Entertaining the kids on the ride down?

[disneymomma2010]

7 more days till we leave! My car dvd player is down and I don't want to shell out the money for a new one right now so.. what do you do to keep the kids entertained on the way down? My boys are 8 and every year we depend on the tv, coloring books and a nap to keep them happy. But this year, besides a pack of color wonders each, I don't know how to keep them quite. What do you do?

[Tink#64]

Sorry, but honestly I don't know how it would be without our dvd players. :( We actually had to replace our before vacation this year, but we had a real road trip with 4+ days of driving, I just couldn't not do it! My guys, now teens, pick & tote enough movies for all the driving time. But they also enjoy listening to "Their" music on their IPods, and they used to love their hand held video games. Can yours read while riding without becoming sick? Mine can't, but if yours can handle it, get them some magazines or if they're readers, make a library run before your trip! We also have several travel size games, Battleship, Sorry, etc, small enough the kids could hold in their laps!

Now when we were kids, of course there were no dvd players, for the car or even at home! :rotfl: We had those "Hangman" game type books, cross word puzzles, etc. We listened to our parents music selection & prayed to sleep as much as possible! :D

Do a web search & see what you get! I'm sure we'd all be surprised by the many possibilities! We've just become so used to the dvd players that I haven't really had to think out of the box on this one. Good luck!

[j2k]

Our DVD player stopped working on our trip (12+ hours each way) earlier this month. My DD played handheld video games she brought. She also had a small coloring book and a travel etch a sketch and doodle pad. I also put on the Hakuna Matata radio station for awhile and we sang along to Disney movie music. I hope some of these ideas help.

[CanadianWDWFan]

We have the DVD system as well for our 20+ hour drive. Funny thing this trip on the way home the boys, 14 and 8, didn't even turn it on. They read, played on their hand held game systems and to our surprise SLEPT!!:D

What about getting some audio books? Get some books that they like and hope for the best!!

[buzznwoodysmom]

When my boys were younger I think I would have caved and bought a new DVD player for the drive. It kept them so quiet.

My boys also bring their DSi (hand held game systems), ipods, books, magazines, coloring books when they were younger. I also found lots of cute driving "board" games when they were younger. One was a bingo type game, where each card had different road signs on it. There were little magnetic chips that went over the sign as they found it, and the first with 4 in a row won. They played this a lot. There were a few other magnetic car games we had, but I don't remember what those were.

We also play the "abc" game, finding words that start with each letter on billboards and signs. We sometimes take a small note pad and pencil and keep track of all the states we see on car plates. My kids sometimes each pick a color and see who can find 100 cars in their color first.

When they were younger I also found that having snacks on hand helped. If they started to get fussy often times a quick snack helped.

Anytime we stopped for gas, restroom, food, I made sure they were able to get out the car and stretch. Often times we'd stop at a rest stop just so they could run a bit in the grass, burn off some of that energy. Everyone seemed happier and "refreshed" after a quick run around!

One year I made little goody bags. Every few hours, if they were being good, they would get a goody bag with a few small snacks, and maybe a small toy, or travel coloring book. They loved it! But honestly, if your gonna do the goody bags, you may as well purchase the DVD player. I'd rather the money spent on something like a DVD player that will last a while, than the goody bags, which is essentially.....junk. LOL.

Good luck with your drive, and be safe!

[ibelieveindisneymagic]

We've done the drive without a DVD player, and they will manage! :)

We did a couple of things to keep DD interested:

1. Switch around where everyone is sitting. DD would get "bored" in the back, and with two kids, having some time apart and in the front will help keep things calm.

2. Get a map and mark out the route. DD loved to follow along where we were, tell us what turns to take, etc. If you're an AAA memeber, they can make you up a "trip-tik", otherwise a regular old map book is just fine.

3. Get some new (cheap) toys. Have a new one to open every so often (could be every 2 hours, every 500 miles, etc). Games are great, as are activitiy books (DD loves the "Don't Unravel When you Travel" book), something that will keep them interested.

4. We also do the audiobook thing, much better than music for passing the time and keeping them interested.

5. You could see if any of your friends have a portable DVD you could take with you, if you're really worried.

[buzznwoodysmom]

1. Switch around where everyone is sitting. DD would get "bored" in the back, and with two kids, having some time apart and in the front will help keep things calm.



I think the original poster mentioned her kids are only 8 years old. So sitting up front probably isn't an option.

[CosmicRay]

I'm a mom of four, and we drive 19 hours and I try not to use the DVD's all that much.
We usually leave in the evening and DH drives 12 hours through the night, so the kids are usually sleeping off and on. But we've done lots of things in the car without movies:

1) Name that tune (Disney style)
2) Play the Alphabet game
3) Disney trivia- there are tons of Disney movie, TV show, Disney world and Disney music trivia questions out there. And have small rewards for correct answers (stickers, tatoos, or a snack).
4) Buy them each a couple of books
5) License plate game
6) Take something to act as trays and bring Play-doh
7) Bring a travel game
8) They can take a couple of toys to play with
9) You can print fun games like mad libs, crosswords, or word finds
10) there are Travel Bingo games you can print off
11) Play an audio book that all might enjoy
12) Flash cards or the Brain Quest games are fun and educational to pass the time
13) I spy
14) Car Simon Says - Kids can get creative!
15) Bring a craft for them to do
16) Have them make cards for characters with stickers and such - if you are going to any character meals
17) find some music from the parks and movies for a sing a long
18) Play 20 questions Disney style (a family favorite any time!)
19) Have them practice saying the alphabet backwards and the first that does it correctly (or the fastest) gets a prize.
20) Take some paper and print out instructions for origami. My kids enjoyed that one time. And I found that I did too!
21) If it wont bother the driver, bubbles are fun too!
22) Take construction paper, scissors and glue (school supplies are on sale right now!) and have them make the whole Phineas and Furb clan. Just print out pictures of Perry, mom, dad, Candice, and all their friends.
23) Cracker Barrel has TONS of fun and affordable travel games and such.

[mydisneygirls]

Just a thought....are you bringing a laptop? If so, they can watch movies on there. Do you have an internet on your cellphone? Movies can also be watched on there.

[buzznwoodysmom]

Just a thought....are you bringing a laptop? If so, they can watch movies on there. Do you have an internet on your cellphone? Movies can also be watched on there.

I completely forgot about a laptop. We forgot our DVD player once, but DH had his laptop. We let the kids watch a movie on the laptop and it was just as good as a portable DVD player.

My kids also download movies to their iphones or ipods and watch them on long drives. Be careful tho, DS accidently downloaded a "live TV" app, and watched Zack and Cody all the way to one of our vacations. He didn't realize it wasn't a free app till the bill came. It was just a $10 app., but he was still in trouble when that bill came in.;)

[disneymomma2010]

Just a thought....are you bringing a laptop? If so, they can watch movies on there. Do you have an internet on your cellphone? Movies can also be watched on there.

Great idea! Unfortunatly I don't have the room for it!

[disneymomma2010]

Thanks for all the great ideas!

And unfortunatly they do not have a ds either. They have to prove to me that they are responsible before I will buy them one. ;)

[BrerGnat]

Drive at night and hope they sleep. No other advice that isn't already given here. We just did our first drive to FL from VA and without the dvd player, it would have been torture for us!

[disneynarula]

We don't have a DVD player in the mini van. Our kids also do not have Ipods. We have made several long road trips starting from when my youngest was an infant. We now have three children ages 2-8.

Our kids read books, color, and play guessing games. We also play games like 20 questions. We listen to books on tape. I let them pick out treats that we would not normally get them.

We do have leapsters for the kids but they only get one set of batteries each so they learn to conserve.

[Aurora]

There are lots and lots of travel books out there for kids. We used to have a great travel store near us in Chicago that had all kinds of these items, but you can find the books on Amazon and their delivery is fast!

On a drive down when my big kids were 7 and 5, they each had their own portable CD player with headphones and a stack of different kinds of activity books.

We also listened to books on tape -- Magic Tree House, Frog and Toad, etc.

I actually miss those days. My kids have iPods now and DH has an iPad that the kids watch movies on for road trips. We all listen together to the movie on the car speakers, but it isn't quite the same as the days when we didn't have a screen in the car.

[Pop Centurion]

Park music is a good option. We usually fly but this year we're driving & I have hours & hours on my thumb drive to play in the car.

[Mousemates]

whenever I learn that someone is making the drive from our area (ten hour drive from where we are in tennessee) I always offer to buy their kids a slide whistle and harmonica to keep them occupied in the car :thedolls:...strangely none of the parents have ever taken me up on the offer.:confused:

[Aurora]

whenever I learn that someone is making the drive from our area (ten hour drive from where we are in tennessee) I always offer to buy their kids a slide whistle and harmonica to keep them occupied in the car :thedolls:...strangely none of the parents have ever taken me up on the offer.:confused:

You are hilarious! :number1: