Best in car ? toy/tablet for toddler - 3 hour car journey

[recklessgran]

Please can anyone recommend something to help us? We are grandparents to a bright and active DGD 19months - already conversing and very switched on. We are planning a whole family weekend away for her mum's 40th birthday which will entail a 3 hour car journey. We're a bit out of touch these days with toddler toys/tech but we are thinking that a tablet or something on that line might be appropriate for the car journey. Obviously we will plan stops so she can have a little run around but even so we are aware that it's a long time in the car for a little one. Unfortunately she is beginning to drop her daytime nap so little chance of her sleeping on the journey. Please can you recommend your best in car distractions? Many thanks.

We wouldn’t be without the kindle fire for long car/plane journeys - can be picked up quite cheap compared to other tablets and can download plenty of videos if you have Netflix or similar. They do a pretty robust kid proof cover for them as well.

Also, you don’t need the latest version - the earlier ones are obviously cheaper but still do the job if you just want to play videos.

Kindle fire tablets are great but just bear in mind that you cant give it or anything harder than a soft toy to a child to play with in the car as in a crash it could do some serious damage. You can buy crash tested tablet holders though which hook over the back headrest and you can download cartoons or movies so that she can watch them safely :)

Yes - we have a holder which hooks over the headrest.

Agree with the fire with the kid proof cover thing. But you need to download the books and games onto it at home while you have WiFi.

Even though she's dropping her nap I bet she'll be asleep after half an hour.

A little steering wheel with noises gears etc goes down well with our 20 month old.

We use use the iPads we already own with downloads from Netflix or iPlayer

Thanks for all your replies - will start researching for safety - also love the steering wheel idea - she loves Grandad's car so that would be brilliant.

Sorry if I appear a bit thick but can you download for example programmes from CBeebies at home and be able to watch it in the car without WiFi or does that not work?

Yes you can download them on to the tablet for a certain length of time.

What do the parents usually do?

Even if she doesn't usually nap she's unlikely to stay awake for three hours in the car. The movement sends them to sleep.

@Weeds - her mum doesn't drive - obviously we take her out a lot but the furthest we've been with her so far is the petting farm about 40 minutes away. She was fine with that but remembering long journeys with our 5 when they were small I'm trying to get in front of any possible problem. DH is a bit worried about expecting DGD to be good in the car for such a long time and thinks we need to equip ourselves with toys/gadgets specifically for car journeys. [No apologies - I know we're being a bit PFB grand daughter.]

Haha don't worry. My little ones grandparents are totally OTT and regularly forget she has parents who may have already thought of what they want to do first.

So I'm totally projecting