On our summer vacation this year we drove from Alabama to Colorado and back with a baby and a 3 year old, and everyone stayed relatively happy, so I think that makes me qualified to list my top tips for traveling with children!
1. Now matter how many times you have said "no" break down and buy the car DVD player before a long trip. It is absolutely a lifesaver! Although you may never want to see Peter Pan ever again by the time you come home, the kids will stay entertained for hours with this! We stored our DVDs in a sun visor CD holder and that worked wonderfully, HOWEVER, make sure it is positioned in such a way that if you take a corner too fast and the DVDs fly out of the holder they will land in the car and not fly out the open window! (This really happened!)
2. Bring a Sherpa. What I mean is, bring an extra adult to carry the extra weight when it comes to the kids. Our sister in law April came with us and she was wonderfully helpful! She not only carried the extra weight while we hiked, she was there to lend a helping hand with anything we needed. One of the reasons that we were able to travel so far each day is that we were able to rotate having one person drive, one person watch the kids and one person sleep.
3. Toys. Lots and lots of toys! Seriously, we bought a small clear Rubbermaid bin and we filled it with toys and kept it in the floor of the car. Then we would rotate the toys often so the kids wouldn't get too bored.
4. Magna Doodle. This provided hours and hours of entertainment for both the 3 year old and the adults. We bought this for the trip and it was worth every penny. She still uses it daily.
5. Use the internet. I spent the better part of one pre-trip day finding fun car activities online and printing them out. www.nickjr.com was a wonderful resource for this. I packed a bag full of activities she had never seen before, some crayons, and some stickers and this also provided hours of fun.
If you have any more fool proof car entertainment tips, please share them with me!
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