Your kids school is finally out and you have the kids for a full day again! YAY! You know what that means? Road Trip! It’s time to explore the world, or maybe somewhere downtown the kids have never been to before. No matter if your trip is 45 minutes to 16 hours, there is always the chance the dreaded Car Boredom will fall upon everyone. You know that face where you can probably just draw on it a smiley face and even that wouldn’t help cheer them up.
There is only so long until the coloring pages are all filled in, the book one of the kids brought along is not distracting enough, or maybe the word search’s have all been completed. I will share with you, my mom hacks to help fight off car boredom that I will ensure you will work! These have been tried and tested with my four kids and I hope they are able to help you,
1. Have a vast amount of snacks and juices available. Not sugar juices but good for you juices so they don’t get too antsy when the sugar bomb ends up hitting them. I like to pre-make certain snacks as well as some fruit baggy’s filled with each of the kids favorite fruits. You can also pack some fun shaped peanut butter and jelly sandwiches for the kids, I like to cut them in the theme of wherever we are going to visit. It helps with building up the excitement for the final destination, therefore distracting them from the long trip they have to take to get there.
2. Pillows and blankets. There’s nothing like becoming extremely comfortable in a car where you will be spending almost half your day in it. My little one loves to bring your My Little Pony along on her trips, helps her feel more at home and comfortable.
3. Pj’s and Slippers. Let the little ones wear their pj’s with slippers included, it is one of the most comfortable things I have found that my kids love to wear on long road trips. I like to travel in pj pants and then just hit a rest stop about half an hour before we reach our destination to change clothes and take a quick bathroom break.
3. Download The Amazon Underground App. You can Download the Amazon Underground App on any Andriod Smart Phone for FREE! Download the Amazon Underground app from your Android smartphone HERE. It’s completely free to download and use and boosts so many fun apps and games perfect for any road trip. I pre-download at least 2 games per child before we hit the road. It helps when the kids get sick of one game and then want to try a new one.
The Apps are totally free and downloading the app is so simple, I love how my kids can pick and choose from a library of apps that fit their personal style in games/ I have downloaded a few for myself I won’t lie, I love to play Mahjong and with the Amazon Underground App I can pick and choose from different themes of that game. There is also some great educational games that my daughters just love, the love the cooking and dentist app as well as the cool Ninja Angry Birds game.
Here is a little bit of information about the app:
Amazon Underground is available to customers in the United States. When downloading the Underground app to your Android device, you will be walked/prompted through the “unknown sources” process. To install app stores not initially present on your device, Android devices require you to enable the Unknown Sources setting. I’ve done it and it’s totally safe so no worries. Enabling Unknown Sources allows you to download apps and games from sources other than Google Play to your mobile device and any app or game downloaded from Amazon Underground will not harm your device.
The Amazon Underground app is generally compatible with all Android phones that run Android version 4.0 or greater. Amazon Underground is only supported on 5th Generation (2012 – newer) and newer Fire tablets, and Android phones. When installing Amazon Underground, your device may display a notification indicating that the app will get access to sending SMS messages, and that “this may cost you money.” At this time, SMS verification is only used by the Amazon Underground in selected regions and is not required if you have an account on Amazon. Did I mention you can watch your favorite movies and TV shows from Amazon Video on your Android phone as well as enjoy 100% free apps and games only from Amazon Underground.
Download the app for yourself and then come back and let us know what your favorite game was that you downloaded. Did your daughter or son choose to download the Dentist game like mine did? Leave your favorite game app below!
I was selected for this opportunity as a member of Clever Girls and the content and opinions expressed here are all my own.
Yes, yes, these are all road trip essentials. The kids get bored easily, so I make sure I bring their favorite toys and load up the tablets with games.
We are going a road trip next week and I plan on doing everything you have here! It is most necessary to have those snacks and something for them to do or you will go crazy with them asking “are we there yet “
You have some really awesome tips here! As a mama of 3 who will be traveling this summer – THANK YOU! I love the idea of fruit in ziplock baggies! Such a great idea. When you are on the road (or in the air) it can be expensive to keep buying snacks. Packing your own is surely the way to go!
Food and entertainment are necessities when road tripping with my kids. We can’t go anywhere without our snacks and kindles!
I have no idea how my parents survived road trips with out smart phones!! Love this list, we have a couple road trips planned this summer.
I loved road trips as a kid! One of our favorite things to do as a family in the car is play Mad Libs, it’s educational and it was always silly and fun!
These are great tips! We’re headed on a road trip this summer and I’m starting to freak out so this is super helpful. PS – we have the same sheets AND Doc PJs!
That’s so cool! My girls absolutely love them, I have to get another set in a bigger sheet size soon since my 7 year old is moving to a bigger princess bed woot woot! I hope I can find them in a twin xl size.
Thank you for these tips. Although I do not have small children who get bored during road trips, this would still come in handy when I take my grandkids for a trip somewhere.
We travel quite a bit with our 3 young children and I can’t wait to surprise them with this app! Love your other tips too!
We have an 11 hour road trip in about 2 weeks. My kids get headphones, thirt Kindles, chargers, snacks, blankets and a stuffed animal.
I love the idea of going screen-free for road trips, but let’s face it, it doesn’t always go according to plan, lol! I always download a few extra apps that the kids haven’t seen before for when they start to get squirrelly 😉
These are all some wonderful ideas. I always try to make sure I have enough stuff to keep my girls busy in the car. They often start fighting, so I make sure to bring things with to keep them busy at all times.
Super great ideas! Little ones can be hard to please in long car rides, and making them sit still for so long can be torture. You have to make sure to keep them engaged so they don’t get fussy.
These are all great for road trips. I remember when I was younger there was a lot of books, pens, colored pencils, crosswords, coloring books and game books packed in the backseat.
I always make sure i have a lot of snacks and a fully charged tablet and phone. I bring a car charger as well just in case.
This is good to know. We’re about to head out on a road trip in a few days, and I need all the help I can get with three kids, lol.
These are things that I would pack for my kids. They usually take their tablets so that they can play games.
It’s always important to bring stuff that the kids love to work on when traveling. I do that with my kids as well.
Food and entertainment are must haves when road tripping with my kids. We can’t go anywhere without planning! I also make sure he has his iPad and plenty of games to play!!
Snacks, water, pillows, gadgets – we always have these when we go on a road trip. We just had a road trip a couple of weeks ago. Can’t wait for the next one.
The Underground app is so cool! I downloaded it yesterday, and I’m in awe of all the great stuff it has.
Apps is a must for us. My daughter loves her iPad but we also carry activity and coloring books.
Music and chatting knockouts trip boredom for me 🙂
I did not know that you can download Amazon Underground on a device that isn’t from Amazon. Thanks for letting me know.