Let's go on a skiing holiday ...
New adventures and exciting experiences are guaranteed and the 270 lifts and up to 760 km of slopes of Ski amadé also guarantee that you can discover something new every year. Many also take a long journey to get here. However, especially with small children, this can quickly become exhausting and a challenge for everyone. Here are some of the tricks we use to make long car rides fun for the kids and more enjoyable for the whole family.
First of all the equipment. The practical car bags, which can be attached to the driver's and front passenger's seat, have proven their worth twice for us. Snacks and a drinking bottle have their place there, because hungry children are usually not well-balanced companions. Utensils for entertainment can also be stowed within easy reach for the little ones, so that fun can be provided independently and basic needs can be satisfied independently.
We have come to know water coloring books as particularly useful. Children can draw colorful pictures "freely" with a pen filled with water and the car stays clean in any case. In addition, the pictures can be painted again after each drying.
We always have a playlist with popular children's songs and stories in our car. Children can often be calmed down more quickly with familiar melodies or short stories. These can also be used as time or distance information - for example "we'll drive for three more songs until the next break". Time is intangible for small children and can quickly lead to restlessness.
Bandolinos are also recommended. They are already available for three-year-olds and children can quickly get to grips with them. The practical thing about it is that the utensils that are required for this are well connected and cannot fall down individually, because small things that end up on the ground during the journey cannot be found again so quickly and thus become more of a stress factor.
And a few more recommendations that do not require material or media:
Game of colors
Everyone in the family takes turns choosing a color. According to this color everyone must then name an object, food, etc. in the corresponding color. This game can be played with or without a winner. It has no age limit and is suitable even for the youngest.
You can also slightly modify it by looking for things to senses instead of colors - everyone says something that smells good, that stinks, that is loud etc.
Looking for animals
Most children soon have fun with animals and often have a large vocabulary to go with them.
Variant 1: everyone is looking for animals with matching initial sounds - all animals that start with a K or other sounds.
Variant 2: one in the round starts with an animal, the next one has to find an animal that starts with the last letter of the first animal. This goes on and on until no one can think of an animal anymore.
Example: giraffe - elephant - tiger - raven - etc.
Compound word chains
One in the group begins with a two-part word, e.g.: Christmassong. The next in line has to find a new compound word that starts with the second part of the initial word.
Example: Christmassong - songbook - bookshelf - shelfwall - etc.
I spy with my little eye
To do this, you must first determine that only things inside the car can be used as guess terms. In turn, everyone must now describe an object with just one word - e.g.: I spy with my little eye something that is soft, white, big, etc. The other players can now guess what it could be. Whoever asked the riddle should only answer yes or no.
Variant - When the children are a bit older, the object can also appear in the imagination - a certain animal, a vehicle or a certain food, for example.
If nothing works anymore, we also fall back on the most popular entertainment method for our kids and always have a few episodes of their favorite series or a suitable children's film saved on the tablet. Avoiding stress is the top priority on long car journeys, and you can't take the rules, which might otherwise be stricter, very seriously. This relieves both the passenger and the driver and thus leads to increased safety. In the end, everyone arrives at their destination in a good mood and the holiday starts positive.
