Kids can be hard to entertain because with so many toys and forms of entertainment available today, it’s hard for them to maintain their attention span on one thing. In a motorhome trip, it can be even trickier to provide them enough entertainment, but certainly not impossible.
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To keep kids entertained in a motorhome, make sure to provide them a variety of entertainment, whether tangible or digital.
Colouring books, board games, stationery items, craft supplies, story books, gadgets etc. are just some of the options you have to keep kids from getting bored in a motorhome. Regular pitstops can help them feel active and energized throughout the trip too.
Read below to know more about the variety of products, whether tangible or digital, you can take along with you in a motorhome and entertain your kids with them to their heart’s content.
How to Keep Kids Entertained in a Motorhome: 1) Tangible Toys
1) Colouring Books
Colouring is a classic therapeutic activity kids can enjoy and also something that is very affordable. You can buy your children colouring books having their favourite cartoon characters to spice up their interest.
With younger kids, a pack of Crayola colour pencils can work just fine. If you have older kids who are into art, you can invest in something of better quality such as a student-grade pack of colour pencils by Faber Castell.
To make things more interesting, you can buy adult colouring books for yourself and enjoy a nice therapeutic colouring session with your kids, maybe even teaching them some tips and tricks for colouring better.
Here’s a colouring book we can recommend. It has over 90 interesting pictures of Donald Duck and other Disney characters to colour.
2) Board Games
Board games such as Monopoly, Ludo, Scrabble, Chess etc. can be a great way to bond with your kids and keep them from getting bored throughout the trip. If you have younger kids, make sure to guide them through the game rules till they can play on their own.
Here’s a board game on Amazon with both Snakes & Ladders and Ludo integrated in one product.
3) Card Games
Easy yet interactive card games such as Bluff, Uno, Slapjack etc. are a great way to both improve your kids’ sense of strategy and concentration, and to keep them engrossed in something for a while. With older kids you can try card games that are a little on the trickier side, such as Pokémon or Yu-Gi-Oh!
4) Interactive Story Books
You can, of course, give your kids traditional story books, but being a little gimmicky never hurts. There are many interactive story books available in the market which have interesting pop-up mechanisms, sound buttons, movable tabs, squishy parts to bring a fairy tale to life.
Kids always enjoy a bit of spontaneity, so you can surprise them with story books that stray from the conventional side.
Here is an example, a Cinderella story book with movable tabs, rich illustrations and sound buttons which will be engrossing for any little girl.
5) Clay Kit
Children love exploring and creating something by themselves, so a kid’s clay kit is one of the best options to polish their creativity. You can either buy your kids a simple Play Doh set or go an extra step and buy something like this.
This set includes clay made of natural materials, toy kitchenware such as plates or bowls, toy machines for making noodles and macaroni and cutting board moulds.
6) Lego Blocks
Children often get bored of the same toys pretty quick. To counter that, why not buy toys that provide them multiple possibilities to explore? Lego blocks are a timeless option to brush up your kids’ creativity and imagination, and also to improve their self-esteem as they come up with something they created out of their own hands.
7) Plush Dolls
Plushies and stuffed toys make great products not just for kids, but a person of any age. Especially if you’re going on a long trip and your kids need something to cuddle while napping along the way, a stuffed toy they like is perfect.
8) Travel Pillows
Not exactly a toy, but travel pillows can really help your kids feel comfortable and relaxed especially during longer trips. You can buy ones with their favourite cartoon or TV characters for a personalized touch. Here’s one we can recommend.
How to Keep Kids Entertained in a Motorhome: 2) Digital Options
1) Music
Music is a must for any long trip. You can play your kids’ favourite songs from cartoons or animated movies, and even take turns in playing their favourite songs first and then playing yours.
2) Audiobooks
If you don’t have enough room for tangible books or the time to buy them, why not just download audiobooks on your phone? You can choose from a wide selection of stories that you can have your kids listen to not just during the trip but also during the nights for a better sleep.
3) Movies and Documentaries
Animated movies, family shows and educational documentaries are a great way for passing time and keeping your kids entertained throughout a long trip. You can download videos from YouTube beforehand for offline viewing, especially if you’re going to an area with a lack of internet connection.
4) Colouring Apps
Apart from colouring books, you can give your kids a taste of digital art by installing colouring apps on a phone or tablet. You can download several colouring apps to give your kids different options and keep them from getting bored.
5) Video Games
You don’t want your kids to be totally absorbed in gadgets, but you don’t want to totally deprive them of gadgets either. Some light video games they can play every now and then, like Angry Birds, Fruit Mania etc. will keep them entertained for a good amount of time.
How to Keep Kids Entertained in a Motorhome: 3) Activities to Enjoy
1) Charades
The best thing about games like Charades is that they don’t require you to buy any physical product to enjoy them. Make sure to only make your kids guess shows or movies of their age that they would know and remember.
2) Name, Place, Animal and Thing
A classic game that will not only improve your kids’ memory and vocabulary but also keep them interested and bonded with you throughout the trip.
3) Truth or Dare
Truth or Dare is a fun game to play with kids. Just make sure you’re remembering the fact that they’re kids and only asking them for truths or dares that are appropriate for their age.
4) Collecting Stones, Seashells, Pinecones etc.
Depending on where you’re headed to, you can stop along the way and collect things like stones, seashells, pinecones etc. from the ground and use them for interesting craft activities with your kids when you get back home.
5) Photographs
Capturing photos is a staple part for any trip nowadays. You can go an extra step and print out the photographs you snap with your kids to make a scrapbook later on. A little bit of creativity can be thrown into everything.
Conclusion
There are tons of ways you can entertain your kids in a motorhome while going on a trip. Just keep in mind to switch between different forms of entertainment mentioned in this article so your kids don’t get bored doing the same activity over and over again.
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I love everything about travel, from seeing new places, learning about new cultures and trying new foods! I believe that travel is one of the best forms of education you can get, I have learnt so much about myself and about the world from travelling all over. Travel is something I feel so passionately about, and I love the fact that we are now lucky enough to have this opportunity to do what we love as much as we can, it’s a dream come true.
Before we started travelling, I worked in local government in administration. I had been in this job for several years and had reached a complete brick wall where I was so fed up, but didn’t know what else to do. The only thing I knew that I wanted to do was to travel, and had wanted to do that for many years.
There were hundreds and hundreds of places on my wishlist that I wanted to go to, and I knew that going on a weeks holiday maybe twice a year if we were lucky wasn’t going to cut it.
After being in lockdown due to the Covid pandemic, and working from home staring at the same 4 walls every day, 2021 seemed like the perfect time for us to take the risk to finally do what we had dreamed of for so long.
It was a hard decision to completely change our lives, but so far it has been the best decision we have ever made!