Fun games to play on a road trip with kids

With the school holidays looming, a scenic road trip could be a cool way to keep your young ones entertained. I know, a road trip can seem pretty daunting when you combine the compact space of a back seat with your kid’s extremely large levels of energy. But do not fret, dear friend! Fellow mommy blogger, Amelia, of Suddenly a Mom, has shared some cool road-trip games with us!

Fun road trip games for kids

We’re getting ready for an eight-hour road trip in December, when we head on our annual family camping trip to Yellow Sands, which is just outside East London. With a talkative 10-year old that loves telling the same jokes and expecting the same enthusiasm from us every time we hear it.

So, I’ve become the mom that gives her earphones and an iPad and lets her watch movies while I convince myself that they’re educational. But, this year, we’re going to play some games along the way so that we can all pass the time with no mention of “What goes tick-tock-bow-wow?” (It’s a watchdog, by the way).

I Spy

How to play it: Say, “I spy with my little eye something beginning with {choose a letter}” and the rest of the family have to guess what you’ve seen. If your kids are younger, you can choose a colour, rather than a letter.

Why we love it: It helps with her spelling and passes the time really well (especially as you get more creative with the things you can actually see).

Licence Plate Maths

How to play it: Using only the numbers on the licence plate of the car in front of you, try to add, subtract, multiply and divide to get to a certain number (10, 15, 24, whatever). The person that gets the closest to the goal numebr is the winner of each round.

Why we love it: It’s so helpful with maths and out-of-the-box thinking, and it changes all the time (every time a different car is in front of you). I even play this on my own. I’m not ashamed.  

Memory Games

How to play it: Start with, “I went to the corner café and I bought a {name one thing that you bought}”. Then, the next person needs to repeat the whole phrase and what you bought, and add another item to the list. Every person that follows needs to repeat the list in the correct order. So, you’ll end up with something like, “I went to the corner café and I bought a coconut, a bottle of water, a puppy, an exhaust pipe, a hotdog, a hairdryer, and balloons.”

Why we love it: It’s really fun hearing what random thing each person would add to the list and coming up with ways to remember them.

Twenty Questions

How to play it: One of you has to decide on a person or thing. The rest of the car can only ask 20 questions to figure out what person or thing you’re thinking of. To add to the intrigue, you can only answer the questions with “yes” or “no”.

Why we love it: It keeps us busy for AGES and it’s fun figuring out the riddle and strategising your questions.

Find the Car

How to play it: Choose one car make (BMW, Hyundai, Toyota, etc…) and keep on the lookout for it on the road. The person that spots the most cars of that make is the winner.

Why we love it: It’s great for a tween that is learning to read and for little ones that can identify the badges. It’s also fun to yell, “TOYOTA” in the accent of your choice. You just did it, didn’t you?

Would You Rather

How to play it: One person asks, “Would you rather…” and comes up with two hypothetical situations. Everyone in the car has to say which they would rather do or be and why. For example, “Would you rather be painted blue for the rest of your life, or only be able to see the colour blue?”

Why we love it: It gets bizarre and hilarious, but also makes us think.

Name Game

How to play it: The first person comes up with the name of an animal, country, colour, food, etc… Then, the next person has to name another thing (in the same category) that starts with the last letter of the one before it. So, for example, if we choose “country” as our category, I could say, “Denmark”, and the person following me would have to come up with a country that starts with the letter “K”.

Why we love it: This game is just the right combination of educational and fun.

Comment below if you have other great ideas for car games to play on long road trips.

 

Guest post by Amelia Meyer 
Amelia is a freelance writer, wife and mom. She is based on the gorgeous Garden Route and blogs at Suddenly a Mom when she’s not ear-deep in projects for clients. She is also an owner, copywriter and editor at Voxate. 

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/VoxateWritingEditing/
Twitter: @mieliepip