How many times have you heard your 4 year old ask this question from the back seat of the car as you drive the last hundred miles home after the summer vacation.
On the outward journey the question was ‘Mummy, are we there yet?’ And, despite the fact that the holiday home was still four hours away, the question kept coming every five minutes. If there’s one thing that can upset the older children who have no choice but to be seated beside the wee brats, this is it
The last thing the weary driver needs as she gives her full attention to the busy lanes, is someone distracting her.
Finding a way to keep the kids occupied is a must.
The ‘I Spy’ game is good for maybe half an hour well, that is providing everyone is concentrating.
On one occasion my star performer spied the steering wheel and her clue was ws and it probably won’t surprise you that windscreen was the answer. But windscreen it wasn’t and many miles later nobody got the answer. And there was a good reason for this, because she had mistakenly spelt steering wheel the wrong way around She was not too popular for a while after that.
So when ‘I Spy’ is played out, what then? One option is to play Charades, and this can be good fun for a while too.
What then should we do to keep three restless kids occupied as we drive that long and boring journey to the seaside?
This summer, we found the answer in an audiobook article. We had to dig a bit into our hard earned cash but it was worth it. Four MP3 players later and we now had the right tools to silence the little lambs!
The great thing about audiobooks is that you can load several of them onto each MP3 player so that there is enough material there for both journeys, there and back. Peace for hours for a small price.
We had toyed with the idea of burning some audiobooks onto CD’s and letting everyone hear the same story, but, this was bound to spark another row. “I don’t like Shakespeare, I don’t like Superman, I don’t like Roald Dahl etc..etc…’
I would advise you to allow the children some choice here too, so that they do not feel forced to listen to something they might not be too interested in.
Take a look at the recommended reading titles from your local high school or college, and you will find that many of the educational titles are readily available in audiobook format.
When they get a little older, the daily trips on the school bus could easily be put to good use by listening to some of the classic literature titles or language audiobooks from the curriculum.
There really is a very wide choice of titles now on audiobooks, for example, nursery rhymes, action and adventure, ghost stories, romance, animals etc…Enough to keep the entire family occupied
