Entertaining in the car

[khunter]

I need some ideas for keeping my two boys, 6 and 3, entertained in the car on the way down to Disney. We leave in 22 days and everyone is starting to get excited. But we are driving from Western Kentucky and I am just a little worried about the kids getting bored in the car.

[deedeenmickey]

We leave our house at like 4 am so they sleep several hours before we deal with it. Then we take the portable DVD players and video games. Either way stop enough to stretch the legs and have snacks and drinks and trash bags.

I hope you have a great time! Our kids are teenagers now and believe it or not I miss those times in the car with the whole family.

[ibelieveindisneymagic]

We've driven to Disney a few times with DD, now 10. Our "tricks" include:

1. making sure that she understood that the trip was a very long one, so she was ready for it.

2. taking a backpack packed with stuff for her to do. This included colouring, small crafts, travel games, etc. She was involved with packing it up, but we slipped some surprises in too!

3. We left super-early (between 4am and 5am), so she slept for the first couple of hours of the trip, and then some time was taken with breakfast (while driving...cereal bars, juice, etc).

4. We have a bit of a "funny" rule! She has a portable DVD player, but she can't watch it until the afternoon. That way, when she's starting to get a bit tired of travelling, and we're getting a bit cranky too, she has something "special" to do. Once we get the DVD player out, we're good for hours! (we bring TONS of DVD's for her to watch, again, some favourites and some new ones).

5. We don't actually stop all that much, but we do take advantage of the rest stops and run in for bathroom breaks.

6. It takes us two-days to drive to Disney, so we always have a hotel booked that is just a bit far, so we do the super-long drive on the first day, so it is a relatively short trip to Disney the next day...that seems to help us and DD, she knows she only has to deal with it for one day!

Have a great trip

[cmsizzlin]

DVD player is a big saver. We have driven down to WDW from Chicago the last 2 years and driving down again in August w/an 8, 7 and coming 2yr old. The girls are really pretty good on long trips but we make sure that we have our Nintendo DS', Plenty of DVD's and this year I got some childrens stories on Audio CD. We will leave around 9:00 at night so hopefully they will sleep through the night. We pack plenty of snacks and we stop every couple of hours (when we need fuel) and let them stretch their legs. I found this canvas desk top thing at Wal-Mart last year for around $9.00 and it holds books, coloring books and their personal stuff and hangs on the seat in front of them and opens into a desk, it has definitely served its purpose more than once. I buy the craoyla kits that only mark on crayola paper.

[barnaby]

We did the trip last year with my 7YO son. He had his Nintendo DS, the portable DVD player, and we played games like how many different state license plates can we find.

[GoofyforFun]

Al the above are great. For any road trip !
We play travel bingo..there is a little board game which you need to find different things that you see along the way. A good movie seems to take the time the best..
Travel Safe!

[sisterslovindisney]

Also, our kids love storyteller cd's. You can also find books on cd/tape at your local library. Its a nice change from movies and the kids usually love listening to stories.

[ransam]

my family use to drive to disney and we would take a note book, and see how many different state license plates we could find....i never realized until later that it was the perfect way to keep us kids quiet too. we were so busy looking at passing cars that we didn't talk.

[#1donaldfan]

...we're about 12 hours out....

...we leave about 3 / 4 am, with the kids staying up all night, no sleeping (their idea years ago)....they will sleep several hours into the trip, wake for lunch, watch a couple video's, play PSP, DS, whichever they have, nap....never too much complaining.....once we get to our destination, usually just outside Disney property, they're wide awake, ready for a pool and dinner....then the next morning very early we check in and start our vacation...

[coloradowendyl]

Our family has this very weird game that has always kept the kids amused: we have a Walmart truck counting contest by day! Everyone puts down a number of trucks that they think they will see and then we watch for trucks! First person to spy a new truck gets the point! We did a month long cross country trip when my kids were much younger and this kept them pretty busy! Record for one day was 87 trucks going from Syracuse, NY to Boston!

Also, pipe cleaners....the big jumbo package from Walmart! You can make all kinds of things from them and the best part is that they can take them apart and build new things with them. A large package of colored ones is about $2.

Wendy

[Princess'Mom]

We do many of the above items mentioned for car entertainment.

I pack a craft bag for DD7. She doesn't know what it holds until we are well on our way. I go to the dollar store and stock up on stickers, new notebooks, coloring/activity books, crayons, markers, etc. That bag keeps her entertained for hours!

On a side note - markers can be a good thing and a bad thing. On our way home from WDW, DD was awfully quiet in the backseat. I turned around and discovered that she had 'tatooed' her arms with a blue marker! It was funny to see the reactions of the patrons at the crowded C-store when she went to the restroom to wash her arms!

[FourMsMom]

When our 4 were much younger we drove twice. Colorforms were a huge hit with the 3 yr old. He sat in his car seat for hours and moved the dalmations all over the window next to him.
The key for us was having something new to distract them every few hours or so. We left very early. They slept for several hours. We stopped for breakfast but let the kids run around while my DH sat, ate and read the paper. When everyone was recharged we got back in the car and fed the kids. Make sure to have plenty of trash bags.
We did books on tape, I Spy w/My Little Eye, the Alphabet and Liscence plate games. Only after all of that was exhausted did we open up the video players. The longer you can hold them off the more the driver will enjoy the quiet.

[jrkcr]

I print out "bingo" from the internet, just do a search for them. We get the ones that have the pictures of different cars, and trucks, and also I have found one that had farm animals and tractors. We have passed out the papers to each kid to see who gets all of them first, but I like to look as a family and fill out each paper bingo card together. When the card is finished, everyone gets a snack.

And I buy crayola markers made for glass, and the kids draw and write on the outside of their windows. When we stop for bathroom breaks, they wipe off the drawings and do it again. Even older "kids" like these.

Magna doodle. No melted crayons or marks on the seats!

And we always play "name that tune" humming disney movie music.

[Iteachpc]

When my kids were small we made several trips across the country from Florida to Texas and Colorado to visit family and friends. I would put together a bag of goodies before we left that had special treats in it that I would pull out every so often. Items I included were small toys, craft items, books, special snacks, etc. Nothing was very expensive...dollar store items, clearance stuff and inexpensive items. I rationed the surprises so that when the kids got antsy I had a "new" distraction.

Now we have DVD player in the car so that occupies my teens.

[Euby]

I suggest picking up "52 Fun Things to Do in the Car". It's a deck of cards that has activities and games that everyone can participate in. It can found at most bookstores and always on Amazon.

[TheVBs]

Great suggestions here! Our girls tend to get motion sickness, so they can't look at a book or coloring book while driving or they'll... . But we do play I Spy, and a story game where we all take turns adding to the story. We do make a handful of stops along the way (2 day trip for us) so we can all stretch our legs, hit the bathroom, etc.

[DANAM]

We also leave around 4 am and it take about 10 hrs to get to Disney. The DVD player is wonderful. We normally can get about 4 hours on the road before the kids are up. We stop about that time for potty break and get the DVD's going. After about 2 movie's they start getting crazy so we stop and eat, strech, and potty. When we get back in the car I pull out my bag of tricks. Toys they have never seen before. I spy games, magnet toys and now they make mini games that are perfect for the car. Then I pray we get there before they start going nuts from being in the car too long. I also save disney park maps for them too look at.

[g8rgirl29]

For long car trips we always have a mini magna doodle, color wonders with the coloring books and a doodle pad too(they won't put color on anything but the color wonder paper) and an extra large lego block(block upside down) to hold the markers in so I don't have to crawl around in a packed car looking for markers/crayons that have rolled off, dvd movies, snacks, a few surprise toys, books on tape- especially any folk stories by Donald Davis(you will enjoy as much as the kids), Disney songs on an mp3 player or cd's, and a definite must for those emergency potty breaks Potette on the go potty(found at amazon or toys r us). We always plan stops at restaurants with play yards so she can run off steam(Chick-fil-A has indoor play areas).

[GottaLvDisney]

A lot of the things we do have already been mentioned: DVDs for the ride, coloring books, DS w/games, magnetic creations (the kids can create scenes, etc... they can be found at Walmart). We also have the travel bingo games & some other car games that we got at Cracker Barrel one year.

I keep all of these in a box and only bring them out for long car rides (except the DS) so the kids love it when they get to play with them again.

We drive from SC which is only about an 8 hr drive, but we like to leave on Friday & drive to Savannah which is about half way, and then drive the rest on Saturday. We leave early enough to pick up our park tickets and hit MK in time for lunch.

[kemps@wdw]

HEY, fellow Kentuckian! We live in Western Kentucky also, and have driven every trip, but 2 since our DD was 5. She is now 16 and we are planning our 16 trip for this coming Oct. And boy, have travel entertainment options come a long way over the years! Ours is happy now w/her cell phone and her Ipod. And, of course, this year she'll be driving!! But when she was younger, we took color books, hand-held electronic games, portable dvd players, and the travel-size board games. Be sure to pack a small cooler w/drinks and snacks that you can keep handy. We also left around 2:30 - 3 am so she would sleep as long as possible and we could get good road time, and stopped @ several rest areas along the way to stretch her little legs.(preferably someplace w/a small playground) and work off some energy. And a few years back we stopped @ a rest area in GA and a guy was there cooking and selling BBQ. Now, of course it wasn't what we're used to here in KY, but it was pretty good!
Any way, I'm getting off topic..Sorry. Hope ya'll have a Magical journey!