When you set out on a road trip with children this summer, what games will you play in the car? There is only so much you can bring along by way of manufactured toys, games, and entertainment. Try traveling light and playing a few games of the open road! Here are some ideas after the jump:
• The good ol' license plate game. Keep a notebook and jot down every state's license plate you see. It's a fun way to learn the states and the designs of each of their plates.
• Play the alphabet game. Keep an eye out for letters of the alphabet on road signs. Start with "A" and work your way through the entire alphabet. The whole car will be in uproarious celebration when "X" is finally spotted (after two hours!) in Xenia, Ohio.
• I Spy is a game where one person in the car spots something outside the windows. "I spy", they say, then give one hint. Everyone asks yes or no questions until the object is guessed.
What other traveling games do you play? Let's list them below so we can all learn some new ones to play when we're road-tripping with little ones this summer!
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The Picnic Game. The first person starts by saying "I'm going on a picnic and I'm bringing" then naming an item that starts with the letter A. The next person has to repeat that adding something with the letter B. You keep going around trying to remember and repeat everything already said and adding one thing for each letter of the alphabet as you go.
For preschoolers/non-readers, we play the "I'm thinkin of" game, which is just a variation on the alphabet game. You pick a category, animals for example. Each person has to name an animal and can't repeat an animal already named by someone else. Since the contestants don't read you just eliminate the "starts with ___" requirement. When you run out of stuff, pick a new category.
One that works with teenagers is a celebrity name game. The first person says the first and last name of someone famous. Then the next person has to give the name of a different celebrity whose first name starts with the same initial as the last name of the previous celebrity. The order of players switches for names with the same initial for first and last name. For example: Kevin Bacon, Bill Clinton, Courtney Cox (change direction), Calvin Klein…
Okay, I probably just dated myself with those names… but you get the picture.
Oh, and the alphabet game can be played with license plates.
Another fun license plate game is to make up a phrase for the three-letter combination of a license plate. Ex: ABC 123 --> “Always Be Closing” or “Albino Blind Cat.” It has no real goal.
Love these! When I was growing up, my mom and I would play these games while folding laundry. My favorite was a version of the Picnic Game where we went through the alphabet saying "Hi my name is Andy, I live in Annapolis and I like apples" and so on through the alphabet. In the car, we would also tell collaborative stories- each person would just add on to the narrative created by the first.
Can I just say thank you? I think it's incredibly important that kids learn to be good travelers without being constantly entertained by technology like movies and a DS. It's okay to be "bored" once in a while... I was the only child in my neighborhood that grew up without television (I'm still in my 20s, so fairly unusual situation), so when I caved in to my tv-loving husband and allowed tv in my home, I also put my foot down and said absolutely not to tvs in our vehicles. We take many long trips to visit family, and our 5 year-old boy has learned to be a great traveler! Other parents are amazed by it, but all it takes is a little creativity with games like these, embracing the opportunity to interact with the kids, and encouraging them to play quietly once in a while.
i'm 25 and we still play half of these games on road trips!
We just came back from a train/car trip. I've played "I spy" on previous trips with my daughter, this was the first time I got to try out the alphabet game. We only got to "C" and I had to allow her to find letters inside the car since searching moving objects was not so easy for her (she's 3.5), but I was so excited by it. Can't wait to try again.
How about the car make/model game? This one may not be for the younger kids, but it's one I play as an adult with my friends. Going down the alphabet, look for a car that has either a make or model that begins with the letter in question. The hardest is the letter "U" which inevitably becomes a U-Haul b/c nothing else works. You get good at recognizing cars at a glance.