freedom... to take your family on the road
Think hard about the ages and personalities of your children the constraints of car travel, before packing toys and games for the trip.
- Do your children get car sick? If so, you will want to avoid anything visual.
- Do you have a variety of music to entertain everyone throughout the journey?
Here are some do's and don'ts for child car travel:
do's
- For peace of mind, take your own child or booster seat as requests for these items cannot be guaranteed in all cases due to limited availability in some locations.
- Bring some suitable reading material.
- Allow each child to bring one toy or game to play with alone.
- Play 'I Spy'. This can drive parents to insanity in 10 minutes, but small children love it and generally lose concentration before everyone loses patience.
- Play '20 Questions', the old 'animal, vegetable or mineral' thinking game in its simplest form. Good for children of 8 and over.
- Play 'Collecting', a simple race to 'collect' objects you might see from the car window. Each person chooses their object - red cars, for example, or a certain petrol sign - and keeps their own score.
- Make frequent stops for refreshments, leg-stretching and restroom breaks.
- Have an emergency stash of food in the car in case you can't stop when you want to. Dried fruit and glucose provide much-needed energy.
- Try and get them to look out of the window - that's why you're travelling!
don'ts
- Have games or food that can be fought over or spilled easily.
- Allow children to spend too long with Playstations or books - constant use of the eyes in a moving car can induce nausea.
- Let games get so raucous that they distract the driver.
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