Share the ways you keep your children entertained on long journeys with Vodafone

[AbbiCMumsnet]

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Every parent has their own special way of keeping long journeys fun – whether it’s through using devices to watch videos, or involving the whole family through songs and games. As the summer holiday season is in full swing, Vodafone want to know how you keep your children occupied on long trips.

Here’s what Vodafone has to say:
“It’s a glorious summer’s day. You’re stuck in the car and there’s 100 miles still to go. The kids are getting restless. But you know the perfect way to keep them entertained. A sure-fire way to keep them distracted just a little bit longer. That back-pocket ace card that you can play during times like these.

We want to know your secret!”

What’s your trick to keeping your children entertained for most of the journey? Are you a key part of the entertainment (think a family game of ‘I Spy’), or do you let them get on with it and hope for the best? Are there any particularly memorable journeys you’d like to share?

From young children to teens, what are your tips and tricks in keeping them entertained? Share on the thread below and everyone who does will be entered into a prize draw where 1 MNer will win a £300 voucher of their choice (from a list).

Thanks and good luck!

MNHQ

Standard Insight Terms and Conditions apply

in order to keep our kids entertained on a long journey they play on their ipads, all of course with head phones in to drown out the racket

When we've been organised, we've given the kids a challenge to spot a list of things that we've prepared in advance and tick them off. e.g. Tescos delivery lorry, pigs in a field, a Macdonalds, a green car, 3 motorbikes... We also get them spotting Eddie Stobart lorries or yellow cars - they shout out "Eddie Stobart!" or "Spotto!" Another game we like to play on the motorway (so there's plenty of different cars) is to look at the first 3 letters of a car's numberplate and make up a phrase, the stranger the better! e.g. RSD - Rats ski dangerously! Have also done 20 question type games and taken turns to list boys/girls names alphabetically.

No reading and minimal drinking and eating to avoid vomiting, sing-a-longs and games to keep them occupied.

We like to play count the colours of the cars, and make a chart & tick off coloured cars we see. We also play who can spot the pink cow gets an ice cream! Its amazing how many pink cows are seen!! haha

Ooo we use a mix of I spy, spot the red car & music as our go to when they bore of that we put the DVD player on & they sit and watch that we love our journeys out

I always plan our trip and mark landmarks or seaviews i then tell the kids that the first one to spot the landmark will win a special prize

we use books,games,such as i spy and see who can find the red car first.snacks and drinks and tablet to watch thier favourite movies

We plan for the kids to sleep while in the air. By that I mean buy ticket late in the evening and then arrive early and walk-in circles. Getting them physically tried. We 'explore' the airport and tally the different colors of people suitcases. While on the road we look around for yellow cars. Talking to them to make sure they don't fall asleep until we want them to. I hate planes so that is where I want them to sleep.

If it is a long car journey, then I let them sleep in the car. I put a lullaby on the car stereo and the kids hopefully fall asleep. I also got color in books, for just in case. Most importantly we always plan a snack/ restaurant stop so we could stretch our legs and dh and to switch driving.

Dvd players on the car headrests for long journeys but they're not very reliable so road dahl audio books as back up..and Always with the snacks. Love the idea of printing or the map though because think we're all losing the map reading skill.

We have a number of things to keep them entertained. We have mini portable DVD players that attach to the back of the car seats.
We also play mini games.
They have colouring books and crayons.
And not forgetting the classic singing to songs or nursery rhymes.

We wrap up their small toys, and give one out every so often.

Eye spy and we also play a game where we go around the car each saying a sentence each....we end the sentence with either 'but ' or 'so' to lead on to the next person.....that can fill in a lot of time and usually ends up being really funny x

We play lots of games like I spy or the shopping list memory game but mostly we love playing our favourite music and having a good sing song together.

Tend to play games in the car like sing along to Disney songs of I spy

We play 'first to spot' and make a list of things. It gets quite competitive

Dc also play cards in the back

We play the shopping game and mental maths - give 4 random numbers and have to get to 35 etc

Well stocked bag with plenty of small toys/colouring books/snacks/ipad... something new for every time the child is bored.

We usually let them play games on the iPad if we have a long journey on a plane or if we are in a car they play games and keep each other entertained, we have 3 little girls who are very close in age

They have games on their tablets, plus I have a 'surprise' bag of sticker books/ books/ sweets/games which are produced when they start to get restless

Food. And lots of it. DD is only 2 so keeping her occupied can be hard.
She likes having her own music on the radio to sing along to so I have lots of nursery rhymes saved into my phone that can be played easily. I have resorted to a DVD player for long journey too.

Mostly I try to plan journeys to coincide with nap time.

We play games such as "First one to see" and "I-Spy" but for longer journeys we do resort to the i-pad as it keeps the stress levels down in the car.

When younger it used to be count the colours of cars - I spy doesn't tend to last long before becoming boring
Now it's hangman. Love it. An hour goes by very easily.

Portable DVDs and games are perfect - they don't really care what the scenery that they're going past is lovely, as long as they're plugged in they're fine!

Singing! We all love singing. When we get tired of that I put on an audio book. And there is always talking about what we see outside, and also things to look out for such as motorcycles, or certain colour cars, or different animals in fields.

The I-spy books are good, as are any other activity books. Otherwise CDs with songs that we can all sing along to.

Books, iPad and portable music players. We also play a mind numbing amount of games such as 20 Questions, I spy etc.
We also take art supplies such as pencil case rolls of good quality pencil crayons and colouring books such as the Harry Potter book.
We also do the traditional travel compendium of ludo, connect 4 etc. And even if we take nothing else, I always have a pack of playing cards or Top Trumps in my handbag.