Tips for a great road trip with kids

Those rivers tend to be full of hungry crocodiles! Hot springs around Materanka and Katherine offer safe swimming - foam noodles work well there rather than lilos. The rivers and beaches are not safe.
Don't forget to get the kids collecting pamphlets, pictures (a cheap camera is great- especially handy for embarrassing pictures of parents putting up the tent etc) maps and other mementos for scrap books/diaries of the trip. A box of paints, textas, scissors, glue etc will take up little space. They will enjoy making the collection and will get lots of fun sharing them with friends and family afterwards! These also provide some more peaceful activity when weather is bad or parents are tired!
Have a great time! Lynne

If you can manage it make sure to take the kids push bikes for when you are in a caravan park, or have a nice secluded camp for a couple of days, and also a few board games like scrabble, and snakes and ladders, they might be old but they keep our grand kids amused for long periods of time when wet and in lock down mode. Just a couple of suggestions.
Broodie H3

Carolyn,

Kids that young, especially if they are boys, just can not sit quietly for more than a few hours, either in a car or in a tent in bad weather. So you have to accept every chance to get them moving. And that means running around raising a sweat and puffing.

When you stop for smoko lunch or fuel make sure it is a place where they can expend some energy not at shops or pubs or the like. Look for playgrounds or sports fields.

Games in the tent are good but sometimes you might have to let go out and get wet.

When travelling as a kid we use to play i spy. Broke up some boredom.
Another game Mum use to get us to play was what she called cricket. Each car you pass was one run. Motor bike 4, and a truck was 6, caravan was out, or a variation off these points depending on what traffic there was. Use to get upset when there was a convoy of outs.
Good for adding skills.

Another one Mum use to do was who can spot the mile marker first. Did years to work out Mum cheated by watching the odometer.

I recall a trip we did with our grandaughter who would have been about 8 then. We were learning the phonetic alphabet (as you did use it then on VKS). She picked it up very quickly and we made a game by calling out passing numberplates and roadsigns as Bravo-alpha-juliet and the like. She was better at it than we were!

Kids like to collect things so give them each a small cheap backpack or bag in which they can collect stones, shells, leaves that catch their attention. Also a scrap book in which they can write/draw their story of their trip.

BTW, Congratulations on not having a DVD player on your list!

Cheers,

Val

We are doing a similar trip this year with our 5 and 2 year old. My email is rebecca.harding@education.tas.gov.au if you want to get in touch :)

Hi Carolyn.after having travelled with 3 kids around oz we found that we offloaded a lot of the gear we left with as it became such a burden to manage.Take the very least possible including clothing .Plenty of cheap stuff out there if u really decide you need it .regards Phil

When are you leaving? I'm heading off in a couple of weeks, up central then east with 8 kids.