10 Things to do in the car


We’re off on holiday in a couple of weeks and I’ve just realised that we have about 12 hours of driving ahead of us. Not great with two little ones who start to complaining after approx 30 second of being confined in the car seat. So I thought for this month’s top ten I would have a list of things to do with kids in the car or on the train etc etc any where really where they can’t run around! Most of the list applies to kids who can talk – if you have babies – best of luck!!! ;)



1, Have a personal rucksack or a box for each child.
For the smaller kids like mine I would suggest some crayons, colouring book (even scrapes of paper to scribble on! ) party size playdough, bubbles, some snacks and little drinks – if like me you’d me a bit worried that the food is eaten by the time you’re out of the drive way I suggest you label each bit ie you can have the red labels until we’re on the motorway or if they can read write the name of the town on. Some wet wipes are invaluable to pop in! A little box on which they can collect things at the stops is always good. We have toll road tickets or ferry tickets in ours. Older kids tend to know what they want in their rucksacks – nintendos etc!

2, Alphabet game.
I can remember this from my childhood. I don’t think it would work with my baby but my eldest – just about to turn four has a long enough attention spam to start at least. To start the first person thinks of a object being with “a” and starts “I went to the shops and I brought an apple” the second person starts with b and carry’s on the list ie “ I went to the shops and I brought an apple and a bongo” and so on.....
3, Bingo
You can tailor this to the appropriate age. My eldest can cope with looking out for 5 red cards, small trees or landmarks – Castle, railway, Give them each a list and the first person to get all their list wins! About 5 jelly babies and the next choice of cd in our car!
4, Peek a boo!
A little cloth you can drape over the car seat or hold up in front of your face works a treat!
5, Surprises
While nothing expensive try wrapping up say 5 small toys – paper dolls in one set, packs of cards, toy car, homemade cd etc and have a new one to unwrap at certain points along the way.
6, Books on cd.
In our day we had them on tape but nowadays you can get almost anything on cd. Even the baby loves listening to Kipper! But for older kids you have Harry Potter among others! Even the twilight saga I believe!
7, Movies
It goes without saying after books on CD’s but films on dvds! If you can’t afford a travel dvd player and you can get them for under £50 these days and you have a laptop, charge it up before you go and you should be able to get a film or two hours of programmes on this!
8, I Spy & I Spy Books
I spy is obviously the oldest game around and for a quick refresher – First person – “I spy something being with....” every one else guesses! The I spy books are pretty great to. Along the same lines as the car bingo they have list of things to tick off – railways, numberplates etc etc
9, Songs
Obviously we know the good old ones like 10 green bottles etc but we all have a good old sing along to such delights as Robin Hood, Tie me kangaroo down sport, the grand old duke of York. Incorporate ones with hand signals etc like head shoulders knees and toes, one finger one thumb or even little peter rabbit. Google it! Lists and lists come up!
10, The Name Game
Start with the name of a celebrity, (or literary figure, cartoon character, etc) that would be commonly known to at least two of the participants, whose first name begins with the first letter of the previous person's last name.
An example game would run as follows;

  1. Fireman Sam
  2. Snow white
  3. Wow wow wubbzy

Comments

  1. fab ideas. We tend to play 'Yellow car' as my boys are 10 and 13 and they still love it as you get a point per car but sometimes you can call a car from up ahead that looks yellow in the sun only to be gold or a lime colour.....That is a point loser and so you deduct a point from the person who called it!!! I love it and we do tend to get very competitive x

    ReplyDelete
  2. Really great tips! We will have to try these out on our little Munchkin. Thanks for sharing.

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular Posts