Entertain Your Kids in the Car

The answer is always no, it seems. There are always a couple more hours to the beach, a couple more errands to run before going to the pool, a couple more towns to pass through before getting to the family reunion.

The following ideas will help keep kids entertained during long or short trips.

1. Pack food, but pack carefully. Give kids something to munch on, but keep the sugar to a minimum so they're not bouncing all over the car. Peanut butter crackers are a good option because they provide protein but don't have to be refrigerated. Just remember to bring wipes for messy hands and faces.

2. Interact. Remember all those field trips you took as a kid, where you and your friends played eight different versions of the license plate game? Bring that game back. If you're talking and having fun, you're sure to keep your kids engaged, and you can monitor when they're getting tired and need a change of activity.

3. Encourage some quiet times. Coloring, reading, or flipping through a picture book are activities that require focus, but the quiet nature will keep energy levels down. These are also good standbys for when someone in the car is napping or on the phone or in the late afternoon when energy levels drop naturally.

4. Stay organized. Keep kids' things where kids can reach them for easy access - and also where kids can easily put them away. A little bit of disorder can make a car trip miserable in a hurry. Have a trash bag handy at all times, too.

5. Find things to do double duty. Don't bring markers AND crayons; pick which is more compatible with what the kids will use the art supplies for. Can your 4-year-old artist color on the same kind of paper that your 10-year-old poet writes on? Can a few small books substitute for the giant novel?

6. Get a jump on homework assignments or summer reading. No need to bring the whole backpack or desk along. But stick a book, some notebook paper and pencil or calculator in the back seat. If nothing else, when the kids start whining about being bored, the suggestion to do homework might help them very quickly find a way to stay entertained.

7. Accommodate kids who get car sick. OK, so books, crayons, and journals don't fly in your family, where anyone who looks down for more than 10 seconds throws up lunch. Instead, make up stories as a family, or have the kids quietly make one up and then tell it to everyone else in the car. Write new lyrics to familiar songs. Name animals along the side of the road or other cars on the road.

8. Get to know each other better. Interview each other with questions such as, "If you could live anywhere for a month, where would you live?" and "If you could pick only three colors to draw with for the rest of this trip, which ones would they be?" Sometimes really deep conversations come out of this.

9. Give progress reports. Break down how much time is left in the trip or series of errands so it doesn't seem so daunting. For young kids, explain it to them in ways they understand. "It's like four episodes of Dora the Explorer." "It's like driving to preschool and back." For kids a little older, do the same, but also tell them miles or hours so they start to understand those units of measurement.

10. Allow kids to help. Sit down ahead of time and look at the map all together. Highlight the route. Let kids look at it during the trip. Let them read the directions out loud to help navigate. Assign one child the task of passing out apples or drinks or sandwiches. Let kids take turns or vote on where food stops are made. If it's an errand-running trip, let kids help by carrying a bag of groceries or carrying the mail into the post office.