Fun Car Travel Games (And Why You Should Play Them with Your
Kids)!
Ah yes, the great American road trip. Pack up the vehicle
and head out for your destination, enjoying changing scenery and places of
interest along the way. On a long trip, kids will likely get bored and
restless, despite stops to let them explore and run around. Sure, these days
there are car DVD players, Game Boys, and various other gizmos and gadgets
specifically created for the traveling kid. But, even these activities can
become tiring for the child or teenager, and when the kids become grumpy or whiny,
parents absorb the tension.
So what do you do? Go "old school" with them! Play car
travel games!
Car travel games provide hours of fun and an opportunity for great
family bonding. You may even learn some new things about each other! They are
educational and allow kids (and adults) to improve language, reading, spelling,
geography, and musical skills. Many of them can also be played when traveling
by plane, bus, or train. Here is a list of my favorite car travel games from my
"old school" days.
For kids under 6:
1.) 20 questions--The classic! Have your child (or you) pick out
something in the car or something you pass outside, and ask or have her ask
yes/no questions to reveal its identity. If your child picks on object, ask
about shape, color, texture, and size to help her learn these concepts. Even my
2-year-old plays this one, asking questions like, "Is it fuzzy?" or
"Is it messy?" It can be highly entertaining for child and adult and
is great food for inquisitive little minds!
2. I Spy--Another classic that never gets old! Someone spies an
object inside or outside of the car and identifies its color only. (I spy
something red...) Take turns guessing what it is. It's a fun game for little
ones just learning their colors.
3. Name that tune--Like the old television game show (and current
similar tv shows), hum a few notes of a song for your child to guess what it
is. They can do the humming too! Someone can also sing a few lyrics and let the
others guess the rest of the words. You may create a veritable car sing-along
while enhancing your child's musical development.
4. The Rhyme Game--Find a one or two syllable object inside or
outside of the car and ask your kids to think of words that rhyme with it. Both
my 4-year-old and 2-year-old love this game, and we love that they are working
on their language skills.
5. Storybook--Begin with "Once Upon a Time..." and have
everyone take turns adding something to the story. The characters and plot can
go in very interesting directions. This game really lets your child's creative
juices flow!
For ages 6 and up:
6.) Alphabet game--Start with "A" and find a word on a
passing billboard, sign, license plate, vehicle, etc. that begins with it. Work
your way through the entire alphabet letter by letter. You may be stumped on
"Q" and "X," but your child's reading skills will be
sharpened! Another variation of this game is to find passing objects that begin
with each letter in the alphabet.
7.) Last Letter Game--This game can be played using categories
such as famous names, movie or song titles, animals, or cities. Start with a
name such as Barack Obama. The next player takes "A," the last letter
of the last name, and names another famous person's name that starts with that
letter, such as Angelina Jolie. Keep going as long as possible. If a player
can't think of anything in a minute or so, he or she is out.
8.) License Plate games--The goal of this game is to find license
plates from as many of the 50 U.S. states as possible. Write them down as a
list, or seize the opportunity for a Geography lesson, coloring in a blank U.S.
map as each state plate is identified. No winners or losers, just lots of fun!
There are other license plate games to play such as taking plate letters and
creating an acronym from them to describe something about the vehicle.
9.) "My Car" game--As a kid, this game was very popular
with my family. It works best on a two lane road that does not receive heavy
traffic. Each person in the car takes a turn with each oncoming vehicle. For
every turn, the passing vehicle "becomes" yours. It is fun to see who
gets the "clunkers" and who gets the desirable ones. At the end of
the trip, the players can vote on who won with the nicest vehicle.
10.) Silly sentences--A player calls out a word that has the same
number of letters as the number of players. The first player states a word that
begins with the first letter of the word, the second player, a word starting
with the second letter, and so on. Everybody tries to make a complete sentence
from all the letters that may or may not make sense. The more people playing,
the longer and sillier the sentences! Like the "last letter" game,
players can also use the last word in each made-up sentence as the word for the
next silly sentence. This game builds vocabulary and grammar skills.
So this summer, let the drive itself be great family fun and a
chance for the kids to learn without even knowing it.
Poster's comments:
There are many more
games one can play on a trip. Our imagination is the limit.
And one can play them
at home, or any "cabin fever" situation, too.
Here's another list from Edmunds:
It never, ever fails: Within 30 minutes of stuffing the car to its gills with luggage and people for a getaway, you're left wondering how you can get away from everyone's complaints of boredom. And to think, only hours more to go! Despite popular in-car entertainment such as DVD players, truth be told, not everyone's car is equipped to offer the convenience of penguins or Dora as a babysitter for the next 50, 100 or 200 miles.
That's why we've
compiled a list of road trip games that don't require any tools, paper or
accessories beyond the open road. We have suggestions for passengers at every
age level, although each game can be tweaked accordingly.
I
Spy
Probably
the classic make-time-go-by game of all time. One person looks around and
chooses an object that the others have to guess, with their only clue being
these words: "I spy with my little eye something that begins with (insert
the first letter of the object's name)." Or the clue can be the object's
color. The player who guesses the object gets to go next. The tricky part? It's
not fair to "spy" something that's whizzing by the car at highway
speeds. A landmark (mountain range, forest) that will be in the players' view
for a few minutes is best.
20
Questions
"Are
we there yet? Are we there yet?" Only 18 more times to go! In 20
Questions, whomever goes first thinks of, well, anything. The first question is
always, "Animal, vegetable or mineral?" After that, the players can
ask pointed questions to try and guess — go around the car in a circle asking
for clues such as, "Does it bark?" or "Can you peel it?"
for example, although the answer to those questions can only be "yes"
or "no." If you reach the 20th question without a winner, everyone
has one last chance to figure it out before the "thing" is revealed
and another person starts a fresh round.
License
Plates
There
are many ways to play with license plates, depending on the age of your kids.
Young participants can call out letters in alphabetical order; the first one to
Z wins. Next, have them look for doubles — or better yet, triples! — of letters
and/or numbers in the plates. The one who has the most at the end of the
day/trip wins. Older kids can "collect" out-of-state plates they see.
(Make it tougher by going in alphabetical order.) Or they can try to build
words or phrases using the letter sequence in the plates. A plate with the
letters E, F and T, for example, might become the word "effort"
(using those letters to start the word, in the middle and at the end). Those
could make "Ed's Favorite Tacos" if you're running with phrases.
Slug-a-Bug
The
concept is that players keep track of how many Volkswagen Beetles they spot on
the road. We've heard of variations in which the game is limited to New or
vintage Beetles, or versions where the older Bugs are worth more. In the game's
original version you were supposed to punch your seat mate when you spotted a
Bug, but most parents find that any game that involves hitting can get out of
hand pretty quickly. So keep score some other way — tapping your seat mate,
counting on your fingers (first to 10 wins) or something more in keeping with
the Bug's peaceful hippie history.
Where's
the Alphabet?
Perform
this as teams or solo players. You'll want to utilize road signs, billboards,
shop names — any reading material outside the window qualifies as long as it's
spotted on your side of the car. (If you're the front-seat passenger, focus on
the right.) You'll be looking for every letter of the alphabet, in alphabetical
order, although the letter can be located anywhere in the word. Say there is a
fruit stand with a sign for Granny Smith apples — there's your A. The exit for
the Brooklyn Bridge would cover B, Road Closed is C and so on. First one to the
letter Z wins. If you see "Road Closed," however, you'll probably be
happy to have the nine other games listed here.
- Name That Tune
As
with the classic TV game show, the winner here is the one who figures out the
name of the "mystery song" first. For those with
singing/whistling/humming talent, this can be as much karaoke as a guessing
game. Choose a theme for the game, such as show tunes, movie or TV themes, or
Justin Timberlake. (Good luck, adults.) The winner gets to be the singer for
the next round. If no one can carry a tune in a bucket, then try guessing the
songs on the radio. Really want to mix it up? Hit the "seek" button
so no one gets an unfair advantage from sticking to one particular station's
format.
- The Picnic Game
A
memory builder for all ages. One player says, "I went to a picnic Saturday
and I brought..." then says a picnic favorite that begins with the letter
A, like apples. The next player repeats the opening phrase, and after
"...I brought" they repeat the A item then add one that begins with
B: "I brought an apple and some bananas." The third player repeats
the opener, the A and the B portions, and then adds something that begins with
C. Get it? Can your travelers get through the alphabet, remembering all the
items everyone contributed? Try keeping track of 23 items plus figuring
out what you can take to a picnic that starts with X!
- Count the...
Probably
even the most enthusiastic young'ns will catch on to this being busywork, but
for awhile it'll be all they'll think about! And there is a bonus: Interest is
likely to reignite on its own shortly after it stalls. Count the... can be
anything: cows, telephone poles, headlights, train cars, blue pickup trucks —
you name it. Shouting out the thing to keep track of is all that is required.
- Tunnels
This
one is simple: When you come to a tunnel, see who can hold their breath the
longest. True, it may not be one best played by the driver (lightheadedness,
anyone?), but everyone else can give it a go. We used to be amazed at our own
skill at this as kids.
- Geography Lesson
Geography
is much more fun outside the classroom, isn't it? For this game, choose
countries, cities or states (or go nuts and try rivers and lakes or capitals).
Let's say your theme is states. The first player names a location, and the next
player has to rattle off another state that starts with the last letter of the
previous player's state. Therefore, if it were Michigan, the next state would
have to start with N, like Nebraska. The A could be Alaska, and so on. Note:
This one makes our brain hurt.
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