In just a few short weeks, we will be embarking on our first family road trip from New Jersey to Florida. To say I am not daunted at the idea of such a long car ride with a 4 year old and a 1 year old would be a lie; I am terrified. Juliet has recently started hating riding in the car and Drake will probably be better than Juliet, but this is still the longest trip he will ever have taken in the car. We are leaving around bedtime on our way down and I plan on driving straight through the night while Mr. Chocolate sleeps and switch off in the morning hours, so I hope we can get a good chunk of the trip covered there. We do plan on stopping one night on the way down and up, so hopefully that will help ease the kids as well. This is my list of supplies I hope will help with keeping the kids happy and entertained!
2) Sticker Book– I found this animal sticker book at Michaels one day and bought it for this trip. Drake loves stickers and animals so hopefully this combo will be a good addition.
3) Glitter Bottle– I have seen these called time out bottles and sensory play bottles. I am going to call them road trip ones if they work well. Especially for Juliet who is harder to entertain, I think this might be something she finds interesting and fascinating to watch if she gets the hang of shaking and turning it. We shall see but I have high hopes for these!
4) Coloring Books/Dry Erase Board– My friend recently just gave Drake this dry erase board set for his birthday so I stashed it away for this trip. Along with it I also plan on packing some regular crayons and coloring books to add to the mix.
5) MobiGo– This was a birthday gift from a friend. Drake hasn’t opened it yet so I plan on saving it for the trip as it looks like a neat toy that’s perfect for long car rides. It got great reviews so I hope it lives up to expectations.
6) DVD– We have a small potable DVD player that I might just take along with some Kai Lan videos in a pinch. I would rather not get either child in the habit of watching shows or movies in the car, but since this is going to be a long trip (and even some nights at the hotels), this might be a necessary evil for now.
7) Mirror– You might have noticed much of this list is devoted to entertaining Drake. I admit I am more stumped on how to entertain Juliet on this trip because of her young age, but I do plan on getting a car mirror for her. Not only does Juliet love mirrors but this allows us to see her as well and maybe talk to her to keep her entertained.
8) MagnaDoodle- Drake loves his MagnaDoodle (he has 3). He sleeps with one called Big Fish and in the morning he plays with it happily on his own until I come get him. I would never dream of leaving without Big Fish and Drake can amuse himself drawing animals and spelling words on it for hours on end.
9) Magnetic Puzzles– I like that the pieces are magnetic so I won’t have a million little shape pieces all over my car. These kinds of puzzles can lead to creative thinking and I’m sure before the trip is over Drake will have created some animals out of these shapes.
10) Snacks– I would never travel with young kids without a car full of snacks but Juliet especially is happy when eating, so I might sit next to her for some parts of the trip when she is unhappy and dole some food out so she is distracted.
11) Sassy links– Juliet has these links already so I was thinking of attaching them all over her car seat. She loves chewing on links so maybe with varied ones all over her car seat it will keep her happily chewing as the miles zoom by.
12) Leapfrog Touch Magic– Juliet got this for Christmas this year and does seem to enjoy pushing the buttons and hearing the music play. We have several similar toys like this where she can press and hear the toy talk back to her, so I’ll be bringing one or two of them to rotate.
13) Books– Both Drake and Juliet love books. Drake likes new stories and trying to read them himself and Juliet likes to flip pages, so I am hoping some new books might keep them happy and give us reading material for bed time as well while we are away. For Drake I am thinking of some new picture books and tell me a story cards that we might just enjoy looking at the pictures. For Juliet I am thinking soft books, indestructable ones, and sound books.
14) Camera– Drake actually has 2 cameras (different brands) he has gotten from family members. I think it might be fun for him to take photos as we drive of things he sees. I don’t know how great the photos will be, but the concept might be neat enough to keep him happy for a bit, and who knows maybe we will get a real gem in there to keep as a memory!
15) Tablet Games– Drake loves playing games on my phone and tablet (which he calls Big Phone)/ Since I will probably need my phone for navigation on our trip, Big Phone will be coming along for entertainment in both the car and hotel.
blogger / persimmon / 1220 posts
Not sure if they are allowed screen time, but sometimes shows on the iPad can help break up the drive too!
guest
I recommend this mirror! BRICA Baby In-Sight Magical Firefly Auto Mirror for in Car Safety http://www.amazon.com/In-Sight-Magical-Firefly-Mirror-Safety/dp/B00B7M7CMO/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&qid=1405976642&sr=8-3&keywords=brica+mirror
blogger / pomegranate / 3491 posts
Those car mirrors are so so helpful when engaging a crabby baby in the car! Good luck!!
blogger / nectarine / 2043 posts
Good luck with the trip! Can’t wait to hear how it all goes (I’m overwhelmed by trying to drive 4 hrs to NJ with my 1 year old, much less FL!)
GOLD / wonderful pomegranate / 28905 posts
We frequently drive to NYC to visit my family which can be 7-8 hours. Lots of snacks are a must. On the the way down a packed a small cooler with cut up fruits, cold water, milk, etc. Kind Granola bars, dried fruit, etc.
Pen and paper. This last trip my 26 M really liked color wonder markers, reusable stickers and Melissa & Doug lace and trace. We also bought this snack & play tray which was great! https://www.amazon.com/dp/B000KJBFC8/ref=cm_sw_r_udp_awd_VMAZtb18456M6EX0
I hid everything until the trip so that it was all new and exciting.
kiwi / 511 posts
We just did our second trip from MA to PA (roughly a 9.5 hour trip) with a 2 and 4 year old. We split the drive in two starting the first leg on Friday night with dinner at home (a bit early) of pizza so easy clean up with paper plates and toss it all in trash on our way out with the kids in their PJs. We put on a DVD in the car and off we go. At the hotel we do turn the interior lights off in the car and one of us does the check in, and when we carried the kids in it helped a lot to put sunglasses on them. They woke up a big but it was dark enough that it didn’t give the the huge wake up factor which was good. The other thing is we have a bag with all toiletries, diapers, pjs for DH and I and a change of clothes for the family so we only have to grab one thing on the way in to the hotel.
I made them each a HUGE dry erase board and got some Crayola dry erase markers because they were washable for hands and fabric. I simply got a big plexi glass poster frame, inside I put a map of the USA and their name. I figure as they grow older it can also act as a tray of sorts for art projects, games or a try for when we need to eat in the car.
The frames were huge 11×14 I think so I had them rest on the arms of the car seats and each one had two dowels that were attached via velcro to the poster frame and just rested on the floor to act as legs. I need to do some redesign on that because it was not as stable as I would have liked.
But we were also ok just watching 2 movies back to back on the second leg of the drive because luckily for us (knock on wood) both kids seem to understand that long trips are special so we do special things and are ok when we say no to requests to videos.
guest
This was helpful. I’m trying to decide if we should fly it drive to Atlanta from Texas and my daughter is a few months younger than Juliet. This will come in handy if we decide to drive!
blogger / honeydew / 7081 posts
Our car mirror was the best thing I could have bought before our first road trip.
blogger / nectarine / 2687 posts
Great list! Stickers and magnets were big hits on our long road trip 2 years ago… and I’ve had my eyes on that dry erase board for a while! l
blogger / kiwi / 675 posts
Well sounds like you guys are really prepared, I can’t wait to hear about the adventure! I want to do this with my kids but im afraid!
GOLD / grapefruit / 4555 posts
Have fun on your trip and be sure to update us on the success of some of these items! We’re going to be headed on a few shorter road trips (a few hours, four or five at the most) in the coming months so I’m going to start stocking up now on these! Thanks!
blogger / clementine / 998 posts
i didn’t have anything to keep me occupied when i was a kid! wowee!
blogger / eggplant / 11551 posts
Have a great trip! We just took Noelle on an 8-9 hour road trip from socal to norcal earlier this year, and it went better than expected. We definitely used the iPad and sticker book a lot. We didn’t need anything else. Hope all goes well!
grapefruit / 4923 posts
thank you for this great list!
olive / 64 posts
DVD PLAYER!!! It’s a few days out of their lives. It won’t turn their brains to mush and it makes the trip soooooooo much easier for everyone! We only hook it up for long trips (recent 8hr to NY) and he has never asked for it on a day to day basis. I think out of site out of mind. All your other ideas r awesome! I also got a few toys at Target dollar spot and wrapped them. If he was getting nutty we would give him one to open. That was fun and exciting for a little while. I also found out McDonalds has a free iPhone app and it will tell you where the closest restaurant is and if it has a play area. It was great to let him run and climb in a contained area. Sometimes rest stop grass areas give me a heart attack. Have a great time!!!
blogger / pomegranate / 3300 posts
We have done several very long driving trips, all of your things seem great. We also sometimes use audio stories. If they are really going bonkers sometimes we turn one on and they have to be quiet to hear it.
blogger / persimmon / 1398 posts
You’ve got our faves on your list already! We recently tried books on CD (they have the book to flip through and the CD plays on the cd player in the car) and they worked pretty welll too!