Travel games for 5 year olds???

[Bear Necessities]

Good luck and have alot of fun. We just got back on Tuesday from a trip to SanDiego this was an 18 hr trip on day one and 12 hrs on day two (stopped by the Grand Canyon). We have three children 12, 6, and 3 and they all stayed very busy never complained. HONEST. we bought a backseat organizer for each child with thier fav character on it hello kitty, tweety, mickey mouse. and filled it with crayon books, plain paper, the books for the color wonder markers for the younger two and bought each one a pack of crayons that twist up. got them at walmart for 1.97 never melted or had any problems with them at all even in the Mohave Desert. we did have a dvd player and had planned this in advance so we joined the disney dvd club and got several new dvds we didnt previously have so this was a new surprise for them, and of course the gameboys. Each child had their own headphones to listen on the cd player or to plug into the dvd player and game boys so like a previous poster said the noise didnt drive us bonkers. we started a collection for each of the kids and purchased a photo book that has the 4x6 pockets in them and bought a post card in each state we were in so that the kids can collect these for themselves over the years. we stopped every 3 hours and this worked out great. we pirnted off copys of the map of the USA from Moms Minivan site and then played lisence plate scavenger hunt, whenever we saw a plate from another state we colored it in and got all but about 10 nstates alot of fun. Enjoy your trip The kids had a great time and for our family the driving part was more than half the fun.

 

[jrydberg]

The folks who make Leap Pads also make a handheld "Leapster" that my daughter loves. It's sort of a game boy kinda thing with educational games that are geared towards the 4-7 year old age group. That's enough to keep her happy through 6 hours of flights to get to her mom's. Might not be of help this time, but perhaps something to bear in mind for Christmas/birthday present.

 

[Chrissi Pooh]

You guys are awesome!!! I never even thought of half the things you have all listed!!!!

We will have plenty of music and I will plan on using quite a few of these ideas that have been mentioned. This the first major trip we have made and unfortunatly my dd and I will be the only ones in the car so no one else to distract her but it will be lots of one on one which will be great also.

Alot of you have mentioned the dvd player but that definitly is not in my budget so I will have to rely on the crafty end of things!!

Thank you all so much, this trip will be alot more fun just because of all the fun things to do in the car!!!!

 

[snoopy]

I can't believe Julie is 5 now Chrissi! Gosh how time flies.

I wouldn't consider getting in a car for anything more than an hour without my kids gameboys. Those things are a godsend. Drew is 5 1/2 and we got him one for Christmas, he took to it rather quickly. If you don't have one, you might consider making the purchase. We also always keep a travelling checker board in the trunk, its one of those where the pieces are magnetic. And then if all else fails, we either sing (my parents did this with us and I've passed it on to my boys) or play games like finding all 50 states from license plates.

Hope you have a good road trip, Chrissi!