Miss A wanted to open it and play right away, but I made her save it for a trip, I know mean mommy! The kit is pretty cool, it comes in a big box with a velcro closure and a plastic handle, Miss A loved carrying it all around the house and to the “car”. Two DVDs are included in their own DVD boxes, There Was an Old Lady who Swallowed a Fly and The Wheels on the Bus. A The Wheels on the Bus CD, a Sing-Along Travel Kit Activity Booklet, and a 4 pack of crayons.

I like that the DVDs are a good amount of time, each about 65 minutes plus extras, although I haven’t quite figured out how to play anything but the main movie in our van. The movies feature several stories like, Frog Went A-Courtin’, Giraffes Can’t Dance, Bugs! Bugs! Bugs, and of course their title videos, There Was an Old Lady who Swallowed a Fly and The Wheels on the Bus.As you’re listening from the front seat or watching from the back, with your children you may recognize the voices of Cyndi Lauper, Billy Dee Williams, Rob Reiner and more.  I think Miss A was pretty entertained by the DVDs because they were new stories to her and we also watch a lot of different types of programming so the animation was not something that bothered her. If you have a child however, that only watches the latest cartoons with the best graffics they may complain a little about these discs being a little antiquated. Scholastic suggests this set for ages 2-8.

Since I had Baby C I haven’t been in the car by myself and 99 percent of the time I listen to children’s music or DVDs playing, so I actually liked the CD that came with The Wheels on the Bus Sing-Along Travel Kit. My two favorite songs are, He’s Got the Whole World in His Hands and The Erie Canal. Don’t ask me why I like The Erie Canal, I just do, and this version is a fun upbeat version that A and I danced to around the house, so I know you’ll be bopping in your cars too when this one comes on. Don’t worry about holding it in, have some fun, when you have 8 more hours of driving it’s totally worth being a little silly!

The Activity Booklet has a great front page section with Tips for Traveling with Kids. One tip that I really like is, “Bring a backpack of activities for each child and give out the activities one-by-one so they have something “new” every 30-45 minutes.” Now of course I’d probably change that up to 20-30 minutes for smaller children, and well, Baby C really can’t participate in that activity, but it’s a great idea.

Personally, I think the Activity Booklet is my favorite in the entire kit. It has some fun, “Color Me,” pages, and activities that go along with the CD and DVDs like, “See if you can remember the worlds to the song There Was an Old Lady Who Swallowed a Fly and then circle the pictures of the animals the old lady swallows.” It’s also pretty educational asking your child to pick out colors, match shapes, write numbers, connect the dots. While I love this book I think it may work best for children 3 and up, unless you really don’t care about the activities and just want something to keep the kids busy. Also a great idea for 2 or more siblings so they can help each other and work together on the pages.

Overall we loved this kit and will be using it for more trips to come, but for our own family we’ll probably try to reserve it only for trips so Miss A doesn’t get tired of it like she does with most of her videos. Way to go Scholastic, great pairing of DVDs, CDs, and who could forget, my favorite Activity Booklet. No favoritism here

I found the The Wheels on the Bus Sing-Along Travel Kit at Amazon for about $22 brand new, not bad for everything that it has in it.

What tips or tricks do you have for making a long car ride bearable?

With another child on the way I thought it would be a good idea to get a few things together for Little Miss A to play with while I am nursing or just have my hands full in general. Typically Miss A is easy to entertain, but I do notice that she focuses longer if she’s playing with something new. As I looked for new toys for her I stumbled across My Busy Kit.

My Busy Kit isn’t just 1 new toy or activity for Miss A, it’s a cute lunch box sized bag full of great goodies. As soon as we got the clear plastic bag Miss A could see all of the great things that were in store for her and couldn’t wait to get into it right away.With My Busy Kit there are a lot of options if your child tires of playing with one thing. In our kit we found Crayola markers, a dinosaur tape measure, a pair of children’s safety scissors, linking plastic men, and lots of fun craft items. The kit we received was for ages 3 and up, and Miss A will be 3 in May, but this is the first time she’s seen scissors, like I said before they’re safety scissors but something a parent would still want to supervise.

Miss A loved playing with the linking plastic men and one of her all time favorites, even when the doctors would measure her, is the dinosaur measuring tape. Again, if you ask me something you would want to supervise play with because often they can snap back and hit your child.

I really like My Busy Kit because I feel like it can be useful in a number of situations. My Busy Kit suggests using their kit at the airport, in restaurants, on road trips, and even as birthday and gift ideas. I think it comes in handy with baby number two, like I said during nursing time, when I cannot focus on playing with Miss A as much.

My Busy Kit standard bags are for ages 3 years to 7 years, but they also offer versions from 18 months to 10 years old if you request them. Each of their bags are satisfaction guaranteed. Again, I would recommend if you have a younger child to supervise their play with most of the items in the bag, plus it’s more fun to play with the bag with mom and dad.

My Busy Kit is offering MommyB Knows Best readers 20% off using the promo code: mommyb at the www.mybusykit.com checkout, make sure you also take a look at their iPhone application while you’re there.

What do you use to keep you children busy??