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Save Nat! Share your road trip distractions

Jan 02 08:27am

Help Nat survive her one month holiday (starting today) as she heads up the east coast with her husband and sons Lachlan and Hunter.

What do you do to keep kids entertained in the back of the car?

Tell us below...

53 Comments Report Abuse

1. rick_kelly@y7mail.com - Jan 02 08:34am

Nat,

Go to www.travelmate.com.au for lots of car games.

Rick Kelly

2. izma78 - Jan 02 08:35am

Have fun we did padthaway to Canberra with a 5, 2and ten mth not nice we went at night and took turns driving had dvd player and looked for things like the yeti and other things like that but for at least 80% of the way they slept happy traveling

3. damabi - Jan 02 08:38am

For younger children I-spy using colours instead of letters can occupy them for a while. Another game is that one person chooses a colour and everyone tries to be the first to spot a vehicle in that colour; a variation on this is counting the number of cars in a chosen colour.

4. fatchicklosingweight - Jan 02 08:40am

Pick up some story books with the CD that narrates the stories. I have a 4 year old and live 1.5hrs west of brisbane and these Cd Books are a life saver!!! Liesl will last the WHOLE drive with not a complaint...you may need an MP3 player so the stories dont send you insane though!!!!!
Sarah Temple

5. kmessitt - Jan 02 08:40am

Yeah - good luck with that Nat! We have just done from a long trip with an 8, 4 and 8 mth olds.I went to cheapo shop and got them 1 toy per hour - just $1 things - and they got one on the hour if they had been good for the previous hour...If naughty then lost all of them - Good old fashioned bribery

6. rosie.bradshaw - Jan 02 08:40am

Hi Nat, a friend of ours in Canada told us that they played "Car Bingo" with their kids. She would make up different cards with things they were likely to see along the way and the kids would then cross each thing off when they saw it. ie. a red roof, bridge, Mc sign etc. Have a great holiday!

7. jodieebcairns - Jan 02 08:41am

Last month we drove from Cairns-Brisbane return in 5 days with 2 & 4 yr old. not a single tanty!! pack only healthy snacks, stop every 2 hours at a play ground & when we saw a st vinnies store we stopped to buy one of their $2 bags of toys. we also had DVD players for when things got stressfull.

8. damabi - Jan 02 08:41am

A good game for older children is the alphabet game - choose a topic and everyone takes turns to name something from that topic for each letter of the alphabet. You can take turns with different letters or each person has to name something for each letter.

9. smull63 - Jan 02 08:44am

Hi Nat,

Here's one that works. Get everyone in the car to choose a colour. Score one point for each car of your chosen colour coming the other way . Play first to ten or twenty points then choose different colours. Simple but fun (unless you're driving through a city). Cheers,

Sean

10. johnlooten - Jan 02 08:44am

a good car game is road cricket .kids take take turn batting.
you score runs from oncoming traffic.
cars =1 run
trucks =4 runs
caravans =2 runs
as soon as you pass a red car you lose your wicket
take this in turn to see who gets highest run score.
cheers john

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