Young DCs and long car journey. How do you keep them busy?

[javotte]

Hello! We are going on our first holiday in 4 years next Saturday. DS is 5 and DD is 2.8, and I am dreading the 300-mile journey. The DCs have never been in a car for more than an hour. They tend to be sick so no books, DVDs or video games. Any ideas to entertain them are welcome!

Audiobooks.

At that age our favourite was paddington bear by Stephen Fry.
There is a good pooh bear one too. Also has Stephen Fry I think.

1. Drive overnight, or mostly in the evening? Alternatively just accept that you are going to have to stop frequently and take about twice as long as you thought was reasonable.

1. Story tapes - try the library, or borrow from friends, as audiobooks are knickerwettingly expensive. We didn't get into these until quite late so ours were older age books. Biscuit Bear by Mini Grey is one that's great though. Take a big selection or you will want to commit harakiri by the end.

1. The person in the passenger seat needs a sack of goodies between their legs which they throw pass back at regular intervals. Snacks, duplo animals, squeaky toys, anything you can find round the house.

1. Lots of singing. Christmas carols can be good.

My two are easily amused with games like spotting various animals, counting green cars (or whatever). Can usually guarantee a couple of hours sleep from the younger one and sometimes the older one as well (I make sure to wear them out before travelling). Have done several 5-6 hr journeys with them without the aid of technology and even talking books have only been kept for emergencies. (They do give you a bit of peace though!).

Playing games like I Spy or "Guess what I am thinking" takes up a lot of time, although is tiring for the adult involved! How about getting lots of little toys - could be a combination of things they already own and new little bits from pound shop/charity shop, then wrap them up in old magazines - hey presto, presents to unwrap. My 3.5 yr old likes audiobooks, I would recommend the Just So stories, good for adults too.

We drove to Cornwall when dd1 was 3 and dd2 was a baby, and then to North Wales. I bought various stocking-filler type toys to produce at intervals. Best ones were small figures, toy cars, a ball that lit up (endless amusement), squishy rubbery lizards and so on.

It's good to take pillows and fleecy blankets so they can sleep. I also take water to sip and a huge huge picnic of bland things to munch like carrots, cucumbers, apples, rice cakes, oatcakes, sandwiches (plus a few treats such as fruit, a packet of crisps etc to be produced when all else fails). Mine are less likely to be sick if they are nibbling and looking out the window.

We also take a few books on cd, good classical music (we have ballet music cds and Peter and the Wolf etc) and a dreadful kids song cd that dh can only stand for so long. And we play games like 'spot the gold car' for ten points, awful I-spy etc. Plus sing when I can face it. Basically anything to distract.

And take a small lidded bucket for throwing up into. So much easier than bags.

yep, lots of kids songs on CD & stories. I make up a tupperware pot of playmobil etc each. Snacks. Snooze. Age appropriate eye spy (hilarious). Stops for leg stretching (I check in advance for parks or green areas to expend some energy in along the way). Acupressure bands, I tell mine to press them if they feel sick and they tend to like the control it gives them I think. At some point you will all get tired and pissed off, but I've never found it as bad as I'm expecting tbh.

I find traveleeze chewy sweets the best for travel sick kids.
We travel over a meal time so me pasing back sandwiches takes some time up.
I bought £10 mp3 players off Amazon and big headphones for mine-pop songs and audio books are on them-mine started off with noddy/dirty bertie type ones and now like horrid henry or roald dahl stories.

We also used to play eye spy with colours not letters, spot the yellow car (least popular colour)

We also eat sweets-we never do normally and seems to help!I also sometimes buy crap like lunchables or fruitshoots because the kids become very happy with these rare treats!

In the past we have used our national trust cards and stopped off somewhere on the way, but it's hard to say whether cracking on or making a day of it are best.

Thank you for your answers. Driving overnight is (sadly) not possible. We are going to stop frequently (I'm 22 weeks pregnant and will probably need to go to the bathroom more often than the DCs!).
I'm starting to look for audiobooks first thing tomorrow.

On the other hand, we just have always put ours in the car seats and that's it. No DVDs, no ds's, no music other than the car radio. Life isn't always fun and games- sometimes it's a bit boring an a means to an end. They are now 6 and 8 and chat together.

I would also say audio books and snacks. Regular stops may help.

Have done a 300 mile journey myself. Lots of singing and Toy Story!

Leave at 5.30am lift kids in their jammies. They will prob not go bsck to sleep but be stupified for at least an hour or more. Hand out some brioche buns and put on a story cd if evetyone awake. Stop about 9am gey changed have a good breakfast - you will have done 200 miles. Back.in the car more stories or dvd if you have.

This was recommended to me by a friend and it worked a treat for us. Left central scotland and was having a pub lunch near henley on thames at 12.30 i kid you not. One stop the big brekkie one only! 400 miles. Left at 10am on way back - big mistake took us practically all day!

literally just done one of these - dd1 3 and a bit, and dd2, 6.5 months. There was one terrible bit of stereo screaming at around the 4 hour mark, but otherwise fine, even without forms of entertainment. We left around 11.30, stopped for lunch about 1, and then briefly to feed dd2. DD1 read her books, looked out of the window, played with soft toys, chatted. Out of curiosity, how do you play audio books so that everyone can hear them? I drive a 2007 VW polo and we can scarcely hear what dd1 is saying in the back be grateful for small mercies

not sure I have that level of sophistication on my stereo - cd is broken anyway, thanks to dd1's experiments with it

The owl who was afraid of the dark is fantastic. 3 year old would happily listen to the ehole thing and it last an hour - result. Stephen fry paddington books good too. We get them from the library - order them from the online catalogue and pick them up at the local library.

My DS really struggles in the car so I've found these deals really interesting.

Just wanted to post an idea for the op though. I found this bump belt invaluable for in the car whilst pregnant. My bladder couldn't take any extra pressure!

Good luck with your trip.

I need to try out these story book suggestions. We do 300 miles quite regularly now, & it is never as bad as you think it's going to be. We set off at 9am & stop twice along the route. That might change as our baby grows though, at the moment she sleeps most of the time if we do it like that. Dd1 is no trouble given a steady stream of snacks & songs.

I bought a DVD player that goes over the headrest. I then control it from the front. We regularly travel 5 or 6 hours (DS dad lives a long way away) and the DVD system is worth it's weight in gold.

I Spy books were always our travelling tool but might be too old for your LO. You could make your own? Give them a list of things to look out for - sheep, caravans, lorries, bridges etc. Or counting colours of cars eg how many red cars are there etc. Could drive you batty if they announce every single one though!