Got a road trip coming up with a bunch of little ones and need ideas on how to keep them occupied for longer than five minutes? Here are some of the things our family has used in the past to make those long car rides more bearable. I have tried to list things that are either reasonably priced or reusable to make it budget friendly. Here we go:
So, there you have it, our 11 ways to keep the little ones entertained on road trips without destroying the car. If you know of an inexpensive and clean way to occupy the kiddos on long car rides, message us and let us know.
- Scratch Pads. These sheets cause very little mess and instead of a bunch of crayons, it comes with a single wooden scratch stick. My oldest spent a good hour on these when we first got them. You can buy them with pictures printed on them or blank and the kids can make their own colorful picture. Lots of fun and plenty of styles to choose from (you can even catch these at Dollar Tree!).
- Water Wow Pads. These things are amazing. You just fill the “pens” with water and the colors appear on the paper. It is reusable and it keeps the car clean. These also come in a variety of themes to choose from.
- Reusable Sticker Pads. These are great for many ages. Even toddlers will enjoy these and will be entertained for a significant amount of time.
- Magnetic Play Set. Reusable and come in their very own container already. They have dress up ones as well as various scenes with people and objects.
- Portable Game Systems. We have a Nintendo DS and a portable Atari for our kids. They love playing these so much that we have to establish time limits for them. These systems we got for around 20-30 dollars each. They love these older, cheaper systems just as much as the new ones that are out and its not the end of the world if they break one on accident.
- Travel Binders. Making your own activity binder is so much fun. We have done them with road trip scavenger hunt sheets, travel bingo cards, hidden object pages, and more. These sheets are really cost effective and offer hours of fun with a variety of activities. Pinterest has a bunch of free printables to choose from. (TIP: Put your printables in sheet protectors and have the kids use dry erase markers for reuse)
- Workbooks. This is a great way to sneak in learning on your trip in a way that is fun. They can be found pretty much anywhere (Walmart, Amazon, Dollar Tree, etc.)
- Secret Decoder books. My girls are really into secret codes and anything spy or ninja related. These books satisfy that desire to pretend to be on a secret mission from the comfort of their car seat.
- Books. These can be absolutely free if you get them from your local library. Try and be careful with regular books though. My kids have dropped theirs on the floor and someone stepped on it and torn out some pages. Another idea would be to have some chapter books you could read in the car to everyone. And do you remember when you could buy books with a cassette and follow along with the story? They still exist! And they have a collection of books on compact disc for those who have moved forward technologically from the cassette player. Put it in the cd and let your child read along in the car to their favorite stories.
- Radio Shows. My husband downloaded a radio program called The Radio Adventures of Dr. Floyd. Our whole family loved listening to these short programs as we travelled together. A couple of other good programs to listen to would be Adventures in Odyssey and Jonathan Parks.
- No Mess Markers and coloring books. These things are great! While I wouldn’t list them as my cheapest item for road trip activities, they keep the car clean which keeps parents from stressing.
So, there you have it, our 11 ways to keep the little ones entertained on road trips without destroying the car. If you know of an inexpensive and clean way to occupy the kiddos on long car rides, message us and let us know.
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