Long car journey - ideas please?!

[arfur]

We are taking DD 6 and DS 4 to Alton Towers on Weds and it is approx 3.5 hours from our house. DD gets car sick although not to badly so need ideas for entertaining them which mainly involve looking out of the window. I am quite patient but cant imagine 3.5 hours of i-spy particularly as ds is not good at sticking to the rules which winds dd up no end and leads to arguments. Did someone on here once say there was a website where you could print off a list of things to look out for on your journey or did I dream that? I could do it myself from route planner but will take ages and wont be any good for ds as hes not reading yet. HELP please!

I put my DD in teh middle of the back seat (it has a proper seatbelt in the middle) and she gets less sick - also have those wristbands which really do work (believe it or not!)

We play a game called spotted. I'll start and say something like a red car, a lamp-post and a lorry and she is quiet for ages until she sees them! When you see one, you say "red car spotted" etc and whoever sees all three first is the next one to say what to look for.

Does that make sense?

We also play a game where we think of something and hte others take it in turns to ask Qs about it "is it an animal?", "does it live on a farm?" etc.

Quite boring for the adults after the 50th go, but it does keep mine entertained!

HTH

I've got some great story tapes. I can recommend Joanna Lumbley reading Red Eyes at Night by Micheal Morpurgo. There are also some great BBC story tapes including Winnie the Pooh with an all star British cast. eg. Jeffrey Palmer as Eyeore (who else?), Stephen Fry as Pooh and Judy Dench as Kanga.

Otherwise we play a game (good for travel sickness) which involves someone choosing something to look for (eg. a man with a dog, a caravan, a post box ect) and everyone has to keep looking until someone sees it. Then that person gets to choose the next thing to look for.

Your game sounds the same as mine spidermama, but I'm mean and make them look for 3 takes them longer

Oh thanks we have a similar game first person to spot a horse etc. MamaG thanks for the wristband idea I have some of those which I used for morning sickness but have never tried them on DD as didnt think to but will dig them out now

We sing.. he mentions a word and we adapt a song to have that word as it's subject. We all end up laughing with that.

I tell DS stories, and if I want him to go asleep just get into endless detail about the things in the story.

Don't give them sweets of any kind before and during the trip (that also include fruit juices) and they will be calmer.

Mine wear those fantastic sickbands on their wrists... really work. No reading books or looking out of side windows..makes it worse.
Borrow a dvd player off someone or buy it ...just done it ourselves for 8 hr journey what a godsend !

sitting in the front seat really helps car sickness - I suffer from it too. As does keeping the car cool - the first hint of stuffiness and I feel worse. I don't know if it's true for your DD but if I have a long bout of car sickness I sometimes still have it when I get out of the car at the end of the journey - can make arriving less fun than it should be. Would you consider stopping somewhere for a cup of tea, bun, walk about etc? Not sure of your route but there might be somewhere half way which would suit. I know it would slow you down but it might be worth it.

Where do you get the sickbands mrsnoah? And how do they work?

Er I think we got them from Boots. Bright orange very elasticated and tight with a nobbly plastic bit on inside which sits on a pressure point. Dont ask me how but they truly work. Lots of people I know swear by them too.

oh and they arent uncomfortable, mine think they are cool

Wow! Thanks mrsNoah. I'll putt them on my holiday shopping list.

on long car journeys we often do a count between the long haul lorries - Eddie Stobart Vs Norbert lorries. Make one of the kids count the Stobarts and the other the Norbert and see who wins (and if that will cause a problem, as you get nearer, miraculously pretend you've seen however many of the type of lorry that is behind and announce it is a draw)

I think we have the same ones MrsNoah - def get some arfur, they're fab.

Am off to buy some today as cant find the pair I had anywhere thanks very much will let you know if they work on dd - fingers crossed!

Something we did as kids and now do with my own which is an extention of the spotting things game. Make cards with a few different things on, pictures are best, such as cow, letter box, red car etc (need to be a bit more inventive if on the motorway). We have about 9 things per card with an even distribution of easy and hard things to spot. Cross them off as you spot them. Win a sweet (or whatever) when you get a line, something else for a full house.

You can print off car bingo on cbeebies website. Its under the Balamory area under Edie Mcreedie. The children can tick off the pictures as they see them. Ok so long as they dont suffer with car sickness.

Just wanted to say a massive thankyou for the sea bands tip we had the first ever long journey without dd being sick and was so relieved - until dd lost one of them between the car and the hotel grrr. Not even five minutes into the journey home and I feel sick so after one petrol station one trip to Tesco and finally success at a pharmacy in Stafford bought another set and again got all the way home with no sickness. Cant tell you how impressed we all were so thanks so much. Dont know how I'd manage without Mumsnet sometimes!