Seat back entertainment

[StiffyByng]

We’re facing some long drives round the UK this summer and I’m finally contemplating some sort of seat back entertainment in the car as there is no bearing that amount of I-Spy and my children are so ruined by screens now that a bit more will make no difference.

Has anyone got any recommendations for brands/arrangements that have worked for them?

On long coach trips growing up we had an activity pack (used to get them in cheap shops.. think Poundland still do them) had dot to dot book, colouring, puzzle, notepad .

Great one was notepad and let the pencil draw on the paper, hold the pencil loosely on the paper and the movement of the coach made a picture .

What devices do you have already?

If the answer is none and you don't want to invest heavily then an Amazon Kindle Fire is a cheap tablet that allows you to add an SD card and download a load of tv shows or films from Amazon prime, bbc etc

I don't rate the Fire highly for speed when it comes to web browsing or gaming but as a tool to read books or watch TV it does the job well and is reasonably cheap and easy to use.

Do bear in mind though that if they're not used to watching screens in a moving car, you are more likely to experience travel sickness when watching a screen and that would not make for an enjoyable journey!

my kids get car-sick from reading / screens in the car.

so it is audio books all the way - if your car audio connects to your phone, then you can have an audible subscription & get lots of books for the journey.

Hi. We’ve got a family iPad and a Kindle Fire for my eldest. Audible causes fights as they all have different tastes - long experience of that. So I wanted to throw in the towel and just get something each of them could watch with wireless headsets. One child would find puzzle books etc fun, the others not, so we will have a range of things in our arsenal, but I have got to the turning to tech point frankly.

So I was thinking of things you put on the back of seats.

None of them is car sick any more thankfully. They have sometimes looked at screens for short periods while moving without any issues.

Sounds like you've got everything you need with an iPad and a kindle then. Preload them with loads of downloads so you don't need an internet connection. I'd probably go with wired headsets rather than wireless just so you don't have to deal with the earbuds running out of charge. They won't be more than a meter from the device so the cords should be long enough.

You can get carriers that sit on the back of the seat that you just put the device in or they can hold them. Make sure you have chargers that can be used in the car or buy some portable power bank things that you precharge just to keep them going.

If either is a fan of Lego I saw a great idea where you get a plastic briefcase style bag/box like the kind that Playmobil sets come in. Hot glue gun a base Lego mat to the outside of the case then fill the case with Lego bits so they can build on the go.

I’ve got three! So not enough. Also the Kindle Fire has virtually no memory and I’ve given up trying to get a memory card to work, so can’t download anything. I’m also trying to wean them off games so ideally don’t want anything they can use for anything but watching. But that may be the only modern option realistically.

Sorry, that probably all constitutes a drip feed. But if I rephrase my question as ‘I’ve got three kids, can’t bear any more constant arguing, does anyone have experience of cheap technology that I can use so they can each watch something different on car journeys’?! The answer may be similar but I suppose in my old fashioned way I was thinking about mini DVD players or similar. Is that just tired and over now?

Lego sounds fun but wouldn’t divert for long sadly.

We used to have a holder for our family iPad that went middle in between driver and passenger seats so they could both watch it. We'd make a big thing of them picking the films to download together before a big trip. They didn't always have the exact same taste but always managed to negotiate enough films or series to download and everyone was happy on many a long journey. It was something like this https://www.amazon.co.uk/Headrest-Adjustable-Positions-Rotation-HRMOUNTPRO/dp/B0148WQKNQ/ref=ascdff_B0148WQKNQ/?tag=googshopuk-21&linkCode=df0&hvadid=309903005216&hvpos=&hvnetw=g&hvrand=16246340063598457980&hvpone=&hvptwo=&hvqmt=&hvdev=m&hvdvcmdl=&hvlocint=&hvlocphy=1006628&hvtargid=pla-378617882806&psc=1&th=1&psc=1

Both my kids have kindle fires (secondhand off eBay) they both are 32gbs and 8inch screen cost around the £40 mark. Before leaving in a journey I down load a couple of films (different films for each as they have very different preferences) same with audible different books as they like different stories and I put music on their (very easy to transfer music from laptop on to the kindles). They do have very old iPod touches too, and again they have a selection of films/ books and music (but coz the touches are ancient I had to use my laptop to load up the touches .... iPod touch 1st generation 32gb can be got off eBay for under a tenner!

On their kindles that should read!

I looked into car DVD players and honesty the price wasn't too much from buying an Amazon fire. Especially if you want 2 or even 3 so they have a brand new one each?

How old is the youngest?

My brother in law uses his old iPhone and has filled it it ITunes films / audio songs
For his 4 year old rather than them having a full device. With no SIM card the 4 year old is unable to access internet or make any calls (too young to configure WiFi!) so it's been a safe bet for his youngest.

Thanks, all. I am reluctant to get everyone Fires as we are drowning under screen time here but I can see it makes sense. I am put off because I find the one we do have so hard to use - genuinely I can’t work out very well what profile is which and where things live and how you move them around (how is Amazon so successful?), so I can’t face the thought of three of the fuckers. But perhaps old mini iPads if I can find them or similar?

Warning about the car sickness.

My youngest was ok in cars then did journey with a screen -about 45mins she was sick without warning. Said she didn't really feel sick. Clearly the motion thing in her brain.

We aren't doing screens anymore and that's for sure.!

Audible and the library app for audio books all the way !