Every other Friday I drive down to Essex to pick the boys up from school. It takes about 7 hours there and back, so I use Audible on the way there to keep me entertained and then pack the boys up lots to do on the way back. Rush hour traffic on a Friday is a bit of a nightmare!
Both the boys have one of these on the back of our seats and I like to fill them with things to keep them occupied on the journey. There are some little toys (kinder eggs, Lego men etc) in one of the pockets. These were about £3 each and have been a brilliant buy, keeping everything together and within easy reach for the kids.
I always like to pop a snack or two in there for them for after school. This week they had these cute little Santa chocolate lollies which I picked up from Marks and Spencer’s in the hospital while visiting Ste.
I also got them one of these little Christmas activity sets each. They have some felt tip pens, stickers, colouring sheets and plain paper in. Riley did some great colouring in his on this journey! Places like Poundland are great for little sets like these.
I always pop them both a book or two in. Leo, especially, likes to read on the way. He is a real bookworm like me! I also downloaded a couple of Audible books for them – Paddington and the Christmas Play and Froggy’s Best Christmas. Riley really enjoyed both of these and wanted to listen to them again and again.
I always get them a couple of drinks for the journey as they are always thirsty after school. I picked up these cartons from Asda so they had one of this flavour and an apple one each.
I picked this up in Asda the other week, as I knew both boys would like it and they did! Each page has a number of characters (including Santa) to find as well as a list of stuff for each particular page. They enjoyed doing this separately and together which was nice.
I also picked up this game. They were 2 for £7 in Asda and it is obviously their take on Guess Who. I also got their version of Battleships. Unfortunately I forgot to check what set up was needed prior to the journey and the boys started but soon got bored trying to fix the boards so will sort this out for next time I go and get them! Epic Mummy fail! We also love to play our own games. The boys favourite is the A to Z game where we make a list on different topics – the boys favourite’s are countries, Christmas, Capital cities, football teams and animals – and we have to name something on that topic beginning with every letter of the alphabet.
We also had a good sing song with the boys playing DJ on my phone and taking it in turns to pick a Christmas song, which was being blue-toothed to the car stereo so we could all hear it and join in! We enjoy talking about what they have been up to in school that week and what we are going to do for the weekend. We sometimes pick up a treat for tea like McDonald’s or Subway if the boys have been well behaved, so they don’t eat too late as we often aren’t home till just after 7pm. We also have in car DVD players which are great, although the charger is currently broken, but normally the boys have a stash of DVDs in the car which they choose between themselves to watch.
I hope this gives you some long car journey inspiration, I am sure lots of families will be doing some travelling over the festive period and it can be hard keeping the children happy and content in the car! The boys are always really good and I think a little prior planning to get them some bits I know they will enjoy doing helps lots! Happy travelling!
Check out this fab post by Thimble and Twig – ‘Screen Free Ways To Entertain Kids On A Long Journey’ – for her ideas on how you can keep little ones entertained on your travels
The Spoonie Mummy 
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