Wen you make the decision to get into an enclosed vehicle for a very long time with young people you better have some ammunition. Not that kind of ammunition, weirdos. I’m talking ideas on how to pass the time. You know, to minimize the “are we there yet” sickness that seems to overtake kids as soon as they realize they’ll be confined for more than an hour.
So, in honor of our 10+ hour road trip I’ve come up with my next installment of the Friday 13:
13 Games for Travel Time
-
The Letter Game. Remember! You have to find the letters in order, outside of the vehicle.
-
The Number Game. Same as the number game but without the limit of there only being 26 letters. If you can count high then you can keep playing the game.
-
The Quiet Game. My personal favorite since my favorite six year old doesn’t have an off button when it comes to talking.
-
Bingo You have to prepare for this one. Create (or buy) bingo cards with things you might see on the trip.
-
License Plate Game Whoever can spot license plates from the most states wins.
-
I Spy This may a little hard to play since you’re driving and not much of the scenery will stay the same…other than the inside of the vehicle. But you can spy things inside the truck. This is also great to do if you’re stopped at a pit stop, gas station, etc.
-
Name That TuneUse your kids’ CDs to actually give them a shot at winning.
-
Purchased Travel Games There are tons of tiny travel games with magnetic pieces.
-
If You… Ask deep questions and see what you learn about your kids. “If you were an animal what would you be?” “If you could meet someone who would it be?”
-
Punch BugRemember! When you see a Volkswagen Beetle you get to punch someone in the arm?!?! Whoever spots the most wins. May not be fun to play with teenage boys.
-
Padiddle A great nighttime game. Whoever spots the most cars with one burned out headlight wins.
-
Scavenger Hunt Create a list of specific things the kids must find/spot.
-
Story Time Take turns telling a story with each person building on the plot.
Extra: Here’s my favorite: Clean Up The Truck Now That We’ve Spent 10 Hours In It And You’ve Treated It Like a Trash Can That’s Been Hit By A Tornado. No need to explain the rules on this one, right?
What are some travel games your family likes to play?
Not So SAHM 
We play “finish the story…”
I start off with, “One time in a castle far, far away, there lived a princess with seaweed for her hair and Bugles for her fingernails…”
Then Libbey will pick up where I left off: “…and she would eat those Bugles off and wrap her seaweed hair around her horse…”
Scotty chimes in, “…and the horse was jealous because he had red high heels on his hooves and it was hard for him to trot down to Target to browse the clearance section with that saddle made of cotton candy…”
We go for a long time like this. Can’t wait ’til Caroline’s old enough to chime in. She’ll have that horse and princess dead within a few words.
My favorite game is, Let’s Everyone Be Quiet and Take a Nap!!
LOL!
Seriously, though, you’ve put together a nice list. Didn’t I read correctly that you’re traveling across Kansas? We’re on our way to Wichita at the end of the month (a 20+ hour drive).
I have played Punch Bug (its funny but a bit painful), the Letter Game and a game where you pick a word and anyone else has to sing a song that has that word its funny, but my favorite game is Bingo!
Leigh Anne,
I’d love to be a fly on the wall when Caroline starts adding parts. And I know Ashlyn will be right there with her. It’s a good thing we don’t live close to each other or they would be two rebels with nothing better to do than get in trouble 🙂
Melissa,
Yes, we drove and drove and drove and drove and drove across Kansas. Fortunately I barely noticed because I’m working on a Bible study for Reagan. That whole princess thing…
Bingo,
I like the idea of the pick a word and sing it game. We’ll have to try that. And Reagan is so into singing songs and making up her own words right now that she’d love it too.
OMG! I thought we were the only ones to play the letter game! Wow. We call it the ABC game….and we also play where you have to think of an object that starts with that letter. And we’ll have categories sometimes too….like animals. And then we go through the alphabet and everyone has to come up with animal for each letter.
My girls are older now (19 and 12) and we still play if we have along way to go….