Imagine that you're going to visit your brother. He has moved 400 miles away so the trip will take awhile. You really want the kids to meet their uncle so they are tagging along. The last time they were cooped up in a car that long... well it's pretty painful to think about that! You're already beginning to picture the scene. The whining and fidgeting soon turn to arguing and other childish pranks. At first you shrug it off but soon you are ready to scream. Everybody is upset. Let's recall: 22 of "how much farther is it?" 19 of "Mom, sister's poking me." 10 of "Can I get something to eat?" 6 of "I'm tired of just sitting here." If only there were something they could focus on for a while! A little entertainment would work. A portable television might work but there are lots of dead spots along the way. Songs will work but they are too short to keep the young attentions for this many hour journey and reading books just isn't practical on the bumpy roads. Here's my unique solution to you travel. These days most families have at least one mp3 player or a cd player. If yours does not then consider a buying a mp3 player like an Apple iPod or a SansDisk player. I recently (late 2006) purchased the later brand 2 Gigabyte player for around $80.00. There are some for much less than this. Just pack this in the car but do these very important steps first. 1. Log on to a on-line audio book store 2. Select some good titles and load them to your computer. 3. Grab you mp3 player and plug it into the computer 4. Sync the book data to the player. Some audiobooks are 10 hours or more in length. Now I know that most people will not listen to them straight through, and children's attention spans do have limits. That's okay. Actually there are lots of shorter audiobooks. Dramatizations of books may be just an hour or two. Take however much quiet time you can get and enjoy the relative calm. Now for the big ending. Imagine what just may happen when you end the trip before they complete the story. You've got it! Your child may very well just ask you to drive a few more miles. Whether you circle the block a few times or tell them to wait for the return trip is up to you. Your there now and in your right mind too! You think, "This was certainly better than our last trip." If you're thinking, "It won't work for me," then consider this. Will you really know until you've tried it? Imagine the difference it could make. A fully dramatized version of "Treasure Island" would be a safe bet with which to begin.
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Imagine that you're going to visit your brother. He has moved 400 miles away so the trip will take awhile. You really want the kids to meet their uncle so they are tagging along. The last time they were cooped up in a car that long... well it's pretty painful to think about that!
About the author - Daniel Brown is the father of two active boys. He also runs a downloadable audiobook store that features fun stories. Here you can download children's audiobooks. ~ai601 Get a unique version of this article from our travelling with children article directory
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