Traveling with kids.....

We had the pleasure recently of embarking on a 12+ hour drive with the 2 boys to Disney and then to Venice, FL. I thought I should impart some of the things I learned in case any of you ever get the pleasure of this experience :)

I quickly learned that my bag of toys, magnet board, coloring books, silly songs, and snacks just weren't going to cut it!! Every toy I gave either of them was thrown on the ground or in between the door and the seat within seconds, the markers were more of a chew toy, the silly songs just made them bored and eventually led to aggravation for all of us!!


Luckily we invested in these lovely DVD players before leaving on our trip for $160. They attach nicely to the back of the headrests and sit at a perfect angle for the kids to enjoy!! I had stashed a plentiful amount of Mickey Mouse DVD's in by toy bag. These two bad boys were a perfect distraction for fussy babies. Unfortunately Mickey Mouse was the only DVD they liked, I tried Cars, Toys Story 3, and Kung Fu Panda and neither of these subsided their boredom like Mickey Mouse did. So we stuck with the Mouse-ka-tools and enjoyed singing along to the Hot Dog dance!!!

The next greatest solution...

complete with some of the boy's favorite apps....

Cade loves the following ones:

Tozzle

(This is a super cute app that has puzzles and challenges their motor activity and is great for shape recognition. Cade LOVES this one.)

Animal Hide and Seek Adventure

(this app challenges their critical thinking skills and is a fun interactive game)

Duck Duck Moose apps

(They have Itsy Bitsy Spider, Wheels on the Bus, Baa Baa Black Sheep and many other)

This is a great interactive app as well that sings and even allows you to record your voice singing the songs. You poke the animals, people, and objects on the screen and it navigates you through the story. 

Fish School HD

This is another Duck Duck Moose App. You have the option to learn ABCs, shapes, numbers, colors, matching, singing and playtime. Both Cade and Brooks love this one, especially because it has fish!!

Starfall ABCs

This is one of my personal favorites and I am convinced this is one of the apps that helped Cade learn his ABC's by the age of 20 months. You hit a letter and the narrator interacts with the different letters reading letters, words, and sentences related to that specific letter.

Kid Song Machine

This is a fun, musical app that has all the great classic kids songs. Cade is really into singing right now and he loves listening and playing along.

Noah's Ark

This is an interactive book that tells about Noah's Ark. It is for all different ages as there are different levels of reading. You can choose for the story to be read to you and then hit the different pictures and animals to interact as the story is being told. Cade loves the animals and really enjoys this one as well.

Zoola

This app is great for Brooks because you can hit the animal picture and it makes the different animal sounds and tells the name of the animal. This is another app that I believe helped Cade early on develop the recognition of animals and their different noises. 

Peekaboo HD

This is Brooks favorite, you just hit the screen and it interacts with him. A haystack covers the animal as it makes a noise and then moves to the side to reveal the animal. Cade thinks it is fun to guess the animal based off of the sound it makes. 

These are just some of our favorite apps. There are TONS out there for kids. These are some of the ones that I find particularly helpful for my kids and they love playing my (their) Ipad. It is especially great for car rides or times when you need them to sit still. If you have ever seen Cade work my Ipad it is pretty amazing!! He can navigate it better than me!! Cade is a very bright child and I honestly believe that the Ipad has contributed partly to that. Brooks is well on his way to following in his brother's footsteps!! I would definitely recommend investing in one if possible!!


My last tip for traveling with kids is this handy little app that we discovered on our trip....

We found that making longer stops and having somewhere for them to get out and play was well worth the extra time!! I must admit the play places are NASTY!!! So have your wet wipes and disinfectant ready!!! My boys were probably so sick of getting wiped down but even the sticky, dirty, germs were worth their happiness in the end!!

If all else fails, make sure you have pacifiers, snacks (complete with the airplane feeding game) and maybe even ear plugs ready!! Long car rides are not fun for any of us, and everyone has their own way of coping these are just a few things I found helpful for ours while we traveled with our young children.