Games for a Road Trip
The ultimate family vacation, a Road Trip! You pack the kids; the cooler and even the family dog in the car and off you go. Where you are going and how long it takes is not nearly as fun as the trip itself and keeping the kids occupied with games and songs will make the miles fly by. There are always DVD players and handheld video games these days, but it's a lot more fun to get the family together for some old time fun games.
A great game for all ages is the Alphabet game; the driver can even join in for this one. Starting with the letter A you look for a word written on a sign or billboard starting with the letter A. When someone calls it out you go to the letter B and so on. Great for letter recognition for the younger kids, it keeps you looking at all the sights there are to see. The letter X is tough, and for that one we usually take any word containing the letter X.
The car game goes this way One person describes a car to be searched for. For example a white station wagon or a green minivan. Then everyone searches for that vehicle. You can even choose special soft drink trucks and other hard to find items. Whoever locates the vehicle first gets to choose the next one.
Before one trip I went to the library and rented Cd's of old time radio shows. The Lone Ranger, Burns and Allen, and Abbott and Costello are a few suggestions. The kids loved these! They had never heard them before and we spent many a mile engrossed in those great stories. To this day they still talk about those shows.
There are many websites today with games and printouts for your trip. We print out Car Bingo cards by the ton. These come in easy picture types for the young children too. You can also print Battleship, tic tac toe and dots game boards.
No trip would be complete without the license plate game. We print a list of the 50 states out on paper. Someone is designated to keep track of the list (that is usually Mom). We all look for the different plates as we go down the road. It is interesting to see them all and it teaches the kids about geography. To add to the license plates I give every child an inexpensive atlas. This ends the age old question, "Are we there yet?" I take the maps and highlight the route so they can all follow along. They spend a lot of time looking at the maps and what they are seeing as we pass.
For rest stops I bring balls and discs to play catch. It is great to get out and run around and gives everyone a chance to stretch their legs and release some energy. Have a few running races, and run over to look at the signs, maps and information at each stop.
The Road Trip is a great opportunity to have an unforgettable family vacation. You can bring the electronics, if you must, but don't lose the chance to interact with each other. We all spend plenty of time in front of video games and television at home; we live in a beautiful country, show the kids all the things there is to see along the way.
