A tablet or phone if it’s a really long trip, or telling scary/any stories (my older daughter’s favourite!), or just listening to them tell me things! My youngest is hard to entertain but my older kids are wonderful.

We have bags that zip down to a little table on the back of the front seats and they have pencils and colouring books, some other books, and they always have their favourite toy with them. When they get over that and are really over it and being feral I sometimes cave and give my eldest my old phone that has games on it for her to play, or I have a cheap tablet that I have kids cartoons on for them to watch. Or we play eye spy, spot the windmills, talk about what we see out the windows etc. But a lot of the time they will also fall asleep on really long trips.

You can get things that attach to the back of a car seat that you can stack with toys or activities (books even), portable did player, iPad, play eye spy, have a singalong, have games where the first one to stop a certain thing (red car, cow, fire truck) gets points and the winner at the end of the drive gets a prize!

iPads are the best entertainment, although they’re expensive. I load them up with TV shows, movies & fun / educational apps that relate to the trip – ie Christmas apps for a Christmas trip etc

Car bingo!!! Make up a sheets on the computer with things they will see on the journey my kids love it

Start with a stable table or tray for each child, than give each a small box of pencils and a coloring book or a drawing pad. In the drawing pad they can play games like noughts and crosses, draw what they see . We also liked playing spotto or I spy starting with whatever letter what they see outside.There are lots of downloadable bingo games too.

There is a bag that I keep in the back of the car – it has – blank paper, some colours, a colouring book or two, a few small toys (littlest pet shop, shopkins, my little pony), and ‘the cat in the hat’ book – my daughter plays with this regardless of it being a 5 minute drive or a 12 hour drive. Long trips, I add – android tablet, more books. a few bigger toys. I talk to her when we are driving, about anything and everything, it’s a great time to get her talking about what SHE is interested in / worrying about etc.

If it’s a really long trip we have the ipad with movies on it and he will watch one. Otherwise we spot things with him and he likes to tell us stories (especially when he sees a train, he tells us all about the fat controller and Thomas). I have packed books and colouring in for him but he doesn’t usually use them. He also will take small toys like cars and play with them. My little man is 3

Play car games! Eye spy, spotto, sleeping lions? Lol…

I would drive over meal times and pack them lunch boxes with lots of different little things and that kept them busy for a while. then there are the endless eye spy and what am I and girls names,boys names and you go through the alphabet and take it in turn to name a girl beginning with A and put the youngest kids first so when it gets to your turn the obvious ones have gone so it is harder for you. And music to sing a long was great and depending on ages a story book was great. we listened to Famous Five one car journey it was great and no one wanted to get out of car when we got there as they wanted to hear the end of the story!

Depends on their ages, picture & colouring books, some small toys or an IPad are always a good idea but be careful of toys that could pose a choking danger. Somehow a ping pong ball got in amongst the car toys & my toddler put it in his mouth then it became stuck in his throat, luckily I realised it & pulled over to remove it. On long trips we used to sing songs & play “I Spy” where they had to spot a car of a certain colour or number plates starting with a letter is they were able to read. travelling when they are ready for their nap is also a good idea so they sleep most of the way. Don’t forget that snacks need to be safe & appropriate for their age because they will be in the back seat so you can’t watch them 100%. Some cars have a DVD player which is great for keeping them occupied with something like the wiggles, if you don’t have one & can afford to get one installed they are very useful. Otherwise you can get small portable players then you can use something to hang it off the back of your seat. To get them to sleep I used to play something like the seekers which worked every time lol, any music that is relaxing such as soft rock will help relax them so they fall asleep.

Some non pre planned activities could be eye spy. Taking turns telling stories… If they’re stuck for ideas pick and animal and random locations for them to incorporate. Maybe the other kids can pick an animal and object for the story teller to use. Sing songs… Put on a kids cd, if you start they’ll love it too:) 20 questions.. Someone things of a person or object and you ask questions to help guess.

Depends on the age… You can get books or decks of cards with car games.

I brought my son a leap pad scribble which is good for learning and helps keeps my son busy while driving we also have some toy cars and a DVD player to help with longer drives. And books I just leave them in the car in a little box so he always has something just incase.

dvd player
cd’s they like
ipad
colouring books
activity packs
reading books
toys only for use in the car (so they won’t get sick of them too quickly)
games like every taxi they see they get a point and 10 taxi points equals a reward etc