Car Trip fun for kids
After recently taking my own family "road trip" out west to see family and my 2 year only lasting 1.5 hours in the car; I thought I would share some great ideas for fun things to do in the car to keep the kids happy :) Click here for a printable PDF version
Email your fun car trip ideas and we'll include them here.
Animal Spotting: Look for animals and count how many you can find. In the city look for cats and dogs and don’t forget to spot birds and see how many you can name.
Bake a yukky cake: Imagine a cake with strange ingredients that you’d never want to eat. “When I bake a cake I use...then add a strange ingredient such as fish bones. Keep adding a new ingredient and repeating the recipe...When I bake a cake, I use fish bones and vinegar. If you forget the order you have to start again.
Funny eye spy: get your kids to mix it up a bit with “eye spy with my googlie eye” and see what else they can come up (Thanks 
alittlebird parent for the great suggestion)
Sitting Statues: Get the kids to take turns to be a “statue” while someone else tells them jokes, makes faces and does other silly things to try and make them laugh, smile or move without touching them.
Suitcase: “I’m going on holiday and in my suitcase I’m taking my swimmers” then the next person has to add to it...”I’m going on holiday and in my suitcase I’m taking my swimmers and a camera”...lots of fun (Thanks alittlebird parent Teresa Lordanic for the great suggestion)
No Talking: Why not get your competitive kids to play “whoever talks looses”; you never know it might last longer than you think and as an added bonus...it will be quiet :) (Thanks alittlebird parent Somer Henderson for the great suggestion)
3 little letters: DVD Player!! We’ve had a few parents suggest to us that if all else fails; the trusty portable DVD player is gold!
Talk like a Pirate: Make up your own pirate names, use a pirate voice and imagine what your life as a pirate would be like. Shiver me timbers...land ahoy...aye aye cap’n!
Snacks: Remember to always pack a trusty bag of snacks; kids love nothing more than to eat their way through a car trip.
Rainbow: Can you spot things in every shade of the rainbow in the correct order (Red, Orange, Yellow, Green, Blue and Purple)
Lip Reading: Think of a phrase or a short sentence and mouth it to the other person without making any noise at all. See if the other person can guess what is being said.
Things to do bag: Pack a little bag full of fun things like stickers, drawing, puzzles etc (Thanks alittlebird parent Heidi Maunders for the great suggestion)
ABC Game: Kids have to find words that have the letter of the alphabet in them in the right order. First person to see the word has to say the letter and read the word aloud preventing anyone else in the car using a letter in the word; license plates can be included. (Thanks alittlebird parent Amanda Keys for the great suggestion)
Rhyming Lines: It’s easy to make up a poem, you know – just make each line rhyme with the last one. Like so, you could do it alone or with a good friends, just remember to add on a rhyme at the end. Make up poems about your family, pets, school or magical things.
Guessing Game: Can you guess what someone else is thinking about in twenty questions? Someone thinks of an object, place or person and give you a clue e.g it’s an object. You can only answer yes or no to the questions.
Odds and Evens: How many odd numbers or even number can you spot on car plates or road signs? Try and get up to 20 in order and say them aloud when you spot them.
What’s that tune? Think of a theme tune from a Movie or TV show and hum it out loud; can anyone guess what it is? Start giving clues if no one guesses at first.
Treasure Hunts: Make up your own list or use some suggestions below; see how long it takes for them to spot everything on the list. (Thanks alittlebird parent Jo Brosnan for the great suggestion)
- A man in a brown coat
- A woman with a dog
- A child in a blue coat
- A man wearing glasses
- A woman wearing a hat or scarf
- A child wearing a red sweater
- Someone carrying a newspaper
- Someone riding a bike
Because: Get someone to ask you questions and see how many you can answer using just 1 word! What did you have for dinner last night? Pizza not I had pizza. If you can’t think of anything you can say Because but not twice in a row AND why not try to trick them into using more than 1 word with questions like “ where do polar bears live? If they’re not careful they might answer “the north pole”
Looking for letters: Pick a word with 4 or more letters and try to find all the letters in order on signs and number plates.
Body mix up – try pointing to a part of your body and saying the name of a different part of your body e.g point to your shoulder and say this is my toe. Try doing it really fast without pausing.
Memory: “I went to the market and I bought an apple”; the next person has to repeat the phrase and add something they bought at the market that starts with B “I went to the market and I bought an apple and a banana” – first person to not remember everything is out. Why not try it with “I went to the zoo and saw a...”
King or Queen of the car – choose one person to be king/queen of the car. From now on everyone else has to do what they command. When they give a command they must start with “the king/queen say”...cover your mouth. If you don’t your out and if the king/queen doesn’t start with “the king/queen says...” a new king/queen must be crowned.
Imaginary Action Figure: Get the kids to visualize seeing an imaginary person on a motorbike/skateboard/bicycle/racing car travelling along the side of the road next to the car. Explain that the imaginary person is able to do anything they want in their vehicle, so they can jump over rivers, drive up the side of hills, do flips in the air and always land perfectly back on the ground again. Leave the kids to use their imagination and then let them share with you some of the exciting moves their imaginary figure was able to do.(Thanks alittlebird parent Kristy Clausen for the great suggestion)
For the little ones - If your kids are a bit young for games; sing some classic songs like Incy Wincy Spider, Baa Baa Black Sheep, ABC’s and Old Macdonald. Old Macdonald’s farm sounds more like Noah’s Ark by the time we’ve driven for a while – every animal you can imagine is living on that farm (Thanks alittlebird parent Tracey McGreevy for the great suggestion)
Car Bingo - Everybody picks a colour and then for every vehicle that you pass for your colour you start counting. First one to ten or twenty (depending on kids ages for counting) is the winner. (Thanks alittlebird parent Kirsty for the great suggestion)
