Tips to follow while going on a long drive with children

Parents get panicky with the very thought of going on a long drive with kids. However, they can surely make their travel trouble-free by making themselves well equipped during the trip. Here are some tips that will surely help to take a hassle free yet pleasurable travel with children by car.

• Travelling by car becomes quite tiresome for both kids and adults alike. To relieve from the car seat cramps you can stop at parks, rest houses or other locations, where you can, relax and give your children a chance to play and rejuvenate.
• Prior to the trip note down the names of all the cities you will be passing through in a little spiral notebook. Then during the trip as you pass each city, point it to them and make them check it off their list. This gives the children a fair visual idea of how much of the trip is left. On the return trip they can start from the bottom and work backward. This is a great tip to keep children engaged.
• Write down the favorite songs of your children on pieces of paper and make them choose one at a time during the journey. Then everyone in the car has to sing the song to make your journey most enjoyable.
• Carry interesting games to keep your children involved. The license game, which is popular for cross-country journey is best for the pre teen agers. A travel-sized Magna Doodle is also quite effective to keep your children occupied. Make the preschoolers learn colors by identifying the colors of the cars passing by.
• The reusable stickers are a great entertainer for the children, which they can stick or restick on the windows of the cars.
• Stuff a bag with funny gifts or toys. Make promise to your children that if they are well behaved during the trip, they will have those gifts every 50 miles or every 45 minutes.
• One of the most successful ideas is to serve trays and prepare them with puzzles, board games and play dough. Let the children choose their favorite tray while travelling.
• Prepare surprise packets of books, travel games, snacks or small toys for children to open periodically during the trip, which they will anticipate and really enjoy.
• Buy your children an inexpensive camera, so that they could take snapshots while travelling and create a memory book with their photos.
• Provide them with a scrapbook or any home made copy to draw and color whatever they visualize while travelling.
• Carry enough juice boxes, food packets, crispy snacks and cold drinks to offer your children during the trip.
• Pack sufficient disposable diapers, napkins and baby wipes in a Ziploc bag and make one Ziploc bag for each day of travel.
• While travelling with babies in car, make them wear diapers or pull-ups.

These above tips will definitely prove effective for managing your children while travelling by car.