2 girls on a 12 hour trip!

[mimi_marie]

On Saturday, the woman that I babysit for and I are taking her 2 daughters (ages 6 and 8) to Disney until March 1. Because I am too scared to fly , we will be driving for 12 hours. I know that this question has probably been asked to death, but does anyone have any ideas as to what I can do for the girls to keep them busy and out of their mothers hair??? Mrs. T has a TV and dvd player, so we'll be bringing lots of DVDs and they also each have a gameboy advance, so that should keep them busy, but I know that this will be a rough trip. They will get restless very easily! Any ideas? Thanks so much!

 

[Jordan's MOM]

Try getting a new book that they would both like and read aloud to them. My DS is now 11 and still likes this. Not a fun suggestion, but try spending that time doing any make up work they have from misssing school. WE have found that doing work AT WDW does not work well, but doing it on the way down is fine. Play games with them. Try a couple of these: Quess the "whatever" food, animal, or Disney character. Give clues and take turns quessing. Play the car tag game. Try to find all 50 states. Play name that tune; one person hums and the rest quess.

Take paper and markers for drawing, fun snacks, and a WDW travel guide to study.

Stop at least every few hours and give the girls a little exercise/ run around time outside the car. Sometimes we will stop at a fastfood place, walk around outside for about 10 minutes, use the bathroom and then get our food to go. Spent only about 20 minutes and the next 1/2 hour or so if filled with the kids eating their food as you are driving.

They will be fine.

Jordan's mom

 

[dijid]

Bribery! I can't take credit for this one myself - but if you're worried about fights in the car, or whining, etc, you can try bribery. Get a bunch of Disney dollars and give one out for every hour that goes by without a problem. (Or half hour or however you want to space them.) Either they both get them or neither gets them. Do either of them draw? My kids enjoy taking a notebook and some pens and then drawing while they drive. Videos and food are also lifesavers.

 

[treesinger]

Awesome idea! I like that!

Stopping for a few minutes of "stretch time" does wonders. It's nice to breathe the air for a minute anyway.

 

[LynnythePooh]

Summer of 2002 we drove from Portland, OR to Alexandria, VA - we made lots of stops, visiting family, sightseeing, etc. but it totalled 14 days in the car for DS's 5 & 8 we had the TV/VCR and gameboys, but Harry Potter saved us!

Try books on tape or CD - the man who reads the Harry Potter series is great to listen to and they are long.... We had purchase the first two books at a wholesale club and stopped to buy the third on our trip!

We'll be doing the 16 hour drive to WDW for spring break and I've checked our local library, they have many books on tape we can check out for three weeks at a time.

Our DS's also loved listening to their own music - they each have personal CD players and would plug in and promptly fall asleep - DH and I actually had time to talk to each other!

We knew it was a great trip when we arrived in VA and boys asked when our next road trip was!

 

[deb305]

I read this somewhere else and tried it, it actually worked. I bought small food treats, toys, tapes, DVD etc. I put each one in bag and marked for every 30 miles. (We had 1000 miles to drive). IF the kids were good they got to open a bag and share what was in it at the appropriate mile marker. DS 1 and DD then 4.5 behaved most of the time (with the help from some antibotics they were on) and really looked forward to the treats. I timed the foods for when I knew they would be hungry, and special juice boxes to 30 minutes before a rest stop. Some of the stuff I had were pringles in small boxes, graham crackers, gummies, McDonald toys, couple of new release DVDs, Pollys w/clothes in separate bags, travel games, etc.
Good Luck

 

[djm99]

My DH drove our DD3 and our niece DD7. I wasn't nearly as bad as I thought it would be. Both were given "new" toys that were given to them once they woke (we left around 4am). Both got their own Leap Pad with games (and of course ear phones). I had a portable TV/VCR that was a huge HELP. I taped - for weeks my daughters favorite shows. They had 2- 8 hour tapes worth of the disney channel shows and cartoons. Every snack food they loved was packed in their own individual beach bag along with other personalized toys - like Barbies, those mess free markers with books. I also bought a travel tots bag for each girl (go to www.traveltots.com) I kept the bag and I'll stuff it my self this time. I bought my daughter a leapster for her birthday, so I'll just buy her a new game for our summer trip.

I also bought a portable DVD player. Walmart.com has wonderful prices on portable DVD's the 5" is only $139.67 and the 7" is $196.42. Both are great prices. If you travel often, Sams club has a great one with two 7" screens its called "G2G Gear DVD-in-a-Bag" its only $399.71. That's also a really great price. My DH would rather have 2 portables instead of that one at Sams. That way each child could have their own tv/dvd player on the trip and my DH and I could use them separately as well. The portable DVD players are so inexpensive now you could buy two and let them pick out any movies they want - no fussing over what to watch either. And the 5" is fine especially in a car when attached to the seat of the car (those bags are also available at walmart.com for only $23.88.) Anyway, trust me - the DVD player would be a great hit especially if you bring new movies they wanted to see or old favorites.

 

[klmklm]

Sometimes you can convince kids this age that it is fun to see who can stay quiet the longest. No giggles or snorting or poking either.