I live in Southern California, and though the upside is year-round warm weather and being surrounded by beautiful nature, the down-side is that we pretty much have to drive everywhere. As a result, my children spend a lot of time in their carseats. A lot. So my eternal challenge is finding a way to entertain my kids in the car.

It can be tempting to hand them an iPad and let them watch a movie while we move like molasses through 405 freeway traffic.

To be honest, we have resorted to showing them videos or photos to quell raging temper tantrums on rare occasions. But we generally try to avoid screen time – both in the car and at home during the week – because hell hath no fury like a child made to put down the iPad before their show is over. Plus, there is overwhelming research that shows the negative effects of screen time on brain development in children.

This study, for example, concluded that screen time hampered brain connectivity in the areas of language and cognitive control, while reading improved those connections. In fact, the American Academy of Pediatrics’ latest recommendation is to avoid digital media in children younger than 18 months and for “time limitations on digital media use for children 2 to 5 years to no more than 1 hour per day….”

Now, I can’t exactly read a book to my kids while driving. Nor can they read on their own yet. I also try to avoid the seemingly infinite number of plastic or plastic-wrapped toys that are marketed to families as fun for travel or perfect for car rides.

And while playing games with them like “I Spy” or just plain conversation also works brilliantly, sometimes mommy needs to focus on the road or just doesn’t want to be their entertainment while also driving. Basically, you want the ease of screen-time without all the brain rot. So what options does that leave us with? Several, in fact!

 

Here are my top 3 easy (and zero waste!) screen-free ways to entertain kids in the car:

 

#1 – Free Podcasts

Here I’ll let my 6-year-old son take over explaining what this is, because it’s his favorite thing to do in the car and he wants to tell you about it:

“A podcast is something that you listen to that people, like, make stories that get told, and there’s, like, performers that do it. The two that we like are Story Pirates and Stories Podcast. And also WOW In The World.”

Stories Podcast feature a different legend, classic fairy tale, folklore, or just plain made up stories in each episode. They are usually told by a single narrator, and have some kind of subtle educational value. Most fairy tales and fables tend to have a moral, so we find these to be both entertaining and enlightening at the same time.

Story Pirates takes a story that a young listener has submitted each week and, using a talented team of adult performers, AKA the Story Pirates, they turn that story into a radio show complete with songs, comedy, action, and more. Sometimes even with the help of famous actors. At the end of each episode, the host Lee Overtree interviews the child author about where they got their ideas and what their lives are like. So your young listeners gets to hear how a story written by someone just like them can become an epic tale, and they also get some advice on the writing process from kids all over the globe.

WOW In The World is another awesome podcast for kids that takes science and technology topics and turns them into silly, informative, radio entertainment. It airs on NPR and is hosted by Guy Raz (who also hosts some other NPR shows for adults) and Mindy Thomas. Both my 6-year-old and my 2-year-old LOVE this show because Guy and Mindy do an amazing job of making these somewhat dry and dense topics into fantastical explorations of the universe, complete with lots of funny sounds, corny puns, and silly situations. Each show ends with young listeners phoning in their random “WOW In The World” fact. I’ve learned so many interesting things from this show, and so have my children.

 

#2 – Children’s Music Playlists

You may already be an Amazon Prime member like me. But did you know that Prime membership also gives you free access to a ginormous number of songs? I learned this within the past year, and it’s completely changed the screen-free driving game. (Please note there are some affiliate links below, which cost you nothing to use but could earn me a small commission to help offset website costs. You can read more about this in my Privacy Policy and thank you in advance for your support!)  

So if you download the Amazon Music app and log in using your Amazon Prime account, you can find all kinds of excellent children’s music available for free! Some of the playlists I’ve put together for my kids are: the complete soundtracks to MOANA, FROZEN, ALADDIN, MARY POPPINS, and THE LION KING. (I also have the complete soundtrack to Hamilton, among other fun tunes for when I’m riding solo). Back to kids music, we also have a ton of Sesame Street songs, and even some children’s songs in French and German for the times we feel like being fancy.

If you want access to Amazon’s full song catalog which seems to have pretty much every song every recorded, you can upgrade to the Amazon Music Unlimited. In fact, if you click on this link you can get a 3 month trial for just .99 cents or whatever the current best offer is!

 

 

 

Don’t have Amazon Prime yet?

(Why??) You can use my affiliate link to sign up for a discounted rate of $5.99 per month! I currently pay $119 per year for my membership, so if you do the math, that discount is a really great deal. (Note: this deal and all other Amazon deals I mention here may have changed since the publication of this post – check the link for the best available offer!)

 

 

#3 – Audiobooks

For longer road trips, I recommend playing an audiobook for the kids! This is basically like listening to a movie, but better because it lasts way longer than a typical 90 minute children’s film. Also, listening to a story without images encourages kids to use their imaginations to create the images in their brains themselves. My son is just learning to read this year, so audio books give him the opportunity to “read” stories with more complex plots and characters than The Cat In The Hat, though we love it so.

We are fortunate to live in an area which has several amazing public library systems. You may have a library for your town, and also another one for your county. The larger the system, the larger the catalog generally. And nowadays, many libraries include a good to vast selection of e-books and audio books which you can borrow for free!

I use the Overdrive app for all my local libraries and have borrowed so many wonderful children’s books that way. There’s literally hundreds of hours of screen-free ways to entertain kids through audiobooks out there! Some of my son’s favorite stories include:

• Mercy Watson series by Kate DiCamillo
• Henry Huggins and Ramona Quimby series by Beverly Cleary
• Who Is…? series (kid-friendly biographies of famous people like Walt Disney, Marie Curie, and Jackie Robinson just to name a few. I love listening to these books too!)

Now, the one drawback to borrowing audio books from your library is that if it’s a popular title you will likely have to wait for it to be available, just like checking out a regular paper book. You can buy audiobooks online, but they tend to be pricy, like typically over $10 for a single children’s chapter book.

If you really can’t wait, or if your library system doesn’t have a sizable audio book collection, I recommend joining Audible, which is a membership program that allows you to download titles immediately and play them through their app.

Use my link to get free 30 days of membership, plus 2 free audiobooks and 2 free Audible Originals. Then once the trial month expires, it’s $14.95/per month going forward. As an Audible member, you can also buy audiobooks via Amazon for a 30% discount!

 

 

 

 

Now, if you’ll be flying with kids and cut off from wifi, my friend Maggie over at Milana’s Travels put together this awesome list of ways to entertain kids on planes. It includes cute travel-themed kids shirts she makes herself, as well as lots of great eco-friendly toy ideas like wooden puzzles, finger puppets, wooden magnetic blocks, and healthy snack ideas!

 

Pro-tip: the best travel souvenirs are the memories that you make on them, not the things that you buy.

Here are some ideas for creative ways to capture travel memories from travel blogger An Adventure Is Calling, and a cool DIY on how to create a personalized photo travel map from DQ Family Travel, so you can relish those memories long after the trip has ended.

 

While it is so very tempting to hand your kid your smart phone or smart tablet when they’re buckled up for a car ride, there really are (mostly) free and fun screen-free alternatives to screen time that they will love. Personally, I’d much rather be learning about the life of Jane Goodall or about a mysterious breed of exploding ants, or any number of interesting stories along with my kids than seeing their glazed faces staring at screens in my rear view mirror. Even better, it gives us something to talk about long after the car ride has ended.

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