Keeping little ones entertained for long periods of time can be a struggle. But we’re here to help! In this post, we’re sharing must have road trip items for children. The items on this list are suitable for ages 3-7 and have all been tried out by Kayla’s 3 year old daughter and 7 year old niece.
These road trip items for children are fantastic outside of road trips, too. Kayla’s used them with her daughter in church, doctor waiting rooms, and even just for quiet time at home.
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The Setup
Kayla recommends getting a rectangular basket with sturdy sides to serve as your activity basket for road trips. This will hold all the items you’re bringing along, keep them organized, and hopefully keep your car from getting messy.
While Kayla uses a simple basket similar to this one, you can also get nifty collapsible baskets with compartments that can be strapped into your backseat next to the carseat if you have a bench seat.
Some of the items listed below are activity books. If your child is still in a car seat, it can be hard for them to hold books and crayons in their lap without one (or both) falling onto the floor. This car seat lap tray will give your child a flat surface to color on and a space to store little items so they don’t end up on the floor. It will also give them space to eat their road trip snacks and hopefully help prevent too many crumbs from ending up in the crevices of the carseat!
We also recommend getting a pencil pouch to hold any crayons and dry erase markers. Kayla really loves the twistable crayons for car trips, because they are longer lasting and more durable than traditional crayons.
Another must have item for any road trip is a trash can. No one wants to travel a long distance in a messy car! While you can buy trashcans specifically made for cars like this one, Kayla just uses a 5 gallon bucket with a trash bag in it, and it works great.
Activity Books
Melissa and Doug Reusable Puffy Sticker Activity Books – Someone gave these to Kayla’s daughter for her birthday, and they’re her latest obsession. Each set comes with several puffy stickers and scenes to place the stickers. For example, on the dress-up one, there are different outfits you can dress up the people with or you can arrange the outfits to hang up in their closet.
Usborne Sticker Books – These themed sticker books have multiple scenes where kids can select stickers from the back of the books and place them in the scenes.
Scholastic Success With Toddler Workbook – This workbook is pretty massive. It teaches tracing, colors, shapes, numbers, and letters. It also teaches kids how to follow written instructions, like color the frogs green or draw brown worms in the dirt. A lot of the activities also have conversation prompts for parents that relate to the activities. Scholastic has workbooks for all ages!
Highlights Wipe On Wipe Off Hidden Pictures Books – Kayla’s daughter and 7 year old niece have a blast doing these together! Each book contains multiple hidden picture activities plus other prompts like tracing, mazes, and other puzzles. There are several fun themes like dinosaurs, farm animals, and unicorns. We recommend buying your own dry erase markers, as the ones included with most dry erase books aren’t that great.
Mix & Match Sticker Faces – There are all sorts of different themes for these but the general idea is the same – each sticker sheet comes with a face and different facial expressions that you put on the face. There are holiday themed ones, sea creatures, monsters, farm animals, mermaids, etc. – there really is an endless supply of themes!
The only downside is that each sticker sheet is loose once you open the packet, so we recommend picking out a few to take on your trip instead of giving your child the entire packet to go through at once.
Color By Stickers Book – These sticker books are like mini puzzles where children place numbered stickers on the matching number in the image. This one has bigger stickers, making it easier for younger children. But there are also more complicated ones for older kids (and even adult ones!).
Imagine Ink Coloring Books – Color in the book with the “magic” marker provided to make colors appear. The best part? The marker only shows up on the paper, so you don’t have to worry about your kids coloring on themselves (or each other!).
Coloring Books – You can never go wrong with a simple coloring book. Bonus points if it has stickers!
Doodling
Fun Notebook – Your kid will love writing notes in a fun notebook. We love this fuzzy one, and it pairs perfectly with a multicolor pen!
LCD Doodle Board – These are small but mighty gadgets. They are mess free, ultra thin, and lightweight. The doodle boards come with a stylus for kids to draw colorful images with. When they are finished, they simply hit a button and it erases the screen.
Scratch Art Book – Scratch the black paper sheets with a stylus to reveal colorful artwork!
Etch A Sketch – Kids have been having fun with this timeless toy for over 60 years! They even make a mini version now if you don’t want it to take up much room.
Toys & Games
Crocodile Dentist Game – This is one of our favorite road trip items for children! It’s great if you’ll have someone else in the backseat with your child, whether it be a sibling or an adult. Each person takes turns pressing a tooth on the alligator and it will randomly close it’s mouth when a certain tooth is pushed!
Road Trip Bingo – Honestly, who does not love a good game of Bingo?
Light-up Memory Game – Hasbro Simon Miniature is the classic light up game in miniature form. The only con is that it doesn’t have volume control, so it can be a little annoying in the car if played too long. The newer version that kids have fallen in love with is this pop it fidget light up memory game.
Handheld Fish Ring Toss & Basketball Games – Press the buttons to make the rings go on the pegs or the balls in the hoop. Noise free games – Woohoo!
Small Toys & Plushes – Kayla usually takes along a few little dinosaurs, some Bluey figures, Peppa figures, and her daughter’s favorite plush toys. We also recommend bringing along a snuggly blanket like this one for nap time!
Books – If you’re interested in books that will teach your children about different places around the world, check out our list of Children’s Books that Inspire Wanderlust.
Amazon Kids Tablet – Kayla’s daughter is only allowed to use her tablet on trips, so it is especially good at keeping her entertained! This tablet also made our list of 15 Must Haves for Traveling with Children Under 3.
Did we miss anything? Let us know your must have road trip items for children in the comments below!
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