Traveling Family Car Games

     I look at ads for new cars today and most all of them boast about tv's in the back to keep the younger children quiet.  The commercial shows young children happily sitting in the back, with ear phones plugged into their ears, as they sit and stare at a screen that is built into the back of the front seat of the car, each watching a show of their own.  Mom and dad are in the front seat listening to music from their own generation.  On the commercial it all looks great and quiet but one thing is lacking.  Quality family time. 

     While the children's brain's are turning into a pool of mushy goo by over watching SpongeBob SquarePants and another Justin Bieber music video, they are missing out on the opportunities of what is around them outside of the car.  A city kid may miss out on seeing a deer or a cow as they drive through the rural areas.  A country kid may miss out on seeing the lights and sounds of a big city that they are traveling through.  Perhaps there is some rich history that the parents could tell the children about the area.  This is all part of taking a car ride, to be with one another and to enjoy each other's company. 

     In long car rides my sister, brother, and I would find ways to occupy our time.  We didn't have tv's in our car.  We only had each other for entertainment.  Below I am going to list some of the things we did to help entertain ourselves in the car.  Some are widely known and other's we made up.  Perhaps you have a game that you remember playing in the car with your family when you were little.  Remember how much fun it was to pass the time?  Why not pass those fun moments onto your family?

1. Mad Libs:  Every child loves adding words to create a funny story.  These can be printable right off the computer or bought at a variety of stores.  Not only is the outcome of the story funny but it helps a child learn their parts of speech when they have to think of a noun, verb, adverb, or adjective.  Have mom think of a word, then a sibiling, then dad.  When you get different people thinking of different words the story could get very creative.  
2. Letter Game:  Have a person pick a letter from the alphabet.  Have another person be a writer or have a really good memory.  In a circular motion everyone has to say a word that starts with that letter and see how many words you can think of.  For instance, if the letter is "C" mom might start off saying "Carrot".  One child might say "Cake" and another child might say "California" and dad might say "Carborator".  The writer would have to write down every word so no one repeats a word.  If someone does repeat they get a strike.  If you cannot think of a word you also get a strike.  Setting a timer is optional for how long it should take someone to guess a word.  After 3 strikes a person is out.  At the end it is fun to see how many words can be known with a certain letter.  This game helps a child build up vocabulary.  Some words they may not know and want to know the defination of it.  It can also help with spelling.  If the letter is "T" and a child says "Pterodactyl" a parent can explain about silent letters and "Pterodactyl" actually starts with a P.  
3. Billboard Alphabet Game:  The object is, as a family, to get through the entire alphabet by looking at the billboards or license plates of other cars.  If there is a billboard of McDonald's then you shout out "A" for McDonAlds.  Then perhaps passing you is a car with the license plate QBX 620 a person would shout out "B".  "C" could be from a sign that says "Bridge May Be ICy".  See if you can get through the whole alphabet before reaching your destination.  Those traveling through a city will do the alphabet much quicker than those out in the rural areas.  You can add some excitment to it by seeing how many miles it takes to get through the entire alphabet.  Just remember the mile marker you are passing when you start and subtract it from the mile marker from when you are finished or set the odometer.  Play the game again and see if you can do the whole alphabet in less milage.  WARNING:  The driver can particpate but make sure the driver doesn't get too distracted looking around.  It may cause an accident. 
4. Roadside Tally:  See how many things you find along your trip.  This was a game my sister and I made up.  Some of the things we would put on our list is "Tire Monster" which is huge broken piece of tire, "smooshed unknowns"  which is a dead animal that cannot be indentified.  Each dead animal that could be indentified had its own category.  Live animal's also had their own category.  Sometimes Adopt-A-Highway would leave their garbage bags on the side of the highway waiting for someone to pick up the bags.  We would call it "Trash Monsters".  "Cars on the side of the road" would have it's own category.  "Hitchhiker" would be another category.  Everytime we passed something in the category we would make a slash mark under it.  We would often go from Saginaw, Michigan to Houghton Lake, Michigan and we would find around 4 "smooshed unknown's", maybe 2 "Cars on the side of the road" and maybe a few "Out of State" plates.  The fun part is that you create your own categories.  You can just do types of cars or different semi trucks you see along the route.  This game helps a child to look around the world around them.  They may catch a deer coming out of the woods or something they may not have noticed while staring at a tv screen.  It may also help them be conscience of the world around them and not to pollute if there is too much trash or debris around.  
5. Going On A Picnic:  This is another alphabet game.  One person starts off saying, "I am going to a picnic and I am going to bring an Apple."  The next person would say, "I am going to a picnic and I am going to bring an Apple and a Ball."  The third person will have to say, "I am going to a picnic and I am going to bring and Apple, a Ball and a Cat."  Go through the whole alphebet, repeating the long list as you go.  See how much you can remember and see if you can do this.  This game helps spark creativity in what to bring to a picnic.  It also helps with memory recognition as they recall all the things that are being brought to the picnic.  You can expand the game from here with doing just foods, book or movie titles, colors, people's names, etc.  
6. A Pad Of Paper and A Pen:   Many things can be done between a few people, a pad of paper and a pen.  Instead of listing them seperately I decided to list them together.  You can play Tic Tac Toe, Dots, Hangman, or Pictionary (Draw a picture and have the other person guess what it is).  Another game is a story game.  It is good with 3 or more players.  The first player writes down a sentence.  The next player, after reading that sentence, writes a sentence of their own.  Before passing the paper to the third person the second person folds over what the first person wrote.  The third person can only read what the second person wrote.  They have to write a sentence.  It goes on and on until someone ends the story.  Each time it is passed to the next person the paper gets folded down more and more.  The person after the last person wrote, when the story is done, unfolds the paper and reads the whole story.  It can get wacky and crazy so prepare for some laughs.  Another game with paper and a pen is for one person to say 5 animals names.  The next person has to draw a crazy creature using the 5 animal names.  Take turns and see what unique creatures you can create. 
7. Who Can Say 20 First:   The goal is to get your opponet to say 20 first.  A person can only say one or two numbers at a time.  It helps a person strategize a game in how to make the other person say 20 first.  It greatly develops their thinking skills and for younger children their counting skills.  
8. Books:   A book is not a game but it can be turned into one.  If two people have the same book, let's say a Bible, see who can find Psalms 90 first or who can find the book of Jeremiah first.  Maybe someone reads a paragraph out of a book or a full page.  Then the other person has to make up the rest of the story.  Again, this uses the imagination and creativity in their thinking.  It lets children know that there can be different options to ending a book.  
9. The Other Car:   Look into a car that is passing you or you are passing.  Talk about that car.  Where do you think they are going?  Are they on vacation or running errands?  Are there pets in the car?  What kind of pet would this person in the other car own?  Are they talking on the phone or singing to music?  If you wave hi at them would they wave back?  In playing this game remember to be polite.  Don't make silly faces or give them the bird.  Keeps the comments positive and up beat.  It shows the children to think positively about other people and it helps them wonder.  
10. Trivia Games:   You can buy packs of trivia cards for all ages at any big box store like Meijer's, WalMart or KMart.  I am sure some truck stops may even sell small packs of trivia cards.  If dad is driving then mom can read off the cards.  She can ask a question to see who knows it or direct it to certain people.  You can keep points and see who reaches 20 first or just have fun and pass the time.  Everyone can learn from bits of trivia they hear and sometimes kids can suprise themselves with things they remember from school.  Just don't make it too hard for the children's age group.   

     Those long car trips do not have to be torture for you and everyone in the car.  Use this time for conversation and getting to know each other better.  Getting there is half the fun of the whole trip and it is with these memories that the children will remember.