Getting There Is Half The Fun – Entertaining Kids While Road Tripping
Julie shows some ways to entertain the kids while on the road!
Is this you?
You’ve spent weeks researching the perfect place to take your family on vacation. You found a place to stay and entertainment that fits in your budget. You get it all booked and then you realize that the worse part about vacation is how you are going to get there.
That’s right – I’m not sure who said “Getting there is half the fun.”, but in my book they were lying. One of my least favorite activities is traveling (especially in a car) with kids. I’m sure I’m not the only one that feels this way. To make trips more fun it’s important to plan ahead and to be prepared. So today I have a few of my tried and true tips to traveling in the car with kids, whether big or small. These are fun games you play with just a little bit of planning ahead and you can use these in between screen time and book reading time to make the time in the car more fun for the whole family.
Older Kids
My kids are both over the age of 10 so coming up with “cool” things to do that aren’t too toddlerish can be challenging.
- Music Videos – If you or your children have iPhones you can use the Ap called Video Star to make your own videos. All you need is a pair of head phones, some music on the phone and the phone. My kids split the head phones and each put an ear bud in one of their ears. They record themselves mouthing the words and doing different arm movements or what they see out the window. Then at the end of the ride we watch the videos they made. Now I will warn you that this is probably not a plane activity unless you have the whole row to yourselves. However, this works beautifully when the kids are in the backseat of the car. My girls often will film each other when we are at rest stops too. It keeps them occupied and we end up with a fun momento.
- Scavenger Hunt or Car Bingo – All you need for this one is a notebook or a sticky notes and a few pens. I make a check list of things the kids have to look for out the window or in the car while we are moving. This can work for all ages if you vary the lists. For my 10 and 14 year old I make the lists kind of hard. Things like a hamburger, a diamond, a cell phone tower, a two toned vehicle, etc. I make them think and it takes them about 20 minutes to find everything on the list using billboards, road signs and other cars. Now this game obviously works a little better in a car or train but if you planned ahead you could make one for the plane thinking about things you might fly over, things you could find in the magazine, things people on board would say, etc. For the younger set I keep it easier. I just put 3 red cards, 2 trucks, etc.
- Scattergories – A grown up version of the ABC game. Make (or take with you) sheets of paper with 7 categories on them. Things like: Snack Food, TV Show, Something you wear, a place not in the US, etc. Then take turns picking a letter and everyone try to come up with something that starts with the chosen letter in each category. The winner gets a point and after a few rounds using different letters the overall winner gets to pick the treat at the next stop. I will say that making the categories before you leave on your trip and bringing them printed on paper makes it easier, but even using a white board with erasable marker and putting it in a central spot so each person can come up with their answer can be fun.
For the Younger Set
- The ABC game. You start with A, each person in the car says a word that starts with that letter. To make it harder for older kids we challenge them to do the whole alphabet in a theme. So only animals, or the longest word you know, things you see at Disney, etc.
- Counting Games – When traveling on an interstate we will each pick a kind of car or truck that we think we’ll see the most of. Then we each have to keep count of how many of those things we see. For example – When driving from Tampa to Orlando we always keep track of Publix (a local supermarket) trucks. We count how many Publix trucks we see. Sometimes we’ll estimate how many we think we’ll see and then we see who was closest in the end.
- Print and bring along games. Heather Roselli and Rebecca have the most awesome travel game printables in the store for younger kids. Printing these out and making the box before you leave home will provide your kids with lots of occupied time and ready to go games. Here are the two that are in the store that you can pick up today.
I hope this gives you a few ideas of fun things to play in the car when you travel. I know the time we spending playing these kinds of games usually turns into a good memory about the trip because something funny always happens and it allows us to interact with each other, which is why we are going on vacation in the first place.
Juli Fish
