road trip with Kids
 

My husband and I are planning a road trip from California to Virginia with two boys (3 & 8). Besides a good DVD player and Headphones any suggestions???

Make frequent stops! Try to plan stops in areas where the boys can let off steam in parks or play areas for example. Be prepared to drive at night when they're asleep in the back.

Take a bag with new toys (books, travel games, magazines, small pieces of candy, disposable camera, binoculars, sing-a-long CD, books on CD etc. Give one or the other something 'new' from the bag every so often.

We packed food in a cooler, and had picnic lunches at a park with a playground. Ever couple of days we stopped in a grocery store to replenish the cooler, and the kids loved being able to pick their own cold cuts for lunch.

We stopped driving by 4 PM, and always picked a motel with a pool. The kids thought being able to swim every day was a real treat.

I would say bring as many electronic games and toys as possible, also for the younger child bring coloring books .

Sounds like a great adventure! While traveling with my two kids (who fly and drive with us often), all of the above apply for sure. And I always give them disposable cameras and a journal for doodling.

Maybe just ours are not accustomed to long drives, but they very often get motion sickness... We travel with those elastic wristbands with balls (not sure if it works really but anything helps), wipes, bigg-ish ziplock bags, 2 pairs of clothes, lavendar essential oil. We don't use motion sickness medicine as they kids get really drawsey all day (and stay up all night). Very often, we need to make stops because one or both of them are feeling "sickie".

i have done a few road trips with kids- theyre a bit older now but the routines are pretty much the same with a few modificatons

firstly to save spaceand make it comfortable i flat pack the beach towels on their back seat with a thin duvette on top...easy on their little bottoms
we pack lot of snacks and each child has that bag beside or by their feet
wehave a portable dvd player but thats only a last resort usually
we borrow audio tapes of stories from the library (ive bought them, too)
last time we listened to seinfeld - several times -now thatthe kids are older
we also prepare music on disc so that everyone has their favourites ..in the past we have set a goal like learning allthe words to 'american pie' before a set pit- stop!
lots of games you can play too- look on the net for these and there're things you can prepare on paper like spotto etc..th little one can join in and the older one can record
we always finish travelling by the afternoon so that the kids can run around and explore their stopover in the daylight- go into the town or visit the beach or just swim in the pool