wfmw: the car edition

The theme for this week's Works for Me Wednesday is how to make life easier on the go. I almost always have all 3 children in tow with me every time I run errands so I am looking forward to picking up some more tips to make going out with them easier! Here is a listing of things that I have found work for me when out and about or when we are making the long 10 1/2 hour drive to Grandpa and Grandma's house.

- Teach your older child to help the younger ones get buckled up into their seats.This saves me so much time! I drive around a suburban and the two older kids love to sit in the back seat so they just climb in back there, Thomas buckles up Elle and all I have to do is buckle the baby into her seat in the middle and off we go.

- Books on CD. We love to listen to these while we run around town. Many good ones can probably be found at your local library.

- Keep a box of kleenex in the back by the kids. This keep you from frantically searching for one while you are driving down the road after one of your kids sneezes!

- Have your kids vacuum and clean out the vehicle! My older 2 children are 7 and 5 years old. They were wanting to do chores a couple of weeks ago to earn some money to use at the Mommy Store but I was running out of ideas for them to do when I remembered that they had recently ate Chex mix in the back of the vehicle and crumbs were everywhere. I told them they could each earn a chip if they vacuumed and cleaned out the suburban. Thomas got out the shop vac and got busy vacuuming and Elle wiped off the seats. They did a pretty good job and thought it was fun too!

- For those long car rides, having a DVD player in our vehicle has saved many tears and many "Are we there yets?"! When we take long trips I usually pack a couple of their favorite videos but also like to surprise them with a new one part way into the trip that I either bought or rented from the video store.

- And along the lines of the DVD player in the vehicle be sure to keep extra batteries in the vehicle for the wireless headphones that way you don't have to end up listening to Veggie Tales along with the kids too!

- Vehicle Bingo is a fun game to play on long trips. I remember playing it when I was younger on family vacations. You can make your own bingo cards with things that you might see along the way on your trip and the first person to find 5 in a row on their card can win a little prize you brought along. I found this link to a pdf file of an already made bingo card for younger children that is a simplified version.

Well, that is all that I can think of for now. It's time to go over to Rocks in My Dryer now to read the rest of the tips!

Update! -
I thought of this tip after I'd already published this post. Always keep a spare house key in your vehicle! I learned the value of this a month or so ago. The door from our garage into our house has one of those locks on it that you push in on the knob along with a dead bolt. The problem with it is that the button thing can get pushed in on the knob (by young children!) and you can still turn the knob from the inside and have no idea that it is locked until you try to go back into the house after the door has been closed. Having a spare key in the vehicle will always allow you to get back in! I've tried hiding one outside too but that one has gone missing (I suspect by little hands again). I've learned to have a back up plan for my back up plan!