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Family Travel Forum Staff

The incessant “Are We There Yet?” on a road trip, short or long, haunts parents everywhere. However, there are always some tricks that can be used to appease the restless kiddies in the backseat. Your mission: keep the children entertained; maintain a clean and organized backseat. Although these tasks can be very challenging for traveling parents, FTF believes that these products can lend a helping hand on your next trip whether it’s to Grandma’s, the next town over or, across the country.

Backseat Entertainment

52 Travel Activity Kit
by Lynn Gordon
(Chronicle Books, $16.95)
To keep the kids busy, this new activity set may do the trick. From tongue twisters and riddles, to counting cars of the same color and travel bingo, the packet offers kid’s at least 52 wacky and educational prompts.  Your kids (and even you) will have good laugh trying to make a sentence using every letter of the alphabet. It comes complete with markers, postcards, a ruler and the booklet with plenty of blank pages at the end for your little artist to document the trip through drawings. Also, the set folds up and has pockets to keep all of the contents in order, insuring that the backseat doesn’t become too cluttered.

Children of the U.S.A.
by Maya Ajmera, Wakim Yvonne Dennis, Arlene Hirschfelder & Cynthia Pon
(A Global Fund for Children Book, $23.95, Ages 9-12)
The latest Global Fund for Children Book (GFC), "Children of the U.S.A." celebrates the diversity within the 50 states and is filled with images of cultural events, like kids dressed in culturally traditional gowns for parades and festivals, as well as pictures of ordinary kid activities, like Kool-Aid stands and days at the beach.  The GFC Book Series tries to promote global understanding and give children a wider perspective.  Like all GFC books, portions of the proceeds are used to support smaller community-based organizations funded by GFC.  These groups help those youth that are left in a vulnerable state, from those left homeless from Hurricane Katrina to orphans in Uganda. 

Indie Girl
by Arne Johnson & Karen Macklin
(Orange Avenue Publishing: Zest Books, $16.95)
Fun and fact-filled, this book targets teen girls and encourages them to channel their creativity in ways that will provide real world experience without losing their individual spirit. Innovative suggestions include activities such as launching a fashion company, starting a band, filming a TV show, creating an art exhibit, forming a dance troupe and publishing a magazine. This book also provides the reader with lists of materials he or she would need to start an endeavor without breaking the bank. With insider tips on each one of the ideas, as well as a step-by-step accounts on how to approach the given task, the guide will inspire creative outlets your teenager never knew she had.  And at the same time, it helps to develop much needed life skills such as leadership, time management, organization and dedication to completing a task. This book gives teen girls a way to come together with a common goal of pursuing the arts and unlocking the door of their collective creativity (and also helps them ignore younger siblings in the backseat).

Ripley's Believe It or Not!
Amusement Parks Oddities & Trivia!
by Tim O'Brien
(Ripley Entertainment, $10.88)
The subtitle of this book reads, "A journey through the weird, wacky and absolutely true world of parks and attractions" and Tim O'Brien most certainly takes the reader on this journey.  The one-hundred-plus-page book is easy and fun to read as it features thousands of facts about different roller coasters, theme parks and the history of wacky attractions worldwide.  The thing that children will love best is that you can just randomly flip open the paperback book to a page and learn an obscure, but also incredibly fascinating, fact.  For example, did you know that Dueling Dragon's rollercoaster at Universal's Island of Adventure in Orlando has the highest capacity of any coaster in the world?  (It can handle more than 3,000 riders in an hour.)  Or, how about that the first wave pool in America was built in 1970 at Point Mallard Park in Alabama?  Believe it or not, this book is a great read for any family that loves a day of thrills at the amusement park and enjoys a weird story every once in a while.

Avoiding a Backseat Disaster Zone

Kiddy Kap’s Spill-Proof Caps and Baby Kap
(Kiddy Kap, ages 3+, www.kiddykap.com, $3)
(Baby Kap, ages 1+, www.kiddykap.com, $3)
The plastic lid Kiddy Kap product is well suited for traveling families because it enables parents to customize water bottles and on-the-road juice drinks with sippy-cup type lids that prevent spillage. Each package contains two sizes that will help ease the transition from baby bottles to big kid toddler drinks.  Also by Kiddy Kap, the Baby Kap plastic lid fits onto baby bottles and has an outer cover that prevents spills if the bottle falls during your infant's nap in the backseat.

No Squeeze Juice Box Holder
(JolieCo, www.nosqueeze.com, $4.50)
This handy plastic cup device makes your children's juice box fit neatly into your car's cup holder. Not only is that a plus when kids want to take a nap, it also provides a tough plastic outer shell that prevents these curious tots from squeezing the juice box to see pink fluids squirting out of the straw and onto the upholstery.

EmmaLu Car Chair Covers
(www.emmaludesigns.com, $70-80)
Babies are messy.  From spit up to crumbs, car chairs are nearly impossible to keep clean, and with their awkward shape and size, it can be quite frustrating trying to keep the chair clean and the car tidy.  The EmmaLu Car Seat Covers slips right over the car chair’s preexisting cover, but since it is removable and waterproof, crumbs and stains are easily dealt with.  These car chair covers are functional and still fashionable, coming in a variety of designs, from colorful flowers and pink and green swirls to racecars and a giraffe print.

Thanks to Jennifer Moore, Jillian Ryan and Victoria Scillia for their dedicated efforts in this product review.

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