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It’s all too easy to jump in the car to grab something from the supermarket. Or you’re late for an appointment so you bundle the kids into the car and make a dash for it. Only to find that somehow you meet a delay or road works.
Worse is when you are on a long commute home from a trip out and you get caught up in traffic. I nervously start working out the nearest toilet stops. Although having boys it’s not so bad it’s me I worry about. Sound familiar?
Do you turn off the car then on again? Do you chug along slowly so you keep moving or accelerate then sharply break? Am I in the right lane……..? That’s just me. But what happens to the kids behind.
These are our ” Traffic Jam” sanity savers or long journey savers. You usually find these in our car- always! We’ve used them and now keep available for times such as these.
Sticker books
These are a big favourite. There is a stall in a local market in the UK that sells sticker books. Whenever I’m home or anyone is coming over I beg ask them to bring a stack. All on different themes. With 20-30 pages they fit nicely into the pockets of the car seats in front of the children or into the stroller. Always something new and different in them. We reserve the 400 page mega sticker books for home or heavy-duty waiting. These little sticker books are often switched out and rotated.
Magnetic books
I’ve talked about Muddle Farm before and we love it in the car for the imaginary stories the boys make. They don’t always use the background and the stories are hilarious. We take an animal and start a story. Try the one where the pig goes to the beach for the day. Someone starts that story and everyone chimes in with the rest of it.
It’s not always easy to play games together even though we’re altogether because we have a third row in our car so someone can’t see. So many of our activities are for one person. However memory game is successful because you can pass the board back and forth and everyone can see if you’re cheating. (such a big deal for the under 5s). The BG started with hangman at 5. We played the original version and a modified version. The modified version is he uses a book to find a word. Uses the word for his hangman so he knows the word and its letters. He had to have a go at saying it too.
Audio books
We have a few Barefoot Books story CD’s and Scholastic book club CD’s. Both groups have paperback books that fit in the car so the kids have many ways to interact. They can follow along or listen or read independently. I love listening to them read the stories out loud, especially the MO who’s memorised the “ping” sound to turn the page. You can also make your own audio books. We love the little engine that could and have this book in our collection. For $0.99 you can get the 7 minute download of this book from Audible kids.
With all that heavy breathing, you are sure to have foggy windows. Make shapes, feet, bunnies on the windows using your fingers. The only problem is sticky greasy fingers but for me it’s worth it to clean the glass down the line.
Melitsa Avila is a former teacher, mother of three boys and military wife who talks about living an intentional play lifestyle using practical and everyday play activities to do with the under 5s. She publishes related ebooks & newsletters.
Melitsa is the host and producer of a weekly Early Childhood radio show: Raising Playful Tots bringing parents and carers together with Early childhood practitioners.
Thanks for reading!
This entry was posted on Monday, April 26th, 2010 at 10:27 am and is filed under Articles, Education, Good reads, language, play activities. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.
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These are great ideas. I especially like the post-it note idea. We have singalongs a lot in the car – great for keeping my toddler entertained.
.-= Catherine´s last blog ..postcard swap =-.
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