With the end of the school year looming and summer on the rise, t’is the season for road trips! Since the invention of portable screens, road trips with kids have become much “easier” than they used to be.
Everyone dons their headphones and plugs their brain into their screen of choice and no one has to acknowledge each other until the inevitable bathroom break and questions of when the next meal will be start popping up.
But if you’re like us, you want your journey to be just as much a part of the adventure as your destination. As a mom, I rather enjoy holding my kids captive and forcing them to interact with me and each other. It builds character and relationships or something like that.
Now, don’t get me wrong, we have a portable DVD player in our {not-so} tricked out mini van, and I enjoy throwing the occasional movie in just as much as the next parent. But when the kids don’t have their eyes glued to a screen, whatever is there to do to pass the time? Well, I’m here to give you just a few ideas!
Below are 8 non-screen activities or games we play on road trips. A lot of them will work for other modes of travel {or even just standing in line} as well, so take what you will, and make it work for your family!
#1 – Two Truths and a Lie
This is a fun game that helps you as a parent to sneakily learn a thing or two about your kiddos. Sometimes we play it on our way home from school. Because “How was your day?” and “Good” just don’t cut it.
This game is played with one person presenting 3 statements – two of them being true, and one being a lie. I like to give my kids parameters to work in, like “things that happened today” or “feelings you felt today” or “crazy things you’ve done.” Sometimes there aren’t any categories.
After they’ve made their three statements, you try to guess which one is the lie. If you guess, you win. If you don’t, they win. And then you either move onto the next person, or some kind of story gets told to elaborate on the statements just made and you get to learn things about your kids that they otherwise might not bring up.
#2 – The Alphabet Game
No list of road trip activities would be complete without a mention of the age old Alphabet Game. If you don’t know what the Alphabet Game is, it’s very simple. Everyone either works together or individually to find the letters of the alphabet in order on signs or license plates or other word-bearing things you pass while on the road.
As a kid from a large family, we played this game a lot. We favored the more competitive everyone-has-to-find-all-of-the-letters-on-their-own-and-you-can’t-use-the-same-letter-as-someone-else-and-it’s-a-race version. Because competition.
As a parent, I encourage the everyone-work-together-and-help-each-other version. Because cooperation {and less whining}.
Whatever works for your family, and whatever “house rules” you come up with {such as the letters having to be found OUTSIDE the car}, you do you.
This is a great game for driving through big cities or other areas with a lot of signage, and a terrible game for driving through the Nevada desert.
#3 – Spelling Bee
Okay, my kids {and I} may be a little strange with this one, but it all started innocently enough. A couple of the kids were in the school spelling bee and we were spending a lot of time in the car driving to and from school and we started practicing their spelling words in the car.
I have the kids write out their spelling words on post-it notes and stick them to the top of the windshield {high enough to not obstruct driving vision – safety first, y’all}. As we drive, I give a word to someone and they spell it. If they get it right, we move on, if they get it wrong, they’re out. Goal is to be the last man standing.
During the school year, they get words off of their class spelling lists. During the summer or if they don’t have a list up for me, I make up words that I think are age-appropriate but challenging.
It may sound weird, but if you’re needing to practice spelling words for traditional school or home school or world school or unschool or whatever it is you do, and you’re just sitting around anyway, driving is as good a time as any, right? And a little healthy competition among siblings helps to keep it fun. Just make sure you give the littles a chance with words they can manage. It’s good for the big kids to lose every now and then. Amiright?
{Alternatively, one of my kids is a mathwiz and he likes to play “The Math Game” where I basically throw out random math problems and he solves them in his head. So…if spelling’s not your thing, there’s that.}
#4 – I’m Going on a Trip…
This is one of our favorite games for drives and hikes. One person gets to be IT and decides some kind of secret rule, which we’ll discuss in a moment. They start out by saying, “I’m going {to Disneyland/on a trip/camping/etc} and I’m bringing {something that fits the rule}. I can come.”
The next person then repeats, “I’m going {on a trip, or whatever was stated} and I’m bringing {something else}.” The person who is IT tells them whether or not they can come, based on if their {something} fits the rule.
This goes on through everyone, with everyone trying to figure out what the rule is by whether the items mentioned allow them to come.
When it comes back around to the person who is IT, they again state something, and this time it can be something that does or doesn’t fit the rule, but they have to follow up with whether or not they can come. It keeps going until everyone has figured out the rule.
The Rule...
Now, what kind of rule are we talking about? It can really be anything IT thinks of, so long as they are consistent. The rule could be number of letters in a word {if the rule is 5 letters, bringing “beads” will get you on the trip, but bringing “jewelry” will not}. It could be that each allowed item has to start with the last letter of the previously allowed item {“bookmarks” could be followed by “sand” which could be followed by “dirty socks” and so on}. It could be that everything has to be a certain color, or the item has to start with the same letter as the speaker’s name, or it has to have a certain number of syllables, or it has to contain a specific letter, or any number of other rules. The important thing is that IT is consistent and gives at least several examples throughout their turns of things that fit the rule.
Once everyone has figured out the rule {and you can tell because they consistently bring items that grant them access to the trip}, then you move onto the next person being IT and creating a new rule.
#5 – Fruit Basket
In this game, everyone picks a fruit. {Some of our favorites are lychee, jackfruit, and banana.} The game starts with one person saying their fruit twice, and then someone else’s fruit twice, “Banana, banana, lychee, lychee.” The called out fruit then does the same, “Lychee, lychee, jackfruit, jackfruit,” and so on and so forth.
It sounds super simple, but there’s a hitch. Nobody is allowed to show their teeth throughout the entire game. Even if it’s not their turn, and especially when it is. If another player sees your teeth, you’re out. You can also get out if you take too long to respond when your fruit is called. Last man standing wins.
Now, this can be a little tricky in the car because not everyone is facing each other, but generally everyone has someone else who can see them and will definitely call them out if they flash any teeth.
Hilarity and laughter nearly always take over before game’s end.
#6 – Audio Books
We love to listen to stories as we drive. We will sometimes pick up cds from the library and pop them in for drives both long and short. We’re currently going through the Harry Potter books. Because…obviously. {If you read that is Snape’s voice, you can be my friend.}
The kids don’t actually all have their own devices because Homie don’t play that, so we all listen to the same stories together. And I love it. I love listening to books so much more than watching movies. And I love that it’s like bonus time for exposing everyone to good literature. There are more awesome books out there than I will ever have the time to read to my kids, and sneaking them in while I’m driving is one way to “read” to them while I am otherwise occupied.
#7 – Beat Box
Compliments of the movie version of “Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day,” we will occasionally break out into a family beat box while we’re driving. It generally starts with one person {Okay…Mr. Ray}, dropping a beat without warning and another adding on their own thing on top of it, and then another, and another, and eventually all six of us are thinking we’re pretty awesome popping away with our very own mediocre improvised beat boxing. You should try it sometime. You’re probably pretty awesome too.
#8 – Highs and Lows
This is something we like to do at the end of the day or the week or a trip. Basically, when something is coming to a close. Simply put, we just ask everyone to share a high and a low from their day/week/trip. It’s a good way to get everyone to review their experiences and see that there’s always something good to glean, and it’s also okay if everything’s not rosy all of the time. Everyone has highs and lows and recognizing that can help us to realize that it’s a normal part of life. Bonus is…once again…insights into your kids’ lives that you may not get out of them otherwise.
So…what are your favorite things to do out on the open road?
Did I mention them here?
Is there something awesome you do to pass the time that I didn’t bring up?
We could always use new ideas, so I’d love to hear about it! Share in the comments so we can all benefit from your car-tripping awesomeness!
{cue the beatboxing}
