Make sure you pack their activity bag!

With the holidays coming soon – from Thanksgiving to Christmas – there will be a lot of traveling going on. With two kids below age 5, I have learned a few good things to keep them happily busy on the road, for a few hours.

Read more to see how you can lessen the “are-we-there-yets” on the car, bus or plane.

Going on a road trip with kids? Here are a few things you might want to bring along. Consider them part of the anti-boredom, anti-antsy arsenal.

Books

If your kids like stories, pack a few of their favorite reads. Surprise them by packing along a new book or two to keep their interest up. When you’re done with the stories, activity books can also come in handy – the ones that let them color, connect the dots or have writing and drawing games. Sticker books are also popular with preschoolers and toddlers. Pack new activity books and indulge them with the kind that has their favorite characters. Dora activity books are a hit with my toddler. Make them new so there’s plenty to do and the novelty lasts longer.

Stories on CD

My kids 5 and 3 years old, enjoy listening to their Winnie the Pooh CD that also comes with a book. We pop it into the car stereo when we take them for a few hours drive to our favorite beach. We’ve used the same CD for a few trips already! They still love listening to it. But the Dr. Seuss CDs and books look pretty good too. We’re packing that for next trip!

Bubbles

Maybe this won’t work for the airplane, but on the car it is a proven time-zapper for us. Pop open the window and blow, blow away. The bubble guns are extra fun and make extra big, extra plenty bubbles. We’ve gotten good reactions from other cars with kids on the road, which adds to the fun! Babies love bubbles too.

Electronic Toys

The kids themselves pack their favorite Leap Frog toys into out travel activity bag. The Leapster for my 5-year-old and the Leap Pad for my 3-year-old-girl. Absolutely fun and absolutely educational too. For babies, Leap Frog also has a lot of talking, interactive electronic toys that are portable and a lot of fun. Reminder though, choose one that doesn’t make annoying sounds, as you might have to sit with it for a few hours.

A Baking Sheet

Yes, those cheap baking sheets are what I’m talking about. A 9″ x 12″ pan fits nicely into our toy bag. Not the flat ones though. You want the kind with raised edges to make it a good play surface that will stop toys from falling on the floor. Not fun! My Legos-loving son uses his pan to make space stations and what-not on the road. My daughter uses it as a surface for making her bead bracelets or to hold her letter magnets. The baking sheets are also good for holding puzzles that they can work on, to pass the time away.

DVDs

Little Einsteins, Dora, Yo Gabba Gabba or a Pixar child-friendly film is also good to pack along if you have a DVD player in the car. If you don’t, you can rent them or they can come with your rental car, if specified. I do try to limit my kids’ media consumption, but if there’s any time I’m glad to oblige it’s during a long road trip. A good show or movie isn’t bad for them once in awhile, and it does help make the vacation so much more pleasant with no anxious, repetitive cries of Are we there yet?!

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