Travelling with kids

JT,

I travel fairly reguarly about 7hrs to visit my folks and we've got a three year old, and we've found the best idea is to travell at night, we leave a couple of hours before bed time stop for tea then a short while after that he's a sleep for the remainder of the journey, it means we get in about midnight each time but still far less hassle. Not a 15 hour journey I know but asking young'ns to go that far during the day is a big ask I reckon, even if you had Crusty the clown in the back seat to keep them amused.

Browny

Pre DVD days, we played I spy and stuff like that, when they were really little we would use a playschool tape or something like that and sing along with the kids.

Steve

We have organizers on the rear of the front seats which we store all their dayly travel needs. A stable table each allows them to draw, read or eat without making too much mess. We have the usual collection of coloring books but also have bird & animal books for them to identify each as they spot them with their binoculars.
Storing pillows & blankets handy allows them to build a cubby house in the back seat. Eye spy, spotto, colored cars & games like that are good to fill in 20 minutes. Electronic Brick games & Gameboys are always great time wasters although we do put a time limit on those as they defeat the point of taking the kids out there to see central Oz. Our kids have low power UHF handhelds to talk with other kids in the convoy. Talking books from the library & kids CDs for sing alongs. One Wiggles tape may drive you mad but will keep them amused for weeks.
Teach them to count things & try spelling games.
I suppose the key thing is to have have regular stops & not try to push on too far in one day although the promise of McDonalds at the next town will keep ours quiet for hours even if they haven't built one in Marree yet ;-))
Cheers Craig.................

G'DAY JT
I DON'T KNOW ABOUT SMALL KIDS BUT I TOOK MY 12YO GRAND SON TO THE N.T. FROM VIC. BOUGHT HIM A GAMEBOY BEFORE WE LEFT & HARDLY HEARD A WORD FROM HIM FOR 4 DAYS SO MUCH FOR BONDING
BEST OF LUCK
TERSTELL