Managing a toddler when going for a long drive
amba posted on Mon, 02/15/2010 - 16:04
Now my son is 2 years old and we are planning to go to some nearby place and spend sometime together. For this we will be going by car. It will be almost a 12 hrs ride and as my son is very very active I need some innovative ideas on how to manage him while we are in the car.
Carry some of the rhymes CDs that he loves to hear. Play the CD while on drive and sing along with your son.
There are so many things to see on the way. My daughter loves watching out of the window and I think most of the kids do so. You may make this interesting by discussing with you child what you see on the way. Like may be some animals that may be crossing by, some birds flying etc. etc.
While you are in city area you can locate the hoarding and discuss what all colors where there. Tell your child you crossed by the mall where you might have visited sometime for shopping.
I think this kind of conversation can keep the child busy.
Carry some picture story books with you. Read these story's to your child pointing to the related pictures and changing your sound and expression. After you have told the story let your child tell his own version of the story.
You can make this more interesting by maybe having stories relating to the area you cross while on drive.
You can ask the person who is driving the car to change the speed of the car and tell your child the concept of fast and slow. You can make this a game. Also when you do this let him know how fast fast your car is going leaving rest of the cars behind and similarly when the car is going slow you can tell how you all are left behind and the other cars are taking over.
Kids enjoy looking at this relative moevements.