16 Awesome Car Activities For Toddlers

Listening to kid-friendly audiobooks is one of the best toddler road trip ideas. After everyone is tired from talking and singing along, you can all tune in and listen to your toddler’s favorite storybook.

You will need to practice patience as the storybook can be repeated a zillion times before your young one thinks of listening to the next. An example of an excellent audio storybook is Amazing Animal Adventures.

Road trip activities for toddlers are not complete without boxes of snacks.

Snacks are what will make your car trip with toddlers bearable. They are the backbone of your road trip – they are so much more than just food! But remember that you do not need to have many sugary snacks as these will give your young one high energy levels, which you can not handle on a road trip.

With snacks, there will be a lot of spilling; you can curb this by either deciding to have snack stops where you can all stretch a bit. Or you can get your toddler a travel tray or a spill proof cup to minimize the spilling.

Another fun snack idea is making cereal strings. This is a great option if you’ll be making some early starts and need to have breakfast on the move (but be warned, it may cause crumbs!!) – they’re guaranteed to keep your toddler busy for the first leg of your trip at least!

Water painting will help entertain your toddler during a road trip, making it one of the best car trip activities for toddlers. Melissa & Doug Water Wow! has been a lifesaver for our tots with reusable water coloring books and a refillable water pen that stores on the cover.

You only need to put a little amount of water in a cup in your child’s cup holder on their car seat, hand them the activity pad, and let them color away their thoughts. These water paintings are mess-free, so you don’t need to worry too much about keeping the interior of your car clean.

Puzzles that do not include many pieces are great toddler car activities. They will keep your toddler entertained while working to improve their fine motor skills and hand-eye coordination.

Or even better, opt for shape sorter toys, Melissa & Doug have done it again with this brilliant take-along bag sorter toy, ideal for car journeys and keeping your toddler entertained at your destination.

Wikki Sticks are great car activities for older toddlers that even your tweens and grown-ups will love. The imagination opportunities are endless, and they can stick to most smooth surfaces.

They come in a handy carry case for travel and scrapbooking. What’s more, they have I.D stickers to personalize the case. No more fights!

If you’re looking for great car activities for three-year-olds, the Magformers got you! They are great STEM toys that will entertain your young one as they build the classic magic ball.

With the Magformers set, you do not have to worry about your little one dropping pieces on the car floor as they stick together, making them a great road trip toy for toddlers.

Remember felt boards, anyone? OK. Your toddler’s imagination will come to life as they layer simple felt shapes and wiggly eyes onto a child-sized felt board. It’s a no-mess and travel-friendly toy that your toddler will love as they make up stories—a great road trip idea for toddlers as it will allow them to explore their creativity.

The other option is a take along felt book, this is ideal if you’ll also be making plenty of road side stops and need something small and light for them to take along.

Window Cling Stickers are another excellent car trip activity for toddlers. These window cling stickers will offer your toddler all the fun they create fun dinosaur stories, or why not try an under the sea theme if you’re heading to the beach?

For your toddlers to enjoy this fun activity as they road trip, they need to be next to the car windows (though it’s safest in the middle), so you should ensure your child lock is on, or you have an older sibling at the back while traveling.

If you have been road tripping with your toddler, you must have learned that the vehicle’s heavy toy trains and cars can act as unfortunate missiles to the other passengers sitting in the car. Toys are great for your toddler.

Therefore miniature toy trains like Thomas and Friends Minis and sensory fidget toys make for the perfect road trip toy. These best car activities for toddlers should not be too small as you do not want toys that choke in the car.

Pom pom grabbing is one of the great car activities for two-year-olds as it improves their fine motor skills. Your toddler will need to use tweezers to move pom poms from one container to another.

You can get the regular or the mini pom pom balls to give your toddler a bit of a challenge, and two easy containers. This one works best if they have a flat surface to work with like a car seat tray table.

OK, we went there. Even if you are normally an electronics-free family at home, you may find long road trips are the ideal time to bring in some screen-based entertainment.

We found it best to wait until our children were of an age where they could comfortably wear volume-controlled headphones before introducing screen-based activities – primarily as they can cause a distraction to the driver if tablets are played out loud.

Some favorite toddler apps to download include KidsBeeTV, Hopster TV, and Toddler Fun Learning.

Remember, you may not have Wi-Fi on your journey, so ensure all the apps and videos you would like to use are pre-loaded before your journey commences.

Do use the screen sparingly, though, especially with toddlers. Have it saved up as a special treat and start with setting boundaries for screen use – starting healthy screen habits early on will last through their childhood years.