GainesvilleMoms.com

My husband and I travel quite a bit as our families live out of town. Althoug the drive is only 2-1/2 hours away, my daughter has a hard time. Toys only seem to entertain her about five minutes until we hit the interstate. What is everyone else doing for their children during summer travels? I've tried snacks but don't want to feed her almost 3 hours straight. And we have a DVD player, but I worry about so much television. Any suggestions?

If you can travel at night or near your child's bedtime, that might help. Two-and-a-half is still really young for games and such.

I remember singing songs with mine halfway to Athens, Ga., on one occasion. But for the most part, I would eventually cave and climb over to the back seat to keep my daughter entertained.

We have a DVD player too and we do use it quite a bit for any long period of travel. My daughter is 3 and she will gladly sit for a movie she likes or a Backyardigans multi feature dvd works good too. I don't like alot of tv at home when something more productive could be going on but if she is just sitting anyway and it makes her happy the DVD player might be just the thing. Does she like books?? My daughter will sit for about 20 minutes and look through a book...she also likes toys she can play with in the car...something small like a magna doodle maybe, she loves to draw so thats always a winner with her too..

We also play games picking out different vehicles...such as 'big trucks' , 'cars', 'vans', 'little trucks', 'buses'(her favorite), etc... and this helps them learn all the different types of vehicles too.

I guess you just have to be creative...take what her favorite things are and try to incorporated them into the drive.

Good Luck

we do the dvd player for any trip over 1 hour for our two. when we drive from here to central KY we do a movie but i also do some other little things. like go to the dollar store or dollar tree and get new coloring books (twistables crayons are great! they wont melt in the car if dropped), get a couple of new board books (even for my older kids, board books are great because they are pretty durable for the car ride), and get a few new toys and wrap them like they are a present. it will take her a minute to unwrap the toy then its brand new...so she will have fun for longer playing with it. you can have her pick out certain colors too. eye spy is great for little ones that know their colors, but we tried for a long time to limit it to things inside the car. that way they dont get frustrated when youve already passed the thing they're looking for.
also, we stop at rest areas pretty often. especially around 1/2 way through the trip. gives the kiddos a chance to stretch their legs. if its a rest area with a large "yard" type area...a game of tag might be fun.
kids cds are good too. my kids like veggie tales, disney, and anything else they can sing along to. there are alot of little people ones that have songs about animals and such.

sorry such a long response. hope this helps a little. i LOVE to road trip with my kids. its more fun for me if they tag along.

Wow, thanks for all the great suggestions moms. I'll definitely be trying some of those games, and I love the gift-wrapping idea! My daughter loves opening packages. (We never get to open our own on holidays/birthdays.) And getting items from the dollar store is great.

can you say benedryl?

seriously, we used to live in Georgia and the trip home, once a month, was 4 1/2 hours. as an infant, my daughter hated the car seat, she would seriously scream for the entire trip and make herself sick. then when we got there, it would take forever for her to adjust. this was fun with grandparents who expected a smiling baby to arrive. i asked the peditrician and he said to give her a single dose of benedryl about 20 minutes before we left.

i felt horrible about drugging her but i didn't know what else to do. he told me it would not hurt her at all, just make her a little sleepy. and in fact, it was a kind thing to do. so i tried it. the trip was so quiet i was afraid something was wrong. but she slept the whole way there and was happy when she woke up.

we did this until she was about 2 years old. then we played music and sang the whole time. we had moved here by then and the trip was cut in half which helped as well. but i remember always singing on road trips and we all love music so we sing.