Jun
19
Long car trips can be challenging even for adults. The scenery can seem changeless for hours on end and can make the most patient people slightly irritable…. Our last car trip to Surfside Beach, SC for a family vacation was about 5 to 6 hours each way. This really isn’t that bad (it could have been 12 hours…) but with a 7 year and 14 year old we planned out quite a bit to try to make it a bearable trip. Realize that you should consider the personality of your children in planning activities for a long trip, every child is different and some things may work for a longer stretch than others.
First off, our oldest likes to read so he had several books packed as well as crayons or markers and paper. In many ways he’s just arriving at the age where he is relatively easy to entertain on the road. Our youngest though at 14 months is a tougher sell. Fortunately he slept some, but his Mom had carefully planned a bag of tricks with some of his favorite toys that we could progressively bring out (including an Elmo and Grover hand puppet.) When those tricks were wearing thin we had some veggietales music that we could pull out that passed a couple hours of entertainment. By that time we were over-vegged and ready for something different. I had prepared a few cartoons (Scooby Doo) on the laptop for them to watch which carried us the last leg of the trip (and through some of the worst sit still traffic jam I’ve seen in a good while.)
Some suggestions to keep in mind are to save your flashiest tricks until last. For instance, the video was the very last item in our list because our kids really could have watched that the whole trip…. (aaaauuuugggghhhhh….)
Mixing things up is also a good idea. And don’t forget those road games like looking for signs that start with the letters of the alphabet, or looking for license plates from different states. These are especially good with older children (and can even keep an adult from getting too vegg-ed out.)
One last thought to keep in mind is to remember to stop frequently and take advantage of the large green spaces that so many rest areas have to let the kids run around a bit and burn off that pent up energy. Try to plan out your travels so that you don’t feel as though you’ve got to push on and hurry to get to your destination by a certain time. GIve yourself plenty of time and realize you’ll get there WHEN you get there and it will really be more fun for everyone if you take your time and can take breaks to stay fresh along the way.