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Well friends, we’re about to embark on forty hours of round trip driving. (Yes, I said FORTY.) My husband and I don’t mind road trips, but our toddler may feel differently. As far as the older boys go, I know they’ll do fine as long as we keep the fun rolling. So, right now, I’m mapping out 40 hours worth of fun for children, aged twenty months through six years.
This is a way cleaner, shinier, prettier, newer version of
what we’ll really be driving on our adventure.
Don’t you love those new Sienna commercials, btw?
Here’s what I’ve got planned so far:
- Book bags for each child. They fill with their faves.
- Children’s books downloaded from Audible.com
- Lots of music. Our family mostly listens to all-ages music like Dan Zanes
, or “regular” music, but the little guy truly goes ga-ga over one particular cd, called Toddler Favorites
. I would love to hear your favorite toddler recommendations since I can only stand that particular cd in small doses!
- Crayons, pencils, paper and clipboards.
- The Alphabet Game: Pick a category, like animals, names, cities, sports teams, etc. Try to name something from the category that starts with an A, a B, a C…
- I Spy With My Little Eye…
- Trivia games with prizes. Prizes rock on road trips!
- These fun mixed-up fairy tales from Melissa at Imagination Soup
- Wikki Stix
to make letters, creatures…
- The Leapster
, which has been out of batteries for at least 6 months, making it like a brand new toy. Awesome!
- A small selection of Legos. I’m packing them anyway, despite one issue during last year’s road trip, which involved a tired three year old, a fit of frustration, and approximately 1000 Legos thrown around the minivan. Not awesome!
- I like the suggestions on this list from Babycenter, especially the trip notebook. (However, I will skip the “talking toy” suggestion, because five people in a car=more than enough talking.)
- This list from the Frecklebox blog is also fabulous.
- How about these Cheerios necklaces? I’m going to have Cheerios scattered everywhere anyway, so I might let the older boys give it a try.
I don’t know if this will fill 40 hours, but we’ll also have the DVD’s, and they might sleep occasionally, so we should be good, right? 🙂
Do you have more suggestions? (Especially for entertaining the tricky toddler.) I’d love to hear them!