How to keep your children entertained on a long journey

School’s out for summer and we are hoping that lots of you will be heading out in your touring caravan to enjoy your summer break!

Whilst we know you will all be bursting with excitement, there’s the matter of the journey that lays ahead, and with so many people heading to many beautiful parts of the country, the possibility of some traffic is inevitable.

So, we have come up with some ideas of how to keep your children entertained on the car journey, and here’s our Top Ten:

Tablets & Portable Media
When we asked our Facebook followers how they keep their children entertained, the top answer was load tablets and mobile devices with favourite films, apps and games, make sure they are fully charged, and that did the job!

Mystery Bag
Depending on the length of your journey, wrap up a selection of small treats and goodies and let your children open one every so often. Your journey may consist of several landmarks, so you could use these as marker points, or you could divide your journey into miles and use these. They don’t have to be big things, and 99p Stores and Pound shops are ideal for getting a selection of little knick-knacks from mini packets of sweets, to crayons and tubs of Play Doh.

Treasure Hunt
If you aren’t in a hurry and like to take time over a longer journey, research a treasure hunt. Plot places you are going to stop and find something of interest at each point for your children to discover and find.

Eye Spy
Make a list of things your children have to spot whilst on the journey. This can be as simple as certain road signs, animals, types of trees or flowers, bridges. Other popular forms of this game include spotting yellow cars, minis, VWs, Eddie Stobart lorries and emergency service vehicles. If you want to make this a little more exciting, you can purchase digital cameras very reasonably now, so get them to take pictures too.

The Number Plate Game
Gone are the days when number plates used to make more sense and often consisted of three letter words or names. Now, the majority of number plates include lots of W, X, Y and Z, but you can still play the word or the number game. If your children are football fans, some of the newer number plate combinations aren’t too bad….. For example, DZK could be Dzeko, XHK could be Xhaka, and there are many more with name combinations that include the latter end of the alphabet. Another take on this game is for each family member to be given a number, for example, 08, 11, 63, 66 and the first to reach 10 vehicles with their number on wins the round.

Travel Games
Despite the rising trend in technology, you can still buy traditional travel games such as Connect 4, Battleships, Snakes & Ladders, playing cards, and many more.
Quiz

Devise a quiz
It could be a general knowledge quiz, spellings, word association, quiz based on your children’s favourite films and TV programmes. There are lots of ideas online, and you can award small prizes if you wish.

It’s Good To Talk!
Whilst you have your children, particularly if they are a little older, in a confined space, get the conversation going. Each member of the family can take a turn to choose a topic to talk about for a certain period of time, or you could talk about what you are most looking forward to about your forthcoming holiday, plan your holiday activities and days out or just reconnect.

Tell a Story….
….Or make one up. You could take it in turns to make one up, or a fun way is you each say a sentence in turn and see where the story goes!

Activity Books, Colouring Books and Sticker Books and Books
There are a huge variety of activity books available, from simple sticker and colouring books, to the Eye Spy books, puzzles. As long as you make frequent stops should your children suffer from travel sickness, which can be brought on by reading, then these are still great, traditional ways to keep your children entertained.

Of course, children can fight and fall out all in the name of good old fashioned sibling rivalry! Make frequent comfort stops on a journey so you can all take five minutes, refresh and stretch your legs. Make sure you pack plenty of snacks and refreshments just in case you get stuck in traffic.

For those of you without air conditioning or climate control, hand-held battery fans can be purchased very cheaply and are a great way to help keep a little cooler. Another idea is to freeze some of your drinks beforehand so they keep really cool and slowly defrost along the way.

If you want to reward good behaviour, tell your children they can each earn a maximum amount by the end of the journey, and had out a proportion of that amount at every milestone. Or, do it in reverse, let them have the money to start with and then take away an amount each time they misbehave!

Also please ensure that your car and caravan are fully maintained and that you have your caravan insurance in place before you start your journey!