Car Dilemas

Riding in the car with kids can sometimes be, well, less than desirable to put it nicely. We are always looking for things to make long car trips a little more pleasant for both us and the little ones. If you are at all like me, here are two ideas to add to your list:

God bless portable DVD players!! Sometimes I wonder how parents ever survived without them. But if you ever feel the guilty twinge of putting yet another mindless video on for your kids (or spending even more mindless hours playing portable video games) here is another idea. Put together a video slideshow of past family vacations, events, etc. with fun, upbeat music and play that instead. It will get their memories churning, stimulate conversation in the car, and generate lots of laughter! Though I've never tried this in the car (I read the suggestion in a magazine but I plan to try it soon), I often use the slideshow feature on our Mac at home and Zach, my three year old, will spend half-an-hour or more looking at old pictures. He loves it! I also put on home videos of him as a baby and he loves watching those as well. If you have access to an ipod touch or ipad, you can put slideshows on those too and you have instant, portable entertainment at the doctor's office or while shopping for furniture or any other place that kids tend to pull out the monsters!

We often listen to children's CDs in the car such as favorite Disney movies or the Wiggles. But there are days I just can't listen to one more silly song, so I started checking out books from the library that have accompanying audio CDs. And though Zach is only three, he loves listening to the stories! I can also hand him the book, and even though he doesn't understand how to follow the pages exactly, he enjoys looking at the pictures at random as he listens to the story. His recent favorite, due to the fact that he is obsessed with witches and ghosts, is Piggie Pie. It is a darling book about Gritch the Witch's desire for a delicious piggie pie. When she discovers she has no piggies on hand, she flies to Old McDonald's Farm to get some. When the pigs see her coming they dress up as the other animals on the farm and the Witch searches for the little pigs in vain! It is very funny and it is read very well on the audio CD. Zach asks for it every time we get in the car. My sister has downloaded some stories onto her ipod and listens to those in her car. Her daughter loves them too! If you have older kids you can check out favorite novels such as Harry Potter or Charlie Bone and I'm sure they'll listen eagerly and quietly! And you, the driver, may be entertained as well...which means a more pleasant drive for everyone!