, little notebooks, little game and puzzle books, magnetic travel games, etc. A few of the gift bags contained favorite edible treats. If you start collecting the stuff well ahead of time, you’ll have a lot of great stuff by trip time.
Some of the gifts were a bit more expensive, like a ViewMaster with lots of viewing disks.
You can use special wrapping paper for any gifts that need to go to a specific one of the children.
A good Verbal Game could be an ABC memory game.
1st person:I’m going on a safari ( or whatever) and I’m taking an Apple.
2nd Person: I’m going on a safari and I’m taking an Apple and a Boat etc.
Don’t forget the pure joy of being the first to shout COW at a bovine sighting. Maybe making it fun by whomever sees it first names it.
What a great question! I have being working up the courage to try just a driving vacation with the family, a 4yo and a 2 yo. And my wife too, of course. I’ll second the driving at night trick, recommended by a friend who regularly drives St. Louis/D.C. and back. He also stresses the need to stop avery couple hours to get out and run around etc (assuming it’s day time).
We have the DVD player and my wife is a dollar store pro. I just have to psych myself up for it.
The dvd player is the best money you will ever spend when it comes to travelling with children. If there must be educational stimulation, then buy/rent educational dvd’s. I question the amount of education or stimulation to be had from being a passenger on an interstate highway, anyway.
When I pick up my 3-year old daughter for visitation, it is a boring 1 hour drive back to my place. It is a lot easier on her, which is the important part, since I bought her the DVD player. Now she watches a Kipper or Wiggles video and we are home before she knows it.
Don’t know where you plan on staying, but I highly recommend staying at a hotel/motel that has a pool. If you’re on a budget, skip the pricey hotels and find a cheap wayside motel with a pool. It will do wonders to provide an outlet for all that pent-up energy. We used to travel 12-15 hours a day on vacation and the highlight of our journey, by tenfold, was stopping at a motel with a pool. While we got into our bathing suits, the dads would go find some pizza pies and we’d all eat pizza and drink pop or beer by the pool. It was the coolest thing in the entire world.
My mom loves to tell the story of the trip where she and her brother were put in the back of a two seat hatch back with a box of saltines and a large salami and told to shut up. They rode back there for a four day road trip. They only stayed in hotels with hourly rates. Whoo.
A caveat for the ones who can read. Reading in a car, especially in the backseat makes me violently carsick. Often, just riding in the backseat makes me carsick. Possibly personal audio books and walkmans for the older ones.
You will never regret getting a video or dvd player. I wish we’d had that when I was a kid.
“You may not survive this trip,” is the first thing that popped into my head!
Seriously, the best remedy for a long trip are excellet books on tape or CD. Pick something the kids will like and maybe a few for the adults too. I drove from Philadelphia to Chicago with a family of 5 years ago, we listened to “Of Mice and Men” almost the whole way, it was great.
The DVD idea was good, but it might be hard to find some that the two children would agree on.
I second the book on tape idea. Most libraries have a good selection of children’s selections. We have listened to the Harry Potter books so often I got them on MP3. I would suggest mixing it up with music, though.
On really long car trips, one thing that has worked for us is having two drivers, both of them well rested, and leaving about 8:00 pm. The kids sleep for the majority of the time. It takes planning, though.
It’s been a very long time since I had this problem, so I’m drawing a blank at the moment on other verbal games. Maybe someone else can mention some?