Hi, Crystal, I’m so glad you won’t have to do too many more of those long trips! Thinking back to when mine were little made me really feel for you! Even the hour to grandma and grandpa’s was hard, and four hours was our absolute minimum because it just made them so miserable. For audios, how about if you record yourself reading next time you’ll be reading to them anyway? That way it won’t take up any extra time and then they’ll have some audios in mommy’s voice to alternate with the commercial audios, the videos, the car games, the coloring books, etc. It doesn’t have to be professional, sometimes the interruptions and comments and mistakes are what you’ll all love best about them. When my now-25 year old was five and wanted to listen to Five Children and It over and over and over (which was somehow harder to take than it was when my other kids were that age, because her choice was a chapter book, not a picture book!), I made cassette tapes of it. (It’s by E. Nesbit, published circa 1903; all of us have loved it; some people may object to the magic.) She’s transferred them to CDs and is looking forward to sharing them with her own little ones in the future. This would definitely be too old for a 2 year, and probably for most 5 year olds, too, but I’m sure they would cherish ones you made from more suitable books. Oh, this is off topic because it’s not about videos, but I just thought of some fairly tidy car crafts—pipe cleaners or wiki stix (bendable wax on strings, basically), and modelling beeswax. I second the suggestion of the Beatrix Potter videos–gentle and not frenetic, with the actual words and pictures of the book, which are quite literate and artistic. Here’s another idea for audios: there are various advent story books with 24 tiny chapters, one meant for each day of December. You could begin each hour of the ride with a little chapter, and then they stop and do something else, so they have something they’re eagerly looking forward to, and if it’s 12 hours there and 12 hours back (I really HOPE for your sake it’s 12 hours total, not each way!), you’d just have time to finish the whole story. The only ones I know are unfortunately going to be too old for your wee one, though. Another similar idea that would be more age appropriate is the recording of the old Christmas serialized radio show from my parents’ childhoods called The Cinnamon Bear. It’s totally secular and has magic in it, but my memory of it is that it’s wholesome and sweet, a teeny bit scary in one or two parts, but I’d imagine definitely manageable. It’s kind of corny and old-fashioned. Up until two or three years ago, my now-GIANT children (they were probably between 15 and 28 then!), were still making sure to be here every day between Thanksgiving and Christmas so we could all listen to this little kids’ story together! And Rachel, I completely agree with your thoughts on appropriate pacing for children’s media. We chose not to have any electronic media except a stereo, between our marriage in 1974 and about 2002, when our youngest (twins) were 10, and so, since we didn’t watch the changes come so gradually, we were SHOCKED at the hyper-frenetic atmosphere nowadays. And this may be a total coincidence, but I feel the youngest two, who were exposed at a younger age, are slightly less focussed and more easily bored and more hooked on media and slightly more stressed than the others. Which reminds me, I don’t know if it’s still available, but there used to be several really sweet slow-paced online games (not helpful for travel, but I’m mentioning it because I’m thinking about it) on the Peter Rabbit website, which I think was done by the publishers of Peter Rabbit (Frederick Warne.) I can remember my younger three kids loving these when we first starting allowing a few computer games in 2002; they were really “too old” for them, but they were still charmed by them. They were great little games. Warm wishes to all, Sue
