Leaving tomorrow! Tips for the long ride?

[Aidensmommy22]

We will be headed to WDW tomorrow. It will be a 10 hour drive. I decided to make snack boxes with a variety of snacks. I have little sticker books, magnet boards, etch-a-sketch, magnadoodle & DVDs for the ride. Any other tips to keep little boys occupied?

 

[ajwolfe]

Our drive down is around 16 hours, so I feel your pain on this. I always made my kids bags full of treats, new toys or books, movies, etc to ease the time as well as a binder full of activity sheets. They love different versions of bingo or scavenger hunts to do in the car. Make sure everything you want them to have is within and easy reach in the car as well. My kids have always liked to travel with a small blanket and travel pillow in the car. That way they can nap as they want and stay comfortable as they can.

 

[imthemamahere]

Sounds to me like you've already got things planned out pretty well!

My 5 year old loves to play with small toys in the car - things like his little Safari Toob animals, or small superhero figures, etc. Lots of creative play in those.

If you have a spare camera (or iPod that takes pics, etc), you might want to let them take turns using that for a while - let them capture the trip through their eyes.

Safe driving - and have fun!

 

[TeresaMc]

Since you are leaving tomorrow you don't have a lot of time but I made a 3 ring binder for each of my kids (my niece and nephew) They were a bit older(12 & 11) Lots of pages of things to do with dividing tabs for each state we were in. There was activities and facts for that state along with a map with our route marked so they could see where we were. Some activities were educational, some were plain fun. I also got some age appropriate workbooks from Toys R Us and disassembled them and mixed those pages in the binder. Some coloring pages from disassembled coloring books and a few short stories printed out to read.

I also turned on my wifi hotspot on my phone and gave them my kindle and made them seach where we were stopping for lunch, dinner...took at least 30-45 mintues to seach out a Golden Coral and a Denny's

 

[MSSANDRA]

We travel frequently with our 7 year old and for the last couple years, electronics really are about all he really wants. He has an ipad and a DS and sometimes we hand him our phone with a new app of two. He does still like color wonder sets and he likes the crayola magic dough. We spend a ton of time interacting together too. I have the questions out of a kids trivia games and a few of the smart quest packs and we play games with those. We do tons of games like guess the animal, and adapt it to people, WDW rides etc. We read out loud and sing, and look for certain cars etc.

Make the most of your stops. If you stop for fast food. Choose a place with a play area and let them play while you eat and get there food to go. Stop at a rest area and let them run a few minutes. If you stop at cracker barrel, allow a small toy or candy purchase to take with you.

Make snacks fun. Pop Rock candy or jelly belly beans and let everyone guess the flavor they get.

We really find that stopping a lot does not help our little guys. He is a great traveler and just wants to get there too. He is used to an 8 hour trip to family at least once a months and most trips that includes one, 5 minute bathroom/gas stop with one fast food drive through immediately following it. Our plan does not work for everyone though.

 

[mousekatool]

We let them watch movies, but not nonstop during the trip. I bring chapter books that i read aloud to them (last time was Harry Potter, this time we are reading Percy Jackson). Also, lots of books, writing tablets, etc for them to do on their own, games on the iPad, snacks, etc.