How to keep kids busy on a long drive

A long drive with children goes more smoothly with a little planning: the right things within reach, a rough order for activities, and stops that happen before anyone melts down. This guide covers all three, for children from 3 to 12.

Before you leave

Pack an activity bag for each child, and keep it at their feet or in a seat-back pocket, not in the boot. A good bag has:

• a clipboard or a hard book to lean on (paper on a wobbly lap tears);
• colored pencils, which travel better than crayons (they can melt in a hot car) or markers;
• a few printed activity pages, sorted so the easiest ones are on top;
• a small toy or two they haven’t seen for a while;
• snacks and a drink they can manage without help.

Print pages at home before the trip. Sort them into a few envelopes (“after lunch”, “after the stop”) so something new comes out now and then instead of everything at once.

Let them help plan. Show the route on a map and let older children mark the stops. A child who knows there’s a stop at the lake is less likely to ask “are we there yet?” every ten minutes.

During the drive: take it in turns

Children rarely stay with one activity for long in a car, so plan to rotate. A rough rotation that works for many families:

1. Spotting games while there’s plenty to see: bingo, I spy, the alphabet on signs.
2. A paper activity when the view gets boring: a maze, a word search, a map of the trip so far.
3. Something to listen to: music, an audiobook, a story told by a grown-up.
4. Talking games: would you rather, twenty questions, a story chain.
5. Quiet time: looking out of the window, a nap, or nothing at all. Boredom for a while is fine.

Then start again. You don’t have to follow it strictly; it just means there’s always a next thing ready.

For car-sick children, keep reading and puzzles for the stops, and choose games that keep their eyes on the horizon while the car is moving.

The driver stays out of it. Games that need a grown-up are for a grown-up passenger. If there’s only one adult in the car, pick games the children can play with each other, or that only need an answer called out.

Stops

Plan stops before they’re urgent. The UK Highway Code, for example, recommends that drivers take a break of at least 15 minutes every two hours, and that rhythm suits children too. Use the stop well:

• Move first. Run, stretch, jump, climb. Save the snacks for when they come back to the car.
• Look for something to spot. A new sign, a bird, the number of the road you’re on. It gives the next stretch a starting point.
• Refill the activity bag. Swap in a new envelope of pages.

The last hour

The last hour is often the hardest. Keep one new thing back for it, whether that’s a new page, a new game or a special snack, and tell them there is something saved for the end of the drive. A “halfway there” moment helps too: write down or draw what they’ve seen so far, and what they think the place you’re going to will look like.

A quick checklist

• Activity bag for each child, within reach
• Clipboard and colored pencils
• Printed pages in a few envelopes
• Snacks and water
• A plan for stops about every two hours
• One new thing saved for the last hour

At Pencil Otter we make road-trip books around one child, with their name in the puzzles, your destination on the cover and pages for their age. The free kit above is a good way to try the pages first.