Entertaining Children on a Long Road Trip

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by Renae Chiovaro on July 6, 2014

entertaining on a road trip

For the 4th of July every year we take a road trip to upstate New York. It is about a nine hour drive which makes for a very long day. There are several things that I have learned about traveling with children. Over the years we have perfected our system that makes long road trips easier. Here are my tips for keeping kids entertained in the car!

Snacks, snacks, snacks! 

  • The first thing on my mind is packing food and drinks for the family. I pack water bottles and flavored drinks in a small cooler. Snack food is always a priority too as my kids are constantly hungry! It is cheaper to pack your own food and drinks too!

Entertainment

  • The next priority is making sure they are entertained. A DVD player, handheld electronic games, books, crayons and cards always make it into our travel bag. For new entertainment we try to grab books and DVDs from the library. Our library offers free DVD rentals. If you forget the DVD’s at your house (which happened on this trip!), pickup movies from a Redbox! You can return Redbox movies at any Redbox location. We rented in Virginia and returned in New York.
  • A new thing I added to our entertainment bag this trip was Rainbow Loom. I can’t tell you how many hours my boys spent making bracelets and rings on our trip north.
  • When my boys are bored of the items in the entertainment bag, I turn to jokes and funny videos. With a smartphone I can pull up short videos on my phone that make us laugh. Telling knock knock jokes are always fun too!
  • Eye Spy is another activity that usually happens!
  • Be silly with music. We usually turn up the tunes, sing and dance in our seats!

If you are planning a road trip, check out the list of items to keep in the car for the summer. What are your tips for keeping the kids entertained on road trips?

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Renae Chiovaro

Renae is a married working mom of two handsome boys. She works as a registered dental hygienist by day and blogs here at How to Have it All by night. She enjoys cooking from scratch, working in her vegetable garden and functional training.

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