I don't know about you, but some of my most stressful times with my children take place in our van. Whether the trip is 10 minutes or 2 hours...it doesn't seem to matter. They are contained, constrained, and typically discontent. We have run the gamut of things to try to make them happy, so I thought I'd share some things that have worked for us and am BEGGING you to share some more ideas!!
DVD's - this one is tricky for families like us who do not have built-in DVD players. But we use a portable one for longer car trips.
music - probably 75% of the time, you will find annoying children's music blaring from my good ole mini van! :)
singing songs - I honestly don't know why I don't do this one more often. Perhaps it's because I'm exhausted once I get them all buckled in and when I drive, I like to let my mind wander. But a fun round of "The Wheels on the Bus" or "Old MacDonald's Farm" can go a long way. :)
word games - this is BY FAR Isaac's favorite way to spend the time...some of our favorites include the opposite game ("What's the opposite of..."), guess who ("I'm thinking of someone in our family who's a boy and wears glasses..."), math fun ("What's 1+1?"), I spy ("I spy something green, something green with my little eye"), name that animal sound, the letter game ("What letter says, "buh-buh-buh?"), and the rhyming game ("What are some words that rhyme with...").
toys - we have a little bin of small figurines and random toys that they can play with during the drive
books - we also keep a few books to occupy their time
travel magnadoodle/aqua sketch - these are also usually reserved just for longer car rides
snacks/water - I swore I was never going to be one of those moms who let their kids eat in the car. And then I had kids. HA! Sometimes a little baggie of trail-mix can do wonders. When their mouths are busy eating, they aren't screaming! :)
So those are some of my ideas. And it's truly amazing how often I forget to use them! I need to post a list in my van as a reference guide. I always forget to spend time interacting with them while in the car, but I hope to get better at this to not only reduce our stress, but to cultivate better relationships with them. I'm a little embarrassed to admit that when they decide to start screaming at the top of their lungs at each other, a few times, I have resorted to blaring some of my worship music! It's quite the scene, really. They may be in tears, arguing with one another, and here is mommy...up front, drowning out the screeching sounds of her children with "Oh how He loves us!" :) I had adopted the attitude, "if you can't beat em...join em!" But that is all about to change...hopefully. :)
Leslie, you are totally doing a full session of school in the car with your kiddos!! I love that! :) Arthur and Matthew, at 6 and 5, are now old enough to entertain each other with conversations and pointing things out to each other outside of the car, playing imaginative games about the cars or things that we pass etc ("we're a submarine and all the cars are SHARKS!!" hehe!), without any input from me. The littler ones need more, and before the older two reached this stage, we used to always play story CDs. They love Thomas the Tank Engine, so we have a LONG CD of Thomas stories that they only ever get to listen to in the car. Keeps everyone quiet for maybe 40 minutes sometimes!
ReplyDeleteWe also play music, but kids' music drove me nuts in the end, and after we phased it out (!!) we discovered that they love classical music. They will request it every time.
I play worship music as often as possible, even if they protest, lol! They really like having it playing, but protest if they would have preferred something else instead that time. At home there are occasions when I put worship music on OVER the din of issues I need to be dealing with, and sing along with gusto! I hear you on that one! I think it's okay to do that sometimes, because I do it not to escape from my responsibility, but more because I have reached boiling point and need to calm my spirit down and get my heart and mind in the right place with God. Singing worship songs really does that for me, and usually quite quickly. I do it because my children get the benefit of a mummy who is in a better place and ready to deal with their issues afresh, and because it is good for THEIR little spirits as well, to have worship music washing over them. Often it changes how they are acting, or distracts them from whatever the frustration was in the first place.
LOVE the idea of the stories on CD! We have never done that, and I really think the kiddos would enjoy something like that! Thanks for the tip!! :) And yes...the worship music is for sure a daily thing in our home. I've even found some beautiful children's worship music that we ALL enjoy! :) I'll also have to start experimenting with the classical stuff as well! :) Thanks for the thoughtful response, Alice!! :)
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