Comments on: Traveling With Children

By: Meredith

Meredith — Thu, 06 May 2010 01:17:56 +0000

We have driven from Los Angeles to Boston and back, and done a western states loop. Both trips lasted 5 weeks, and we pulled a travel trailer. We play almost of the games already mentioned, but we also like to listen to audio books. We listened to Island of the Blue Dolphins crossing the southwest, and Huck Finn crossing the Mississippi River. We listened to Where the Red Fern Grows crossing the Ozark Plateau, and numerous other classics.

By: Rachel McTague

Rachel McTague — Tue, 04 May 2010 15:22:28 +0000

Yes, they are fun games. When we traveled when I was a child (with two sisters and a brother), we used to play categories too. Also, traveling across the country one summer we tried to see who could spot license plates from the most states. Another fun way to pass the time was to look at houses along the way and assign them to one of our siblings–There’s Teddy’s house.

By: StephB

StephB — Mon, 03 May 2010 18:24:11 +0000

When I was growing up, we would try to count how many American flags there were from the start to finish of the trip.

By: DeputyHeadmistress

DeputyHeadmistress — Sat, 01 May 2010 22:31:43 +0000

These are great ideas- some of these are games our family loves, too (The Minister’s Cat! We’ve never met anybody else who played!), and Hey, Cow sounds hilarious.
Amy, we’ve also packed jump ropes and sidewalk chalk to play jump rump and hopscotch at rest stops, and we’ve held races during our rest stops. Several other good (and new to us) games here- thanks!!

By: Shannon

Shannon — Sat, 01 May 2010 14:53:42 +0000

We spend 3 days each way traveling to visit family at least once a year. We take drawing materials, books, crochet projects(my 8 year learned this year in the car). We have other smallish toys that must fit into one plastic bin with a lid, snacks and drinks, and our two small dogs.
We do have a DVD player my mom bought us a few years ago, but I only allow 3 movie’s a day, the choices include Vegetales, and Leapfrog learning DVD’s, as well as some holiday and Disney flicks, we talk about the movies as well.
Not the most frugal, but I do limit the use of the DVD player to the long trips.

By: Darleen

Darleen — Sat, 01 May 2010 05:00:34 +0000

We listened to Stories of Great Christians from Moody, Focus on the Family Radio Theatre, Jonathan Park (Vision Form). Drawing with magnadoodles or Etch Sketches, playing Rush Hour (Timberdoodle). Some family members prefer crocheting or drawing. Read MANY books!

By: Stacy

Stacy — Sat, 01 May 2010 04:47:36 +0000

We played the categories game, or read. Or colored. My parents usually stuck a small tv between the front seats and would sometimes put on a video, but not for an entire long drive (we did several long road trips when I was a kid). After a certain point we did have walkmans or cd players or game boys, but none of us listened to them all the time- mostly if we were driving through the night and it was too dark to read.

By: Roxie Meiske

Roxie Meiske — Sat, 01 May 2010 01:44:50 +0000

Something else we did was use a metal sheet cake pan to hold on their lap. This holds game pieces, colors, etc. on their lap. It is also a magnet holder..These slide under the front seat too when not in use.

By: caryn verell

caryn verell — Fri, 30 Apr 2010 22:57:41 +0000

only had one child, but…as a newborn he traveled from mississippi to washington d.c. in my lap on a king size pillow. at 6mos. he traveled in a car seat and had a traveling babysitter we hired to entertain and change diapers etc…when it came to weaning from the bottle all it took was a road trip and one six pack of ready to use bottles from the drugstore..when the last bottle was gone he was weaned…as he grew we played many roadtrip games like the liscense plate game etc…that were not only entertaining but taught skills in reading, writing, arithmetic etc… kids today are just like kids yesterday…nothing to do? where there is a shoebox and imagination there will be something for them.

By: More Style Than Cash

More Style Than Cash — Fri, 30 Apr 2010 17:23:45 +0000

We always use to play the alphabet game where you tried to find all the letters of the alphabet from A to Z and we would do it backwards from Z to A. We would also play color games where some one would chose a color and we would have to find 10 items of that color in the surrounding traffic or signs. Twenty questions was also really popular. When they were very little I would bring two of their small toys and turning slightly from the front seat I would do a puppet show for them and then give them their toys. They would continue the puppet show together, sometimes for the rest of the trip.