New myswag member, new camper trailer owner, old time camper.

[algreary]

Hello all,

My wife and I are keen campers and after 20 months of painful waiting, are now going to force our little one into loving the great Australian outdoors as much as we do. We've got some big Km's coming up, so hope he get's used to long drives quick.

So apart from some 200km weekend getaways we are starting him on an approx 14,000km trip from Perth to Drysdale River NP, to Cape York and return, can't see him not loving that.

Our plan is to only do maximum of 600 - 700km day (which is a lot less than we used to fit in) broken into 2 to 3 stints with play and explore breaks.

So I guess my first post would be apart from DVD and crayons, does anyone have some solid and proven advice on how to entertain a child for up to 4 hours at a time?

Ps. I know it's a camper trailer forum, and I do have a lot to say about my new camper trailer, but that can wait 10 seconds for my second post.

[ozstickman]

Welcome!  I've found traveling with my little ones 4yo and 9mo who travel very well about 500km Max a day other wise you start too early and setup too late in the day and don't get to see much in between.


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[Glenno]

Algreary,

Our kids (now 4 and 5 yo) are amazing with travelling in the car. Yesterday we did a 5 hr trip to get away for Easter, no stops. 

One of our biggest 'tools' is iPod's with kids headphones, and kids music. They will listen to it for hours, and can even send them to sleep at times.

You can fill it with a bunch of kids artist, worth the investment. Also got some audio versions of kids shows, ( ie Fireman Sam)

Eating is another past time of the kids when travelling, can't seem to fill them up!!!! 

Also a mega-sketch...

They use to use this electronic ABC game that let them draw along, guess letters, etc (I can still hear the music playing!!!)

Even toy cars get a run.


But it's all about the music....


Good luck, hope some of that helps

[ozstickman]

Algreary,

Our kids (now 4 and 5 yo) are amazing with travelling in the car. Yesterday we did a 5 hr trip to get away for Easter, no stops. 

One of our biggest 'tools' is iPod's with kids headphones, and kids music. They will listen to it for hours, and can even send them to sleep at times.

You can fill it with a bunch of kids artist, worth the investment. Also got some audio versions of kids shows, ( ie Fireman Sam)

Eating is another past time of the kids when travelling, can't seem to fill them up!!!! 

Also a mega-sketch...

They use to use this electronic ABC game that let them draw along, guess letters, etc (I can still hear the music playing!!!)

Even toy cars get a run.


But it's all about the music....


Good luck, hope some of that helps

Yes iPads. I put movies on ours for the kids but the iPads never leave the car. We only use them to travel and that's it. We leave phones in the car too.


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[Bunyip]

I presume your young one is almost 2yo.

Eye spy using colours instead of letters, animal guessing games (although at that age it can be difficult because they tend to pick animals they know nothing about). We travelled when ours were younger than that and a stick of salami and a sharp knife in the glovebox was all we needed. By the time they were 2 they were old hands at long trips and never really caused any problems.

Bunyip

[Outbackdan]

We find mornings in the car work better, then a a biggish break at lunch and a shorter stint in the afternoon. The afternoon i when the DVD player comes out. We try not to do too many days in a row of driving before 2 nights in a place.
We try to keep the car treats low in sugar too...

dan
 

[DropBearRacing]

Welcome to the forum, good to see you are conditioning your young un 

[Armadillo & Customline Campers]

Welcome Algreary,

You will find lots of information on here about everything.

 

Rod......

[Snake]

We bought a velcro iPad case/holder which sticks onto the back of the headrest. Downloaded some movies and TV shows and our daughter loves it. Cost about $20-$25 on ebay.

[Jillsy]

algreary

We are in the same boat as you in that we have a 15mo.  We are off to WA in August and have already started organising "distractions" for him. 

I will be driving with him solo to Cairns next week which will be my biggest trip with just him and I in the car so will see how he goes...