Car Trip with 2 Year Old and 16 Month Old

snacks! Give them a few treats that they normally wouldn't be allowed.

Books are great, especially ones that make noise or light-up. Depending on what time you are leaving, they will probably sleep for the bulk of the trip (several hours at least), but don't hesitate to pop in a movie!

We've done the three-hour trip with me in the backseat and my husband driving so that I can read books, put together puzzles, change the cartoons and dole-out snacks.

start your drive shortly after dinner and have them all ready for bed

We travel once a year to Charleston, SC from Michigan 15 hour dirve. This last year we went with our 7 year old and 7 month old. Fun!! We have traveled this trip both during the day and during the night, and I can say by far the night is the best time. We take off around 3pm and get there the next morning. My oldest does watch movies. He gets all excited picking out some from our collection and then settles in for a couple hours of movie watching. We have good snacks for them and drinks and it's "movie time". By the time the 2nd movie is getting done - he is usually starting to get sleepy and wants to go to sleep for the night - so he sleeps and we drive.

Is there a possibility you could make this drive in the evening while they are tired? Maybe plan it so you could arrive around midnight or 1am? That would be my suggestion.

Also - there is a card game called "Car I-Spy" that we recently picked up. It's a lot of fun - so this might be good for a daytime trip. Each person gets a card with 4 items on it and the first person to find all 4 items wins the hand. All the items on the card are things found along roads and highways.

Good lluck!

can you leave earlier so that they will go back to sleep? can you wait to drive until nap time? timing is key! also lots of snacks, and kid-friendly cd's. that's how we did an 18 hour drive to florida when my son was 2 1/2.

AVOID SUGAR SNACKS. It only increases their desire to move around.

It's great to have a series of little "surprises" packed away that you can bring out at intervals.

Invest in some of the Crayola markers that only color on the special paper. Plus your car will not end up with color markings from the normal markers. Small toys are fun. One thing that is really annoying for parents, but if you can get past the noise. They make 10 dollar hand held video games. The kids think they are actually playing, but just moving the players. Battleship, Hangman or solitaire.

Baby wipes seem to seriously entertain my children. Maybe purchase some no-name brand if in a crunch for entertainment and just let them play, play, play with the baby wipes.

Not sure you would want to leave them unattended but if you go get the 1000 little stickers, and when they are fussy give them a whole sheet. They will be surprised to just pull them off. Maybe get them a little book they have to put them on. They might end up on them or the car but what fun. You might put the book in a zip lock bag with a sheet of stickers. It will be handy in a pinch.

Good luck have fun!!!

Take hotwheels cars, books, balls, a coloring book and crayons for the oldest. Make sure and take plenty of breaks for them to run around. Also pack non sugary or messy snacks.

We just recently took a 10.5 hour car ride (with my boyfriend's 3 yr old) from the middle of Michigan to the middle of Wisconsin to see my boyfriend's mom. We left at 10pm and drove through the night and then when we got there, we slept for a few hours and Grandma got to spend some quality alone time with the little one!