Tuesday, September 7, 2010

Books On Tape For Long Driving Trips With Kids

As the plans for our driving trek next summer begin to take shape, that nagging feeling of "are we there yet"-itis keeps cropping up.

If you have a child, or have ever traveled with one for even a short drive, you know what I mean.

We've been thinking about possible book on tape ideas that will be interesting for all of us.  The Peanut has issues with car sickness, and I don't want to overload us with too many "read it to yourself" activities because of that.  (We're also going to give SeaBands a try, along with a couple of other things between now and then to see if we can come up with something that eases it back without the sleepy hangover that she gets from motion sickness tablets.)

In a prior thread, Suz suggested the Little House books, which is a great idea since we are planning to visit several of the places that the Ingalls family lived in through the years.  But since we are already reading those books to get through as many as we can between now and next June, I think re-plowing already read territory might prove to be a fatal error.

Mr. ReddHedd and I have been talking about several of the classics:  Treasure Island, Heidi, The Secret Garden, Swiss Family Robinson, Chronicles of Narnia, etc.

Fighting boredom in the car for The Peanut is a huge one for us.  And tackling it in a myriad of ways will go a long, long way to keeping momma sane and happy, too.

As we all know, when momma's not happy, no one is happy.

So help me out here, and let me know what has -- or has not -- worked for you in the past.  Any suggestions from folks who have done this with their own kids for a long road trip?  Or just suggestions for books that work well as a book on tape for a soon-to-be 8 year old?  Would love to hear your suggestions!


Yes, I am aware that our trip is more than 9 months away, but indulge me.

As Mr. ReddHedd can attest, I'm a planner.  It's almost a compulsion to get my ducks in a row as completely as possible when I'll be traveling into unfamiliar territory.  We've never done a road trip this long, and I want to head off most of the big issues at the pass before we even have to get to them if at all possible.

5 comments:

barbara said...

For what it's worth, I was the poster child for car sickness as a kid. Until 5th grade, in fact. At which point, it was discovered I needed glasses. Got 'em. At same time, car sickness ended. Cause and effect or happy coincidence? Dunno. Just mentioning it....

Anonymous said...

Thanks for sharing this link, but unfortunately it seems to be down... Does anybody have a mirror or another source? Please reply to my post if you do!

I would appreciate if a staff member here at homecelebration.blogspot.com could post it.

Thanks,
Peter

Christy Hardin Smith said...

barbara, we thought about that, too. But her eyesight was perfect at her last exam, so unless something has changed in a very, very short period of time, I just don't know. We got some "sea bands" bracelets to try on our next jaunt up to Pittsburgh -- we'll see if that helps.

Christy Hardin Smith said...

Peter -- I'm not certain what link you are talking about, because they all seem to be working easily for me. Could you be more specific, please?

Am happy to help if you are having an issue, but I'm not seeing a problem on my end.

And, fwiw, if this is a test for spam being placed by an anonymous poster, you should be aware that I've set up various spam filters to cull it out into a holding spot for me to sort before it goes public, so spam will not likely show up at all publicly.

musicsleuth said...

We really enjoyed the unabridged Harry Potter audio books in the car. Our 8yo started reading the books this year (finished years 1-3) and Jim Dale does a wonderful job with all of the characters. The later books may be a bit dark, but the earlier ones didn't become nightmare fodder... always a concern in our house.