1 – THE BASIC CHECKLIST: hunger & temperature
These 2 subjects are always the ones to address first. If they are not satisfied, it is very likely that your child will be difficult to manage!
– Try not to shift your child’s mealtimes because of the journey. In any case, provide small snacks (fruit, cakes, crackers)
– Make sure your child is not too hot or too cold. Don’t forget that your child is sitting in the back seat and that the air conditioning or heating may not work as well. Also, car seat materials are often hot. Consider installing sunshades on the back of the car seat, for example.
2- Try to adapt the travel schedule to the child’s routine
If you can, adapt the journey to your child’s rhythm. The child’s mealtimes should not be too disruptive. Plan breaks for meals and snacks. And once again, take along small snacks to nibble on during the journey.
Children often sleep well in the car, they are lulled to sleep. It is therefore strategic to plan a journey during nap time or in the evening so that the child can fall asleep.
3- Car hacks for children
Here are 2 objects that we have in our car and that greatly facilitate our children’s journeys (1 and 4 years old):
- The mobile for babies, having a mobile in the car will distract them, even for short daily trips. I personally bought the Ikea plush mobile for 9€.
- The car organiser for older children (from 2 and a half years old), this object allows children to easily access their toys, water bottle. Some of them even have a shelf to lean on for playing or drawing.
4- Leverage the musical atmosphere
You can prepare a small playlist with songs that your children like. It will be very useful to use it in case of irritation at the back. It’s up to you to educate your children to your music on a daily basis if you don’t want to spend 3 hours with “the wheels on the bus go up and down…” 😉
5- Play
You can plan games to play with your children. You have games that do not require any material, for young children, you should stick to simple things like “the first one who sees…” a tree, a car of such and such a colour, a truck, a bus.
This keeps the children occupied for a quarter of an hour.
And if you want to invest a little, here are some recos of games adapted to travel:
- Magnetic games are steel boxes with big magnets to stick on them to dress up a character, reconstitute an animal. Janod has a great selection of these adapted to all ages.
- Notebooks with stickers can also keep children busy for a while.
- You can take along some coloring materials. For the little ones, there are great notebooks that can be colored with water to avoid accidents 😊.
Drive safe and enjoy!
