Traveling from afar with kids

[Nana2Callie]

I thought there were other threads addressing the subject, but can't find any of them. We are driving 18 hours + with 7 year old and looking for suggestions of all kinds for passing the time and making the travel a fun part of vacation. We have state line suprises ready, movies, coloring and games, what else... Also, how can we help her count down the time to arrival - last year we did stickers on every hour - the less stickers remaining the closer we were to WDW - but they just got every where. Other suggestions?

 

[sam_gordon]

I thought there were other threads addressing the subject, but can't find any of them. We are driving 18 hours + with 7 year old and looking for suggestions of all kinds for passing the time and making the travel a fun part of vacation. We have state line suprises ready, movies, coloring and games, what else... Also, how can we help her count down the time to arrival - last year we did stickers on every hour - the less stickers remaining the closer we were to WDW - but they just got every where. Other suggestions?

You don't say who else is travelling but a couple ideas... license plate bingo (or just keep track of how many different states you see).
The 'Billboard Alphabet Game'... Go through the Alphabet in order, looking for words that start with the letter on billboards & signs (X is EXTREMELY tough... I remember my dad intentionally driving by a hospital on one trip so we could get 'X-Ray').
If you're a triple A member, get a 'Trip Tik' just for the 7yo. They can draw a line in one color on the way there and another on the way back.

 

[Nana2Callie]

2 adults and 7 year old child.

 

[Betty Rohrer]

watch out for melted crayons, we have found that markers and colored pencils work better than crayons as on always seems to get lost and melted. bingo type games of finding signs, certain color car, or certain things we pass as we drive. DVD players for playing movies. we are doing the drive with 3 boys and their mom in aug from Pa. because of med issues will be having to make extra stops,so we add an extra day both down and home.

 

[overthemoon4mickey]

When my kids were small i'd alway bring a bag of presents and let them pick a new present every 30 minutes or so. These were not big expensive giftsbut rather small little tokens like a pack of orange tic tacs or pack of gum, printed color pages and mini markers, or a dollar spot (target) type of toy. I wrapped them in gift paper and put them all in a big ziplock bag. All the toys go back in the bag when done. The clear bag allowed DD or DS to look at the presents and plan which one would be next. This did take a little planning and you could space it out further like say one gift an hour. It really did make the time fly and a lot of the "gifts" were really snacks so that eliminated the need to stop for treats.

Good luck and have a fun trip!