8 Tips for Occupying Kids in the Car

This morning on their FB page, Momology, by MOPS International, asked:
Getting everyone out the door is one thing. Getting everyone in the car is another. How do you manage the kids during drive time and still keep your eyes on the road?
And I started to answer before realizing I have lots of different strategies for handling our car time. Here they are, in no particular order.
  1. Our day is set up that the time in the car is also usually snack time. Sure, I end up picking up cheerios and goldfish off the van floor more than I'd like, but it keeps them occupied and quiet. I can't say this is perfect as more than once has a sippy cup full of milk been left in the van too long. Those are gross to clean up!
  2. Othertimes, I'll arrange our longer trips to coincide with nap time and multitask that way. It makes for a nice quiet ride where I can easily listen to NPR uninterrupted (the main way I get my news) or make a call to friend.
  3. There is always the portable DVD player too. But our family rule means we don't use it unless we are going to be in the car for at least 30 minutes. And there is only one choice. I don't mess with keeping a well stocked DVD library in the van.
  4. Recently, Charlotte has been playing her DS Lite in the van. Her favorite, and only games are a Wonder Pets game and a Ni Hao! Kai Lan game.
  5. At one point we had an extra large board book that came with a music player. Charlotte could sit quietly for a very long time looking at the book and playing the music. I think it was mostly the fake MP3 player that she liked the most.
  6. We have car games - lots of them. They are I Spy!, Are we there yet?, the ABC game, the Quiet Game (but I always win this one), and maybe more that we make up on the spot just to be silly.
  7. Sometimes we pray in the car. This happens most often when we are passed by an ambulance. Its been a habit of mine for years to pray for the passing ambulance and the injured people it is helping and now it is becoming something Charlotte remembers to do too.
  8. Finally, sometimes I just let the girls play with my cell phone, either sending text messages to their grandparents or pushing random buttons. This of course, is only an option if I am not calling one of my friends first.
What do you do to occupy your children in the car?

Comments

Post a Comment

Thanks for commenting! Be sure to leave an email address in your profile or in your comment if you'd like a reply.

Popular posts from this blog

Win Free Cereal

Image
This giveaway is closed. Winners will be announced later this weekend. I've definitely been on the giveaway wagon recently and am glad to be participating in the Fall Bloggy Giveaways Carnival. For this giveaway, I have FOUR (yes, you read that right - 4 winners!) full-price coupons for a new cereal from General Mills. Per their marketing, this cereal " combines great-tasting chocolatey puffs with vanilla puffs, a classic combination that kids love. Even better, Cocoa Puffs Combos is made with whole grain and is a good source of Calcium and Vitamin D." I love cereal. I could eat it for breakfast, lunch, dinner, and as a snack in between all of those. I am particularly fond of Lucky Charms. The crunchy combined with the sweet marshmallows gets me every time. All you have to do to enter is tell me what your favorite cereal is and leave some way for me to contact you, either through a blog or e-mail. This giveaway is open to US residents only (because I don't think t
Read more

Note to Self

Image
This giveaway is closed. Winners will be announced later this weekend. Warning: Since I typically have a family-friendly blog, I want to let my readers know that this post is not safe for little eyes. Have you ever sat down with a new friend and found you stayed up way too late talking about every subject under the sun? Discussing religion, careers, and yes, even sex, even though you've only known each other for a very short period of time? That is what it was like for me to read Note to Self - On Keeping a Journal and Other Dangerous Pursuits , by Samara O'Shea. Once I started it, I felt like Samara and I were just hanging out on my couch, sipping decaf lattes and having a conversation. (Okay, Samara might be sipping something harder, but I'm still nursing.) It was that easy to read. The basic premise of her newest book is teaching people how to write in a journal, by sharing her own journal entries. Personally, she wrote for therapy, sharing "A journal is an effecti
Read more

Yoplait Kids

Image
This giveaway is now closed. The winner has been contacted. My baby girl LOVES yogurt. I try to give her some every morning to go with her fruit and cheerios. I started out buying the Stonyfield Farms yogurt because I wanted to avoid a ton of extra sugar. I have been slowly trying to phase high fructose corn syrup out of our diets and would like to keep it out of Charlotte's from the very beginning. Honestly, I just bought the Stonyfield because I assumed it was the healthiest choice. However, when I was offered a chance to try Yoplait Kids yogurt for free, my frugal self just couldn't pass up the opportunity. I found out that Yoplait Kids uses no artificial sweeteners or flavors, plus it has "25% less sugar than the leading kid's yogurt." (I wasn't able to verify that statement, but it came with the marketing materials for the prize pack.) This morning, Charlotte tried the Banana Yoplait Kids yogurt and really liked it. She even let me feed her almost the ent
Read more