We have all been that parent on a long car trip listening to the incessant questioning: “Are we there yet? How much longer? When are we going to stop? I’m hungry!” Lord knows we heard themĀ on our recent trip to New York City, and we will probably hear them a bazillion times more on our road trip to Florida this fall!
Although we do have a DVD player in the swagger wagon, we try to break the trip up with some non-screen time. I told my kids that “Back in the old days, we didn’t have DVD players in the car, so we had to rely on other games.” š Here are some games to play in the car that can help distract your kidsĀ and give you a little time to yourself. You will probably recognize them from your own childhood!
- Alphabet Game— I used to love playing this game with my sister! One child takes the right side and the other takes the left (if you have more than 2 kids, you could divide them into teams for right and left).Ā The first child to find every letter of the alphabet wins. We used to add in a wild card: if you saw a white horse, you automatically won. Feel free to come up with your own wild card!
- 20 Questions— This age-old game is always good for keeping kids busy! One child (or adult!) picks an item, and the rest of the group gets to ask twenty questions. After the twenty questions are answered, each person gets to guess the item. Whoever guesses right wins! With younger children it works best to limit the items to categories like animal, vegetable, etc.
- The License Plate Game— We used to love this one too, and it’s good if you need a game that is going to last a long time! The goal is to spot a license plate from every state in the union. Whoever spots them all first wins! Here is a printable worksheet for the gameĀ that will help keep track of all of the license plates. It’s also great because it provides a visual picture of the license plate to help the kids easily identify each state.
- The Story Telling Game-– One person starts off the story with a sentence, and each person adds another sentence until the story is finished. Get creative and silly with the stories! See how long you can make the story go on–to the next stop, next town, etc.
- Name that Tune— Hit scan on your radio and randomly stop. Whoever guesses the artist wins! This one is obviously a little easier with older participants, but fun none the less!
What are YOUR favorite games to play in the car?
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