Are We There Yet?: Car games to keep kids busy while on the road
When the cries of “Are we there yet?” from the backseat begin to grow louder on a long road trip, one simple solution is to pop another DVD into the player. However, before every SUV had a TV screen in the headrest, car games were the key to making the miles seem shorter. Here are some of our favorites for Kansas City kids for a bon voyage.
The Alphabet Game: This basic game is great for all ages, and benefits children learning to recognize letters. Opponents each take a side of the car and are restricted to looking for letters on billboards, license plates and road signs on their side of the road. The first player to find all the letters of the alphabet A to Z is the winner. Stop at a Dairy Queen and everyone can get a tricky letter Q and a treat.
Highway Bingo: Before you hit the road, make your own bingo boards on construction paper. Instead of filling the boxes with letters and numbers, write a common highway site in each one. Airport, rest area and barn are great examples. Make each board different and stock up for multiple plays. To win, a player must cross off five sites in a row on the board, across, up and down or diagonally.
State Seeker: Prep for this game with a pack of index cards and an encyclopedia. Write the name of each of the fifty states on the front of a card and some facts about the states, such as prominent people from there, important historical points and capital city on the backs. Players have to look for license plates and call out which states they are from. Each time a new state is spotted, the card of facts is read and the player who saw the plate keeps the card. The player who collects the most cards wins and everyone learns something new.
Name that tune: Make a CD or iPod playlist of some of your family’s favorites songs. Press play and wait to see who can accurately guess the song the fastest. Players get a point for each round they win and a sing-a-long can ensue.
Make believe: Let young children’s imaginations run wild and have everyone in the car take turns coming up with a make believe world you’re in. You can be pirates in a ship, astronauts on a shuttle or pioneers in a horse-drawn wagon. A boring drive will suddenly become an incredible adventure.
Travel journal: Buy each child a notebook and ask them to write about something they saw or did on each day of your trip. They can write about the long drive on the way there and all the vacation fun on the way home. Kids who aren’t old enough to write can draw pictures. Save paper souvenirs like brochures and menus to paste in later. A journal not only keeps kids occupied but makes memories for years to come.
Taylor Engler is a graduate of Syracuse University with a degree in magazine journalism and a minor in child studies. She lives in Kansas City and is a lifelong babysitter.