Help me make our 18 hour drive FUN!

[wheredreamsbegin]

We will be driving from Cleveland to WDW this summer. It will take us just about 18 hours. I am looking forward to making the drive fun for my DDs 11, 8, and 6. In the past, I have made up a binder for each girl with puzzles (mazes, word searches, crosswords), coloring pages, and blank paper. We listen to music, watch movies, and play the license plate game. I'm planning on using all of those strategies again. I am looking for something else to throw into the mix. I was thinking of having the kids take turns drawing slips of paper from a bag/bucket...one slip for each hour of the trip. I was thinking of putting things like "Choose a Disney character. Give us three clues to help us guess your character." I'd love some other suggestions (I need 18!!!) Any ideas?

I'd appreciate any other ideas too! TIA

 

[MSSANDRA]

We travel 8 hours at least once a month. Here are a few of our less common favorite ideas.
-Cards out of a kids trivia pursuit game. You can easily find one of these at thrift stores for very cheap. Have an adult be the question reader so you can adjust questions as needed for the youngest child. Keep score or not...its for fun.

-The crayola modeling clay. Unlike playdough, no crumbles and mess. Each kid gets a fist full and creates something and everyone else has to guess what it is. this lasted two hours for us the other day with DS7.

-Magna Doodle Boards- Play same game as with the clay except you take turns drawing and guessing what it is.

-Fun snacks like pop rock candy, jelly belly jelly beans, and tons of healthy stuff too.

-We do a lot of electronic games on trips so a itune card for a couple new downloads before the trip is a good idea.

-
dinner at Cracker Barrel and give each kid permission to pick out a fun candy to enjoy instead of dessert.

-Lot of look out the window games, tags, certain cars, count the cows, or flags etc. on each side of the road.

 

[pkelly6]

We travel 1-2x a year to Oklahoma from central Ohio. One of the kids' favorites were movies from RedBox that I put in paper bags and labled #1, #2, they picked the # and that's the one we'd watch - just another way to mix up the same.

I've also gone to the $1 store and put treats into bags and after so many miles given them out.

We've also taken turns listening to a full CD, each person in the car picked their favorite and we'd listen from beginning to end. To this day, my daughters roll their eyes at the mention of Barry Manilow.

 

[baseballnut]

Disney mad libs! Take their fave Disney stories and create your own mad libs with them.

Have a theme each hour. Either Disney movie or character. Each activity around that. If you're feeling especially involved, everyone in the car can pretend to be a certain character from the hour's movie.

Write your own Disney movie. Go over character development, including their names, looks, likes, dislikes. Create antagonists and plot twist and conflict with resolution. Can be as involved as you'd like.

Learn special things about each state/city you'll be driving through. Correspond something to that? As in passing out peaches while driving through Georgia, etc.

Have fun! Road trips rock!

 

[wheredreamsbegin]

I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE these ideas!!!

I especially love the idea of playing a guessing game with modeling clay and magna doodle boards, giving out surprises from the dollar store each hour, and passing out something relevant to each state that we drive through.

Thank you!

 

[lucyem]

We play a card game. Each child gets their hand (sometimes more or sometimes less cards for shorter game). Each card has things on it we might see such as a hotel, a brown house, a green truck, a car with a dog, etc. As they find the items they hand me the cards. The winner gets to pick from two prizes. Looser gets the second choice. I know my kids well enough that I know who will pick what, in other words no one is upset Sometimes it's candy and other times it is a small toy. Its something we have been doing for a few years now and I collect little things as I find them. I also try and pick up something while at WDW for the trip home. The kids never see inside the goodie bag so it is always a surprise.

This is the card game we have http://www.amazon.com/Travel-Scaven...id=1396965369&sr=8-1&keywords=car+travel+game

You could also make your own cards. These are very extensive and have different items on both sides so I let them pick one or the other item. I also edit out the ones I know we will not see. Such as flowers while on the NY thruway in January.

 

[Stephaniesue]

My biggest tip on a drive like that with little ones is plan to stop. I know it makes the drive longer, but stopping just a couple times to get the wiggles out will help them so much.

We took a DVD player (it really didn't get used much), coloring books and crayons, snacks (lots of snacks!), I let the kids bring their favorite toys, and a small blanket and pillow.

We traveled from Central Indiana to Orlando with our 2 kids DD was 8 and DS was 6.

 

[grafxgirl]

Make up a scavenger hunt that can be done on the car ride. Here is a list to start with and you can even add more.

http://www.paplv.org/forparents/Documents/Travel Scavenger Hunts.pdf

 

[tlh0726]

I went to the library and found books (will be borrowing them to take along) about each state we will traveling through.

I printed a sheet for each state with the state flag that can be colored at the top of the page and then fill in the blanks at the bottom. such as state motto, state bird, a fun fact you never knew, etc etc.

they can read the book and then fill in the page.



I also mapquested step by step directions that I printed. I got state road maps from AAA. kids can follow along on the directions and make notes about time it actually took, traffic, etc. They can also highlight the route on the maps.


doing the license plate game to. I printed a check list of the 50 state, dc, and the canadian provinces along with a map that shows both US and Canada. Once the kids can check off the state on the list and note where they spotted it (city/state) they can then color in the state/province on the map and see exactly how far that car has travelled.



have 5 new movies I would not let the kids watch. Frozen, cloudy with a chance of meatballs 2, alpha and omega 2 and 3, and the fairy pirate. the suspense is killing them.


they also have their Tabs and 3DS systems to help occupy the time.

We also have our usual markers, colored pencils, pencils, pens, paper, and their journals.


We normally drive straight through on the way down and take 2 days to come home. This time we are leaving later in the day and stopping overnight on the way down. About 10 hours in the car 1st day and 4 1/2 the 2nd.

We stop every 2 1/2 to 3 hours. If it is just for a bathroom stop, I will park as far away as possible. so by the time you get there and back everyone's legs are stretched and we can hop back in and keep moving.

 

[texasroni75]

I'm sorry but an 18-hour drive with kids will never be "fun"! Just kidding!

We did this in September (TX to WDW and back again - 17 hours each way). Life-savers for our trip were mostly of the electronic variety. Our older kids had tablets and headphones - I pre-loaded them with games and micro-SD cards with their favorite music (that way they didn't need to bring iPods too). We also have a DVD player in our truck for movies for our youngest.

We also brought many snacks, coloring books, small toys and utilized some car games - state license plate game, alphabet game (pick an animal or fruit and go around from person to person thinking of an animal or fruit beginning with the next letter of the alphabet). I had ordered WDW park maps ahead of time from the Disney website, and I passed them out to get the kids excited and to circle and mark out the things they wanted to do in each park, etc.

Lots of small bathroom breaks and some photo ops along the way. We also switched seats a few times - I let the older kids switch and sit up front for a few legs of the journey just to keep the kids from poking at/annoying each other from boredom.

Good luck!

 

[msmama]

What about books on tape (or CD). My library has tons but you can also get them on itunes. We're big fans of the Magic Tree House ones (they are read by the author) but maybe classics, like Alice in Wonderland or The Wizard of Oz would be enjoyed by everyone. I think there's a relatively new-ish version of The Wizard of Oz narrated by Anne Hathaway.

 

[wheredreamsbegin]

We play a card game. Each child gets their hand (sometimes more or sometimes less cards for shorter game). Each card has things on it we might see such as a hotel, a brown house, a green truck, a car with a dog, etc. As they find the items they hand me the cards. The winner gets to pick from two prizes. Looser gets the second choice. I know my kids well enough that I know who will pick what, in other words no one is upset Sometimes it's candy and other times it is a small toy. Its something we have been doing for a few years now and I collect little things as I find them. I also try and pick up something while at WDW for the trip home. The kids never see inside the goodie bag so it is always a surprise.

This is the card game we have http://www.amazon.com/Travel-Scaven...id=1396965369&sr=8-1&keywords=car+travel+game

You could also make your own cards. These are very extensive and have different items on both sides so I let them pick one or the other item. I also edit out the ones I know we will not see. Such as flowers while on the NY thruway in January.

This is a GREAT idea! Thank you so much for the link.

 

[wheredreamsbegin]

I went to the library and found books (will be borrowing them to take along) about each state we will traveling through.

I printed a sheet for each state with the state flag that can be colored at the top of the page and then fill in the blanks at the bottom. such as state motto, state bird, a fun fact you never knew, etc etc.

they can read the book and then fill in the page.



I also mapquested step by step directions that I printed. I got state road maps from AAA. kids can follow along on the directions and make notes about time it actually took, traffic, etc. They can also highlight the route on the maps.


doing the license plate game to. I printed a check list of the 50 state, dc, and the canadian provinces along with a map that shows both US and Canada. Once the kids can check off the state on the list and note where they spotted it (city/state) they can then color in the state/province on the map and see exactly how far that car has travelled.



have 5 new movies I would not let the kids watch. Frozen, cloudy with a chance of meatballs 2, alpha and omega 2 and 3, and the fairy pirate. the suspense is killing them.


they also have their Tabs and 3DS systems to help occupy the time.

We also have our usual markers, colored pencils, pencils, pens, paper, and their journals.


We normally drive straight through on the way down and take 2 days to come home. This time we are leaving later in the day and stopping overnight on the way down. About 10 hours in the car 1st day and 4 1/2 the 2nd.

We stop every 2 1/2 to 3 hours. If it is just for a bathroom stop, I will park as far away as possible. so by the time you get there and back everyone's legs are stretched and we can hop back in and keep moving.

I really like all of the activities to help the kids know how far/where they've traveled. I'm definitely going to incorporate these into our trip!

 

[wheredreamsbegin]

What about books on tape (or CD). My library has tons but you can also get them on itunes. We're big fans of the Magic Tree House ones (they are read by the author) but maybe classics, like Alice in Wonderland or The Wizard of Oz would be enjoyed by everyone. I think there's a relatively new-ish version of The Wizard of Oz narrated by Anne Hathaway.

This is a great idea! I didn't realize that Magic Tree House had books on tape/CD. My girls all really enjoy the Magic Tree House stories. I will definitely look into this!

 

[Nana2Callie]

We do an 18 hour drive every year for Disney and love the experience. We make a paper chain 18 hours long and tear off a link every hour. Also, we do state line brown paper bags - when we cross state line (5 for us) you get your choice of brown paper bag which includes various items - new movie, pins for trading, disney watch, etc.

 

[jacknsally19]

How about a book on CD for the family to listen too? This is what my parents did with us growing up and now my DH and I generally do it during our long road trips. You can get a lot of books on cd from the library or you can sign up for audible.com The Harry Potter books are very good and book 1 is pretty mild for a 6 year old. You could go with something Disney themed - although I haven't listened to any - like Mary Poppins books or Kingdom Keepers. Or you could download some podcasts from wdwradio. They have Disney Scene Investigation episodes and history episodes. This would get the kids very excited to certain things.

 

[#1 Goofy Fan]

When we drove overnight on way to WDW (17 hours)- kids slept - until we stopped - they didn't know where we were going and anticipation woke them - but coming home we drove during the day during heavy rains on way home - during - movies, books (found out DS gets car sick reading) - video games and organizing pins from trip, etc

One of their favorite things to do is to see how many states they can find license plates from.

Have fun -

 

[minniegirl19]

We will be driving from Cleveland to WDW this summer. It will take us just about 18 hours. I am looking forward to making the drive fun for my DDs 11, 8, and 6. In the past, I have made up a binder for each girl with puzzles (mazes, word searches, crosswords), coloring pages, and blank paper. We listen to music, watch movies, and play the license plate game. I'm planning on using all of those strategies again. I am looking for something else to throw into the mix. I was thinking of having the kids take turns drawing slips of paper from a bag/bucket...one slip for each hour of the trip. I was thinking of putting things like "Choose a Disney character. Give us three clues to help us guess your character." I'd love some other suggestions (I need 18!!!) Any ideas?

I'd appreciate any other ideas too! TIA

I'm from cleveland too! yay! we did the drive once in 2011. the main game we played was going through the alphabet and each person naming a character for each letter! It actually lasts a long time! play it when you get closer to florida though because it starts to build up the anticipation of feeling your almost there!

 

[Gumbo4x4]

The kids play Farkel (dice game) in a shoebox lid.

 

[wheredreamsbegin]

We do an 18 hour drive every year for Disney and love the experience. We make a paper chain 18 hours long and tear off a link every hour. Also, we do state line brown paper bags - when we cross state line (5 for us) you get your choice of brown paper bag which includes various items - new movie, pins for trading, disney watch, etc.

These are FABULOUS, FABULOUS, FABULOUS ideas! Thank you!