Road Trip Activities For Young Kids

So you’re taking the kids on a road trip how fun! We love traveling with our kids both in the car and on planes. 

We recently took a road trip from Maryland to Florida (and back). And then 3 weeks later we moved to Florida from Maryland. That’s over 12 hours each way of straight driving with out any stops (which we had many!) 

During this trip, we discovered and tested some great ways to keep young kids entertained in the car.

Road Trip Activities For Kids

Not all of these activities will work for every kid but hopefully, this list will give you some ideas of activities that your kids will like.

Matchbox Cars 

Both of my kids enjoy playing with Hot Wheels Cars, their favorites are the cars from the Disney Cars Movies. Playing with cars while in the car might seem like a challenge but they were able to easily play with the cars using a cookie sheet I picked up at Walmart.

Coloring and Stickers

I brought a small coloring book, a few blank papers as well as a box of crayons and dollar store book of stickers. The kids used these multiple times on the drive. Sometimes just the stickers other times just the crayons but often both.

White Boards and Dry Erase Markers

The small whiteboard, the kids made at a Home Depot Workshop, along with a dry erase marker can also be fun. My kids like covering the board and then wiping all the marker off over and over again which works great for keeping them entertained.

*Don’t have a small whiteboard? The cheap cookie sheet that we used for a lap table works great as a drawing surface and dry erase markers wipe right off!

If your child can reach the window they can also use the dry erase marker to draw on the glass.

LeapPad

The LeapPad we have for each of our kids is so awesome! They are a great learning tool and the kids love them.

I brought both of their leap pads with several different book options and they played with them for a couple of hours on our drive.

Books

Since our kids love to read I brought both books for the kids to look at and a book or two to read aloud on our trip. The kids loved looking at the books and we read the same read aloud twice they loved it so much!

LeapFrog Alphabet Magnets

The LeapFrog alphabet magnets were a big hit on our trip! They stick to the cookie sheet “tables” making it easy for the kids to keep track of the magnets.

Our two year old especially loved singing along with the songs and playing with the different letters.

Related Post: 10 Easy Ways to Teach Your Toddler The Alphabet 

Snacks

Who new snacks could also be an activity? I swear my kids love to play with their food sometimes more than their toys. Putting snacks on the little “table” makes it easy for kids to eat and play.

Kids Meal and Toy

Getting lunch through the drive thru and putting the kids meal on a cookie sheet is an easy way for your kids to be able to eat in the car and if your kids eat slow like mine you might get a quite drive for 20 minutes!

Plus when they are done eating the NEW toy from the kid’s meal makes for some great entertainment.

Favorite Toys

If your little one has a favorite toy don’t forget to bring it along. Things like little play phones or remotes are always a hit with our kids so I knew they would enjoy playing with them in the car.

Building with LEGO Blocks

Using the cookie sheets the kids were able to build with their LEGO Duplo Blocks. They built towers and cars. This was an activity that they did several times on each trip.

Related Post: Mega Blocks VS Lego Duplo

Movies

Our van has a DVD player which makes watching movies easy. But having a movie playing all the time would drive us all crazy! So we tried to keep the movies for when the kids needed quiet time or a distraction.

Disney movies are some of our kids favorite so most of the movies they watched were Animated Disney Movies. Having favorite movies and some they haven’t seen often or a new movie is a great idea.

What are some of your favorite ways to keep

young kids entertained in the car?

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