Our family just got back from going over the river and through the woods to grandmother’s house. It was a 450-mile trip in our small sedan with three kids in the back seat.
You can ask if we are crazy, you can wonder how much alcohol was consumed by the end of the trip. But as a parent who has done this many times over the years, I can tell you there are a few tricks to get this mode of transportation with kids to be successful.
Picture by Bethliebee
1. Always have an activity bag with books and toys for each kid. Double check it to make sure the items are good for the car. My oldest plays his game boy, the youngest has stuffed animals and action figures. My daughter likes to read.
2. Bring along blankets for sleeping. I have a large number of baby quilts and those are the best size for in the car. You can always roll them up to be a pillow if the car is too warm to use a blanket.
3. Have songs in your head when things are looking a little dicey. We were singing Christmas carols and Frère Jacques on the way down. At some point I had to ban Jingle Bells after the millionth time but the point is we focus on something besides the overwhelming length of the drive.
4. Be ready with an “ABC” game of some sort. Maybe it is naming what you see or saying a word that starts with that letter or coming up with a word starting with the last letter of the last word said (i.e. “elephant” leads to “train”). This took up 30 minutes driving through one big town. The “last letter” game is a good one to play when it is dark out and the sites cannot be seen as readily.
5. Have a kid-friendly restaurant planned for one stop. If you are driving several hours as we did, one blessing can be that fast food place that is a little different or has a play area. This time around we hit Cozy Drive-In that is located in Springfield, Illinois. They state they invented the corn dog. I can attest that the cozy dogs and hamburgers are very tasty. So was the bottled Route 66 Root beer.
Picture by Karpati
6. You might have to make other rest stops along the way. Pack in a Frisbee or, if you have space, a soccer ball or football. These are good ways to stretch those muscles and work off excess energy.
This is what works for my family. What works for yours?
Notes from Rumbly Cottage 
Good tips. We have an assortment of emergency toys in our family vehicle for trips, but soccer, basketball, or footballs seem to be just fine.
Anywhere we stop we manage to find open grass which is great for a soccer ball. Plus all of my kids have been in soccer leagues at one time or another. The basketball is a good one, too.
Normal! Isn’t it great? We are all so normal. Somewhat comforting don’t you think? Love it all!
We used to take the 360-mile drive to our grandparents’ house 2-3 times a year when we were kids. I think we used most of the tricks you mentioned. Blankets and pillows, toys, finding the letters of the alphabet on road signs in order, and stopping for lunch. We didn’t sing much, and we never took the time for a roadside stop, but that probably would have been nice!
Snacks for the car were always a big bag of cut up veggies — carrot and celery sticks, broccoli, even chunks of red cabbage or cucumber slices. My parents would also go to the local library and borrow books or songs on tape — my sister and I still remember portions of these tape by heart from listening to them year after year. And we would often play games like car bingo, or my sister and I would each pick a color and count who saw the most cars of that color. There was still a fair amount of, “How much longer?”, but I think we did okay!
I forgot to write about snacks. We did string cheese and apples, always tasty. Thanks for stopping by.