If you are looking at renting a car or driving overseas for your holiday then you should read the Drivers.com articles on the The International Driving Permit and Countries accepting International Driving Permit.

The best driving holiday is one where the journey aims to be equally as entertaining as the destination, great scenery will help but this only goes so far with kids – the rest is up to you! It all comes down to the planning – choose a good route with lots of things to do along the way and try to make sure your car is safe and running smoothly for the trip.

1. Destination and route – choose a destination with a scenic route for lots of stopping-off options so the holiday can start as soon as you get into the car. Driving holidays may have one or many destinations, just make sure there is plenty to do and see in between these destinations.
2. Games – the days of “let’s see who can go to sleep first” are over, if you want to keep boredom (and thus back-seat rioting) at bay then work on your games repertoire (or arsenal – depending on your perspective). Ensure you have a variety of games at the ready – technological (see our ‘iPhone apps for the driver’ article) – solo (reading, coloring etc.) and family games (such as ‘I spy’) will all play their part.
3. Get the car serviced – If you are embarking on a driving holiday then you are likely to be planning to cover a lot of miles. Getting the car serviced may not only save you on fuel (such as getting the engine tuned ) but may prevent your holiday enthusiasm from deflating along with your car tire 20 miles down the road from home.
4. If renting, choose an appropriate car – tempting as the 2-door roadster may be – it’s just not going to cut the mustard with 3 kids and a dog! You will also need to ensure in advance that the rental company can accommodate you with the necessary carseats for the kids.
5. Driving abroad – If driving abroad you should read our article on the International Driving Permit, you can also check out our drivershandbook.com website for information on driving in various countries as well as different states and provinces in the US and Canada.
6. Prepare for every situation – (this means snacks, water and sick bags!). If you want to run stress-testing on both yourself and your carseat restraints then feel free to ply the kids with sugary snacks throughout the journey, otherwise, fruit and crackers are a good option. Bring lots of water and make sure you know where the toilet stops are en-route. Baby wipes and sick bags will never be without their uses on a long journey! driving holiday kids tips
7. Ensure carseats are installed and adjusted appropriately (especially in rentals) – even if you are not opting for the sugary snacks option above you need to check that the carseat fits well into the car and the child fits well into the carseat. Use this opportunity to make any necessary adjustment to straps and seat settings [see booster seat article]. If you are doing a fly-drive and want to bring your own booster seat(s) in case of problems with the rental car company – check out this inflatable booster seat (http://www.bubblebum.co.uk/)
8. Technology – whether it is SatNav, music playlists or an iphone app for finding the nearest toilet facilities – technology may be the only buffer between you and a back seat full of crazed children so use it wisely!
9. Pack the car well – ensure that all luggage is well secured and there are no loose items rolling around the car – these can become dangerous flying missiles in the case of a sudden stop. When children are using toys in the back, try to teach them to play with one thing at a time and put things away in the seat-back pocket when finished (good luck with that one!)
10. Keep focused and alert – Driving can be a tiring and stressful experience and with the addition of kids into the mix, can be a recipe for disaster. If possible, share the driving and take regular stops throughout the journey. Some of the tips above may help stave off the backseat chaos that can distract a driver from the task at hand and help you keep alert and focused.

We hope these tips make your family driving holiday run smoothly and help you to enjoy both the journey and the destination. Feel free to post your tips and feedback below.

At drivers.com we have covered a myriad of driving distractions over the years, from mobile phones and eating while driving, to the more recent distractions of SatNav and texting drivers. Try doing all of the aforementioned at once and you may have some idea of what it is like to drive with unpredictable and demanding kids in the back of your car!

A recent study in Australia highlighted the dangers of being distracted by children while driving where “… parents have identified being distracted by their children while driving as a significant issue with one in five saying it has led to an accident or a ‘near miss’ ”.

To try to overcome or at least cope with the level of distraction that is inevitable when driving with kids, we have put together a survival guide of do’s and don’ts while transporting your precious, but at times infuriating, cargo!

The golden rule to remember is that the driver is responsible for the passengers – no matter what. They may really want that toy that has fallen under the back seat, or need you to pass back a juice bottle, but your job, first and foremost, is to ensure their safety, pandering to their needs is secondary to this. If they know you can’t and won’t react then they won’t expect you to.

The Do’s of driving with kids:

1. Do prepare in advance: try to ensure that they have any juice/ snacks they need, but if something is dropped – it’s gone, let them get used to this!
2. Do get in the zone: think of yourself as the chauffeur (which you probably are a lot of the time anyway!), your job is to get your passengers from A to B safely, not to ply them with snacks and regale them with interesting stories and stimulating games along the way.
3. Do pull over: there may be times when you have to do this if things get really out of control, make sure you pull off any major roadways, as being pulled over in the wrong place can prove to be more dangerous than driving while distracted.
4. Do stay focused: you have enough distractions with kids in the back, don’t use your phone or any other distractions as these will obviously multiply your chances of being involved in an accident.

The Don’ts of driving with kids:

1. Don’t take your eyes off the road: resist the urge to turn around to intervene in any situations, use your mirrors to keep an eye on things but only when safe to do so.
2. Don’t pander to their needs: if you change the music at every whim this will become a major distraction and you will be setting a precedent for all future journeys. Be firm!
3. Don’t give snacks to small children: if they are small enough for you to worry about choking while eating at home, then definitely don’t let them eat in the car – you will be unable to stop watching them in your mirrors.
4. Don’t lose the cool: if all hell breaks loose in the back of the car, until you can pull over safely or reach your destination, try to ignore it. It may sound nigh on impossible but imagine you have one of those taxi screens between you and them (oh if only!) and keep focused on your driving!

And remember – what happens in the car, stays in the car!

We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act but a habit
Aristotle

To encourage the artist in your child and help them exercise the artistic side of their brain, you do not need to sit at a table and draw or paint, you do not even need to be at home or within reach of a crayon! Art is about seeing the forms and colours of the world around you in a way that a lot of people do not. Young children naturally see the world in raw forms and colours as so much of it is new to them so they do not tend to ’scan over’ things like we adults do.

You can encourage a child’s natural interest in everything around them by discussing the shapes, colours and textures of objects. For example, you may be in the supermarket and pick up a bag of pasta. You could talk to your child about the shape of the bag, how the top and bottom edges are jagged and the rest smooth. How the bag is clear so you can see the contents inside but there are wrinkles in the bag in the places where it is not so full. Smaller children may enjoy tracing the outline of an object with their finger in the air.

For older kids you can look at colour in detail. Looking at the various colours that an object is composed of is excellent practice for painting and is something that a child will definitely improve at with practice.

All of these tasks and activities not only exercise the artistic side of your child’s brain, but they will also help develop and hone their skills in spatial reasoning, general observation and the basic physics of the world around them.

The artist is nothing without the gift, but the gift is nothing without work.
Emile Zola

I like to take this a stage further and frame my kids’ art. Kids love to see their art stuck up on the fridge or noticeboard, but to see it framed and given pride of place amongst the family photos is a great confidence-builder for the budding young artist! I have a wall where there are numerous framed photos, formal and informal of all three of my children. I started framing ’scribbles’ as soon as the perpetrator of this scribble recognized it as their own! The framed art can be either arranged randomly amongst the photos, or you could arrange masterpieces next to the photo of the child responsible.

I like to use all black frames for both my photos and the kids’ art, but very ornate frames can also work well to highlight the art. Amazon does some very good deals on frames:

If you think toddler art may not be suitable for hanging on your walls then read the article, Toddler fools the art world into buying his tomato ketchup paintings. Enjoy and feel free to post your ideas on this!

Lisa

This is one of those great open-ended projects that can go on for as long as you like or can be revisited again and again whenever you are looking for something to fill the time. The dollshouse idea can be adapted to a hospital, shop etc., depending on you or your child’s preferences.

You will need:

• 2 or 3 shoeboxes or small boxes of a similar size
• Lifestyle magazines with pictures of furniture etc.
• black marker/ pen
• Glue
• Paint or markers
• Material (such as scrap cloth/ carpet etc. – whatever is to hand)
• Scissors

The example we are using here is of a 3-story house so get three shoeboxes ready. On all three draw a square shape for a window on the 2 opposing small sides of the box (or the back of the box as in the example shown). You can either cut out this square for the windows or cut down the center and across the top and the bottom giving the effect of window shutters. A mixture of both of these is nice, maybe shutters on the bottom floor and full cut-out windows on the other two.

Where you have used shutters use the black marker to draw a series of horizontal lines across the shutter doors from top to bottom. You can colour them first if you like.

Now that your windows are all in place you need to paint/ colour the walls and floors of your dollshouse. I think it is more fun (although slightly more awkward) to put the house together first as it feels more like decorating a real house (this is all about me remember – what kids??!) .

To put the house together put the shoeboxes on top of each other with the open top facing towards you. Once you are happy with the position glue the boxes into place. If you have a lid from any of these boxes it can provide a good support for the house by glueing it to the back at floor level, this will act as a stabilizer.

Let the glue dry (according to instructions as the drying time for each glue will vary). Now comes the fun part – decorating!

Paint is easier and more effective for the large areas like the outside of the house so mix up some nice vibrant colours. In the example in the picture we used different colours for each level of the house and included stripes and lots of vibrant colours. Remember to leave this up to the kids and let them paint the whackiest colour-scheme they want. You will have to restrain yourself from interfering in this and believe me – it is not easy!

While the exterior of the house is drying you can make a start on the ’soft-furnishings’. You can be as elaborate as you like here, curtains, rugs and even a table-cloth if you so desire, and I have a funny feeling you will! For the curtains you really just need to cut out 2 squares a slightly bigger size than the window. Put a piece of string (over twice the width of the window) along the top of the square of material. Fold some material over the string and glue in place (you may need to put a weight on it to make sure it sticks together when drying), do this with both squares to make the pair of curtains. This will form the ‘curtain rail’. To put in place you can put 2 small holes either side of the top of the window and feed the string through tying it on the outside of the house (you can paint over this later). You can elaborate further on this by making little ties for the curtains and tying them back.

You can either paint the floors of your house or use extra bits of carpet cut to size for that added luxury! If you only have little bits of materials then cut some rectangular floor rugs. For the walls I like to cut out lots of paintings from the backgrounds of lifestyle magazines (those ones with showpiece rooms), you can cut out lamps, tables, wardrobes and lots more and stick them to the appropriate wall in your house.

You can then fill the house with dollshouse furniture and whatever little figures will fit. You can add to this house again and again. We have so far added a garage at the back in the shape of another small shoebox (from a first pair of shoes – aww!), a ladder made out of lollipop sticks and a roof garden (an upturned shoebox lid!).

Please post your comments on this as it is a limitless project so all ideas and experiences are welcome!

This is a great craft idea that costs nothing (but the paint) and can result in a nice little keepsake for your child!

The Ladybird Pebble is suitable for all ages although toddlers will need help with the painting!

You will need:

• A smooth, oval shaped pebble/ stone
• Paints and paintbrushes
• Water
• Protective cover for table/ activity area

First you need to wash and dry the pebbles to get rid of any surface dirt. For this particular example I have painted ladybirds (ladybugs) but you can do beetles either if you prefer.

For ladybirds you really just need red and black paint. For the eyes you can either use stick on google-eyes (my personal favourite) or white paint with a black circle painted inside it.

Paint the entire surface of the pebble with red paint and let dry. It should only take about 10 minutes to dry so you can start on other ones while you are waiting for the first one to dry.

When it is dry paint the top quarter of the pebble back and draw a black line down the length of the centre. Then paint on black dots on either side of the line.

For the eyes you can either glue on the google eyes or paint a white circle with a smaller black circle within it.

Let them dry and hey presto! You can make a whole little colony of these and vary the colours if you like. It is good to make a few at a time as you can paint in rotation and allow paint to dry while you are doing the next one.

You can convert this craft activity into a really nice gift for someone by adding a nice ornate box and putting a little family of ladybirds inside. Cute!

I really enjoyed this book. It’s really funny. The book is set out in letters from little wolf to his mum, dad and his brother Smellybreff. I really like this book because of the way the author describes things which creates an image in your head. This book is probably suitable for the ages 8 to 11. Most of the words are not difficult but some of the words are. It took me about 4 or 5 days to read it but I read some of the book at night time and in the afternoon. The book is a smallish size. The illustrations in the book aren’t coloured, they are black and white. I will give this book 4 out of 5 stars.

By: Sophie age: 10

Get it here on Amazon:

I got the following one by email a while back and have no-one to attribute it to so feel free to let me know who you are and I can put your name to it!

Submitted by a first grade girl for a homework assignment:

After it was graded and the child brought it home, she returned to school the next day with the following note:

Dear Ms. Davis,

Mrs. Harrington

Looking at and buying art taps into senses that the purchase of other items simply cannot. When you are enjoying a painting you can truly immerse yourself in the colours, forms and mood of the piece. It is this that makes buying art a memorable experience and therefore something appropriate for marking significant occasions like the birth of a child, anniversaries and other such events.

I have three young children and decided when our first, Eabha, was born, that we had to mark the occasion with something both tangible and enduring. My husband and I love art and decided to buy a piece of art for any significant occasions such as the births and first birthdays of the children. Thus far we have bought paintings reflecting our tastes and our personalities with probably a lot of what we felt at the time in them as they are all quite bright optimistic pieces (we were still blissfully unaware of the levels of sleep deprivation we were yet to endure!). As the children get older we will buy more for their personalities than ours, and these paintings will be reminders of what personality traits were apparent to us in that child at the time.

We hope eventually for the walls of our house to be a kind of gallery timeline, reflecting both our personalities and tastes, along with the emerging personalities and tastes of the kids. It is a work in progress and I am enjoying every minute of it!

We have put together a list of art products that we think would make great gift ideas (from toddlers up). If you have any ideas you wish to add to this list, please feel free to comment.