No more "I spy" and "are we there yet"? Tips on surviving car trips please?

[supadoula]

DD (5) and DS(3) are ...mmm... very lively on car journeys and I got on the verge of losing my sanity during our last 4 hour car trip!
We are crossing over to France for Xmas and I would be grateful if clever Mners could help me with wonderful, amusing, distracting, funny but not too exciting games they play with their DCs on long car trips! THANKS!

I would recommend this

lol at RG2.With oramorph chasers afterward :O

We play the "Count how many red cars/blue cars/Eddie Stobart lorries/car transporters you can spot.(Yawn)

We play the "first one to spot something game" One person chooses two things to spot then everyone sits very quietly looking for them

Play 'Spot the yellow car'

When going to France, we play 'spot the cars the same as ours [a Citroen so very good for counting up to 100!]'. When this palls, we sing along with Kirsty McColl - by the age of 4, BoccaBaby was word perfect on There's A Guy Works Down The Chip Shop Swears He's Elvis and was delighted by the rude words in Fairy Tale of New York.

mmm.... yes, singing certainly keeps them happy! Our current songs are Mika's Lollipop and "I want a hippopotamus for Xmas"!
RG2, is the injection for me or the DCs??? Can you have it on prescription?

They may be a bit young, but DH had ours in hysterics playing the number plate game - make up a phrase from the 3 letters on a numberplate. To be fair he did most of the making up and displayed an uncanny talent for it

Story CDs go down well too.

Unfortunately, my DH is not very talkative while driving, which makes the job a lot harder for me! I might get some short stories from the library. It could stop them bickering for a little bit!

Lots of people buy portable DVDs for them - but we are still plodding on with old fashioned boring car journeys, so resort to:

1. Top trumps

1. Portable radios, with earphones, or MP3 players, with stories and music uploaded.

1. Pencils and paper. It's one of the few times they really spend time drawing, rather than colouring.

1. We also have a set of cards which we can dole out. You could just print your own -

an electricity pylon
a person riding a horse
a red car
a police car
a train
a hotel (should strictly be an hotel, I think?!)
a motorbike
a farm
etc, etc. Make the cards look smart, shuffle them, then give ten to each child. The winner is the one to have found the most by the time you say stop. . .

1. I ask them to name things eg:

3 ways of getting about, beginning with L
4 animals, beginning with S
5 ways of having fun, beginning with T
3 things I like to eat, beginning with J etc etc

6 Regular snack breaks.

1. Alphabets - eg eye spy alphabet. You have to find something beginning with a, then b, then c etc. Set a family record for how quickly you can complete the alphabet.

1. Car registration alphabet. Find the letter a on a car registration number. Then b, then c

1. Favourite food alphabet . . .

10 Make a long list of all the types of car you see. I was soooo unimpressed when dh suggested this one, but we all started to get ridiculously excited once the list got past 50 types . . .

Oh and then occasionally we shout at them. Loudly. And make them stare out of the window for 5 minutes in silence. Then they appreciate our games more!

Fantastic, Notquitegrownup, as we are def low tech, I shall shamelessly steal some of your ideas. Particularly the cars as DS (3) can play as well!

Usborne books do a pack of cards called "100 things for small children to do on car journeys" or similar. You get a dry-wipe pen with it and a big stack of double sided wipe-clean cards. Lots of spot the difference, draw a picture of xyz, fill in the blanks etc. My 5 yo DD loves them. DD2 is only 2 so too young but reckon your 3yo might like them. Well worth the £5 they cost in my opinion. (NB - I would hand out one at a time otherwise they'd have ended up scattered all over the car)

portable dvd player.... and headphones