5 hour car journey. 5 year old and 3 year old ds's. Ideas please!

[Dottydot]

We're off to Southwold on Saturday - will take about 5 hours to get there. Other than the 'how many red cars' game, and feeding them smarties every 20 minutes, any ideas please for stuff to entertain ds's? It'll be the longest car journey we've done with them and I don't normally stress about stuff like this, but am getting a bit anxious they're going to drive me doo-lally...

Spooky Dotty!

You also want to plan the journey in terms of stops...

if I had to drive 5 hours i'd get up and out as early as possible (breakfast in car?)

drive as long as possible without stopping (3 hours?)

stop for decent length (early lunch and play)...we recently had a fantastic hour on Bamburgh beach to break up a journey from Central Scotland to Newcastle)

drive another hour and stop for a wee treat like a magazine or chocolate

do the last hour (whatever you do IME this hour will be the killer!)

I have a 4 year old ds and story CDs and a magazine to look at (or the ELC catalogue) are great in cars!

It'll be fine!

Yes, I think we're starting out straight after breakfast and will stop somewhere for lunch where they can hopefully have a run around. It'll be the bit after lunch that's the killer...

I'm getting quite excited now planning a party bag each for them - with time consuming, silent things in to keep them occupied - any suggestions very welcome!

do them a car bingo card
they have to spot say( you do pics of)

a cow

aplane/helicopter

|FORU caravans

a high viz jacket

a fmaily rowing in a car

a shoes on the side of the road

Was tempted to suggest sedatives but cod's idea is ethically superior.

yeahbutnobutyeahbutnobut, I already suggested cod's idea!

Story tapes - Horrid Henry goes down well with mine across the ages, but especially adored by the 3 year old.

Give them a pile of 10p bits and every time they say "are we there yet" they have to give one back.

Might be a bit young for this actually.

Hilarious Clary - I'll try that this summer!

it's actually a tip borrowed from a pal with a 9yo and a 6yo, more like the age it would work I think.

Yup, I've got a 9, 6 and 3 y old. Perfect for the long haul to Cornwall! Icecream money..

I do the bingo card thing. Theme is always cars - makes and models.

DS loves it.

DD scribble on it and is happy.

These are brilliant ideas - thanks. So far I've got:

Hopefully a laptop from work - so at least 1 DVD each way.

Car bingo - love it, and gives me something to do in the evenings this week...

Love the bran tub in the car idea - presents they can dip into each hour - will need to source a few cheap and cheerful things from the local pound/charity shops.

Food box each.

Tray each with pencils, paper, colouring in books.

Will have to phone in sick this week I think - no time to go to work with all this lot to prepare!

are we neeeeeeeeearly there yet?

the 10p thing is GENIUS! (I am collecting 10ps as we speak for our next trip to cornwall...)

We found a map of the route helpful from about age 4. Covered it in clear plastic. Did drawings on it of landmarks (like Stonehenge) and gave her a sheet of small stickers.

She stuck the stickers along the route showing how far we'd gone. Gave her a good idea of rate of progress. She still loves doing it at 8

my pre-reading dd "invented" a colour "I spy" game, i.e. I spy etc something that is......RED." That may kill a few minutes if everyone joins in.

Mine have usually eaten all the sandwiches Granny has neatly packed in two Tupperwares by the time we board the car ferry. This is within a 5 minute drive from her house. So we do the timed-release parcel idea with food too.

Mine still like Leapsters, they are much better than Leappads.

In-car DVD player is good, but can make them feel sick on back roads - OK for motorways. Mine need to look out of the window alot, so the spotting games and I Spy are good.

Also spotting number sequences in car registration plates to count upwards and backwards..to 9.

Or go early in the morning so they an nap for a hour, same late at night.

I get them to pack a little bag with their own chosen toys in it to keep them going.

OK - we're off tomorrow and although I didn't manage to get hold of a laptop or DVD, I've just made the BEST car bingo sheets ever. Have got 1 present each for the boys to open in the car and they'll each have a tuck box with food.

That should all occupy them for at least 10 minutes...

Sending your boys sleep-filled vibes, so you can save all your stuff for the journey home...

Leapsters were our best buy!