Jump to content

Recommended Posts

Hello


We are taking a road trip across France in July and I was wondering if anyone had tips/recommendations of things to entertain a 16 month yr old? We don't have a car so she's not used to being couped for a long time! I wasn't going to go down the personal DVD route (keeping costs down) so was thinking about toys etc?


Any ideas?


Thanks

A drawing board (with pen on a string) picture books, sweets. Lots of small cheap things that are periodically produced to keep the novelty factor high. Have done several trips and breaking journey at an aire with a play area and having a proper run about helps. Did not use films at that age, mine are quite happy travellers though.

Do you have an iPad? There's a kids series called seek and find which I use for long train journeys (and trips to the hairdresser!) the apps are free though you can pay for extra pictures which I dont think are necessary if its just a one off journey (I was doing lots of train journeys with similar age DS)

Other thing he loved were stickers-any kind of stickers entertained him for ages, and then he liked to draw around / over the stickers.

Finally, though this involves a lot of adult participation, we found flash cards to be a life saver-you can bring them out in restaurants / cafes too as they just fit in your handbag.

Good luck!

We got a portable car DVD player from curries on sale, half price at ?70 and it is well worth it.. My son hates driving in the car for a long time so ths works like a dream for us.. As for toys not sure really unless someone will be in the back p,aching with the child? X

Drive at night so they sleep?

Have your meals in the car (picnic-style foods) so they're kept busy eating for an hour or so.

These are prob best if you just have one long journey to do, and can relax once you get to your destination, rather than an actual driving holiday tho.


Otherwise, nursery rhyme CDs, stickers and cheap spiral-bound notebooks so they can use up as much paper as they like. Etch-a-sketch? We also had a portable DVD player - ?60ish - and so worth it!

Where possible we always drive at night. Bath at home, into PJs, into car. They always sleep through stops to get petrol etc. Works less well on return journeys as they always seem to wake up as we come off the motorway. Still prefer it to travelling whilst they are awake. Having said that we drove to Wales on Sat morning. IPad games were popular with 4 year old. 18 month old was trickier, he slept for a bit luckily. We cbeebies theme tunes and Charlie and Lola story cd kept him amused plus raisins and dried cereal.


We are also driving across France in a few months and planning to get a portable DVD player. Let us know how you get on!

At 16 mo ours wouldn't have been entertained by a DVD player or iPad for more than a minute or two, we always tried to do long journeys after bedtime or over nap time to get as many miles done whilst they are asleep as poss. Having partner sat next to Ds in the back providing endless stream of snacks/meals/toys helped. Breaks where they can run around good too, more picnic and a park than quick service station stop.

Lots of toys, particularly musical instruments - the trick for us is to produce them one at a time, a steady stream of small things for little hands to explore.

We find our little one also enjoys music - particularly if one of you is prepared to be a bit silly and sing along, preferably with head banging!

But for any length of time we do nap times or drive after his bedtime.

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now
  • Latest Discussions

    • We’ve got a gap on the roof of our shed that needs patching  don’t want to buy a huge roll so hoping someone has some leftover  happy to collect/reimburse 
    • I never said I thought it was targeted or deliberate. There also has never been a “stand off” or confrontation, we’ve spoken to them in a friendly manner about it. Our experience is they don’t seem to care. That’s the frustrating thing for us, if someone politely raises a concern at least take a second to reflect. Treat others how you would want to be treated.  I don’t want them to lose their job, far from it. But considering it could cost me a days work to fix any damage, I’m within my right to try prevent it.   
    • The SE22 Evri delivery family are lovely, and always say hello wherever we spot them in the area. We gave them a box of chocolates during Covid as they were working their socks off at Christmas
    • What was he doing on the stage at Glastonbury? Or on the stage at the other concert in Finsbury Park? Grinning like a Cheshire cat whilst pissed and stoned 20 somethings on the promise of free internet sung-- Oh Jeremy Corbyn---  What were his policies for Northern mining towns with no jobs or infrastructure? Free Internet and university places for youngsters. What were his other manifesto pledges? Why all the ambiguity over Brexit?  I didn't like Thatcher, Blair or May or Tony but I respected them as politicians because they stood by what they believed in. I respect all politicians across the board that stick to their principles. Corbyn didn't and its why he got  annihilated at the polls. A socialist, anti imperialist and anti capitalist that said he voted for an imperialist and pro capitalist cabal. He refused to say how he'd vote over and over again until the last knockings. He did so to appease the Islington elite and middle class students he was courting. The same people that were screaming that Brexit was racist. At the same time the EU were holding black and Asian immigrants in refugee camps overseas but not a word on that! Corbyn created and courted a student union protest movement that screamed at and shouted down anyone not on the left . They claimed Starmer and the centre right of labour were tories. He didn't get elected  because he, his movement and policies were unelectable, twice. He turned out not to have the convictions of his politics and died on his own sword.    Reform won't win an election. All the idiots that voted for them to keep out Labour actually enabled Labour. They'll be back voting tory next time.    Farage wouldn't be able to make his millions if he was in power. He's a very devious shyster but I very much doubt he'd actually want the responsibility that governance requires.
Home
Events
Sign In

Sign In



Or sign in with one of these services

Search
×
    Search In
×
×
  • Create New...