Ok, so what are your tips for peaceful car journeys?

[essbee]

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have mentioned this on a thread before...

friends of ours recommend the following strategy for troublesome kids on a long car journey. start with a large bag of sweets (no wrappers) adn keep up front. every time a child misbehaves, throw one sweet out of the window. they get what's lef at the end of the journey. perhaps one bag per child may even introduce some element of competition!

ds is 13mo so this not entirely appropriate for him yet...

or for older kids - pub sign cricket. loved it when i was a kid. needs A roads, not m-ways tho.

Save all the money given to your kids by Nanny & Grandad etc, and buy a portable DVD player....you can pick one up for £70....worth every penny for a peacefull car journey !

second portable dvd player - best invention ever!

story tapes or CDs. Game boys. Small toys to dole out on an hourly basis....colouring pad and pencils type thing IYSWIM

DS aged 5 is great. Loves his personal CD player and DH has made him a variety of music CDs on the PC. Also he has Pop Junior and various story CDs, Horrid Henry, Gruffalo, Lion King etc.

DD aged 2 is a nightmare and the best possible solution for her is to have her asleep. I am definitely going to try out that handbag idea. Already had in mind to make her up a little photo album because she loves looking at photos.

DVD player is a wonderful machine

I also saw as Usbourne pack today that looked quite interesting here was in ELC

I have also made my own 'bingo' game - by printing out / drawing pics of things to spot

I find that those magic drawing things are the best, the pen is attached so they can't drop it, they never run out of paper etc.

Then Books, singing, little presents etc

I love the map + stickers and handbag ideas. will try those.

we usually travel after 7pm, the dds are more likely to sleep and the traffic is lighter so journeys take less time. we use story tapes/CDs a lot too.

have tried the "sweet every 15 minutes if you're good" trick but it's sort of spoilt by constant discussion of how to tell the time on the clock. i thought this would inspire the dds to tell the time. but it seems not. it just causes them to obsess about sweets.

Excellent idea re the huge handbag full of bits and bobs. Superb - will do this when we have to drive for 2.5 hours each way in 10 days time. However I will have to do two unfortunately.

These ummm portable DVD players - how do you get them installed?

You dont need to get them installed, just get a cheap portable dvd player and then can have it on their lap or on seat. Or for a little bit more you can get a dvd player with 2 screens which you attach with velco to the back of the headrest, just plug each screen into the dvd player and then off you go. Should think you could get one with 2 screens for about £100, ours was £150 a year ago from Woolworths. You can either just charge the battery up, should be good for a film, or plug into the cigarette lighter in the car.

That's helpful jenkel - ta very muchly