Games and Activities to Keep Kids Busy in the Car

We want our kids to be curious about new destinations, to get excited about family road trips, and to look forward to traveling- and as parents, we want to enjoy traveling as a family as well! Keep kids happy in the car with these fun games and activities. If I’ve missed any, leave us a comment and let us know your favorite way to pass the time in the car with kids.

Games for the Whole Family:

ABC Games:

• Find the letters of the alphabet on signs or billboards- let little kids also use license plates for an advantage
• Going in ABC order, name an item (food, places, people’s names, animals, movies/TV shows) for every letter of the alphabet

“I-Spy” or Search Games:

• the oldie but goodie “License Plate” game: see how many different states/provinces/countries you can find on the trip; for bigger kids, try to name the capitals as you write down the states
• Car Search: write down as many different types of cars that you can imagine (sports car, 16 wheeler semi-truck, pick-up truck, minivan, pick-up truck, Mini, etc) and then for 5 minutes count as many as you can of each to see which one “wins”
• 20 questions: players get to ask 20 yes/no questions to a person, who is thinking of an object in their head. Make it easier for the little guys by limiting it to an animal, a toy, a food, etc.
• I-Spy: besides the traditional I-Spy (where players guess what you”re looking at by asking questions) try playing I-Spy by imagining your kitchen or bedroom, and choosing an item to think about from home. Or, play I-Spy by thinking of something you might see on the highway (like a black and white cow). The players get an added point if they then find the item from the car quickly.
• Car Bingo! This retro game is all the rage in our minivan. It obviously works better when you are not surrounded completely by farms- but sometimes are passing through little towns.

Word Games:

• Personalized games! One of my favorite things to do before a long road trip is to create our own puzzles: a word search, a crossword puzzle, mazes, letter tiles, hidden messages. Go to Discovery Puzzle Maker and add in details about your child, family, friends, vacation plans, etc. My kids LOVE these!
  
• Word Find: write down your destination and have everyone come up with as many words as they can from the letters: “CHICAGO, ILLINOIS, UNITED STATES.”
• As a family, try to think of as many compound words as you can, and have the little ones guess their meaning
• Try to come up with as many sentences that contain homophone pairs as you can. My daughter’s favorite: “The moose ate mousse!”
• Everyone pick a new nickname for the trip to be used in the car.

Activities, Books, Cards for the Backseat Riders:

• My kids really like to follow along the journey with their own personal map- that I make on google maps before we go. See the instructions here!

• If you remember Colorforms from the 1980′s, you will get a kick out of these vinyl, reusable sticker scenes by MudPuppy. We have the “rainforest” scene, because we are huge animal-lovers- but there are plenty of others. My girls get completely absorbed in this imaginative play and have the little animals talking in high-pitched voices in no time.

• Rubberneckers: Everyone’s Favorite Travel Game is SO FUN (and so funny) for all ages! It is a race to find certain items on a list- like a police car, or a certain billboard. You can also play it where everyone works together to find the items and accomplish the tasks (like getting another car to wave to you or give you a peace sign). I have heard that there is a Rubberneckers Jr, though I have not personally played it. What a great game to make the carride go so much faster!

• National Geographic Kids Ultimate U.S. Road Trip Atlas: Maps, Games, Activities, and More for Hours of Backseat Fun. As long as you are traveling- have a little geography fun on the way!

• Mad Libs on the Road by Roger Price and Leonard Stern. If you’ve never done Mad Libs (a game I played as a kid!) it’s a word game that requires someone to write down everyone’s suggestions of “nouns,” “adjectives,” adverbs,” “places,” etc. Once you plug them into the story, you have a funny tale that makes everyone chuckle:). Try this on-line version to understand it better.