Car Activities for 18-month-old

Since we are getting ready for a car trip, I have been gathering (and making) car activities for both of my children.  We don't have a portable DVD player or a DVD in the car, so we have to come up with lots of things for the kids to do.  I thought it would be helpful to do a couple of posts about what I've come up with, in case it gives anyone else any brilliant ideas.  I am ALWAYS looking for ideas for car activities. 

For some of the car activities (mainly for E's, the ones I created...there aren't as many things to make for an 18-month old), I bought plastic bags to store each activity in to make it easier to grab a bag.  I found bags at the following places:  I got some cheap clear plastic pencil bags at Target for about 75 cents or something like that.  One of them broke immediately, so I don't recommend those.  I also got some plastic "book bags" from a school supply store (first picture below).  They are sturdy and work well, and I like the handles.  But they are a bit annoying to close, since you have to match up the handles.  I also got some clear plastic zipper bags from Office Depot.  They were in the section where they sell banker/money bags and things like that.  I really like those!

I will do a much longer post for activities for my preschooler (she's almost 4 now) later, hopefully tonight or tomorrow.  There are a lot more activities a preschooler can do in the car, and I made a lot of things for her.

So,  here are the activities I have for my 18-month-old:

Bag of board books:



A toddler shoe box that holds little people.  I put a self-sticking Velcro tab (sold at places like Michaels and Hobby Lobby and sewing stores, in the sewing section) on the bottom of each person, and then I put a velcro tab on top of the box lid, so W can stick and unstick the people.  The people fit inside the box.  I also included an animal:

A V-Tech magnetic toy inside of a cake pan that I bought from the $1 store--it's fairly small and lightweight so it's not super heavy or cumbersome for W to hold on his lap.  I bought a cake pan instead of a cookie sheet, so the letters would be less likely to fall out:

 Books that make sounds:

A doodle toy that I got from Target (it's Fisher Price, and it's made for 12 months +; it is really easy for a little one to use the yellow eraser to erase the picture, and it's easy to grip the attached pen that you don't have to worry about losing.  Only problem with it is that the string attaching it is pretty short--I'm sure for strangulation-hazard purposes--so it can sometimes be tricky depending on how the child is holding it:

A rain stick and an egg that spins and lights up that W got in his Easter basket this year (I bought it from Michaels):

Flash cards--I got the ones pictured below that are big and are touch-and-feel, that are designed for younger kids.  I also got some flash cards at the $1 store (shapes/colors and letters).  Even though W isn't old enough to learn his letters or shapes, I figured he could have fun taking them all out of the box:

A bag that has things in it W can open and close (an old ring box, an old glasses case, and an empty Tic Tac box....I will try to add more items to this bag as I get more things):

V-Tech Touch and Teach Turtle.  Our friends got E this for her first birthday, and she has gotten a lot of mileage out of it on car trips.  W has played with it a few times and LOVES it:

Melissa & Doug wooden activity sets (the top one are cars that are attached to the board, and you move them around to the correct buildings that match the cars--or, if you're W, you can just move the cars around); the bottom one is an alphabet one, where you move the animal to the letter that corresponds with the first letter of the animal's name:

Hallway Ball

Supplies Required:
Ball
A hallway

"Hallway ball" was one of our family's favorite activities when W was between 5 months and 10 months old because it was something that he loved to watch us do (before he could really participate) and was something that he loved to do himself when he was old enough to throw the ball.  We typically use a beach ball for hallway ball because it's light, fun to throw and hit, and it's not hard enough to hurt if someone gets whacked in the face (which almost always happens at some point during the game).  E stands or sits at one end of the hallway, and I sit or stand at the other end.  Before W could crawl, I would sit him in front of me and help him participate.  We basically throw, hit, or even kick the ball as hard as we want to because there is nothing to knock over or break in the hallway.  It's fun to watch the ball bounce off the walls (and sometimes the ceiling).  This activity always leads to lots of giggles. 

Yogurt Fingerpainting

Supplies required:
Yogurt or pudding
Food dye

This is a tried-but-true activity that both my children enjoy.  I've usually heard of people using pudding for this activity, but I decided to use vanilla yogurt so it would be more nutritious.  I separated the yogurt into three different dishes and made blue, green, and yellow by mixing a few drops of dye into each dish.  I decided not to use the red dye because I know some people are allergic to it, and we had not tried it with W.  I set E up in her booster seat and poured out some of each yogurt onto the tray.  I did the same on W's highchair tray.  Then, I let them paint their trays (and later themselves--a bath was definitely needed after we were done!)  This is a cheap, easy activity.  It's obvioulsy on the messy side, but definitely worth it.  W and E both got hungry while they were fingerpainting, so halfway through I added some Cheerios to their tray, figuring they could play with it and eat it.