“Are we
there yet?” “When are we going to be there?”
“Are we almost there?” “How many more hours?” "He's on my side!" These and a variety of
other ways to ask these same questions are usually what we hear on a road trip
with children. In my experience, we aren’t even out of the city yet and the
questions begin.
When I was a
kid, there were no portable DVD players, cars with DVD players in them, or smartphones.
If you were lucky you had a Walkman. (On a side note, Walkman’s are still
around! Check out The History of the Walkman: 35 years of iconic musicplayers).Other than that, we played I Spy, Slug Bug, or who could annoy
the other sibling the fastest. That
never ended well.
So in our
modern day, fast paced world, what is a kid to do on a long road trip? The possibilities
are endless, right? Even with all the choices, do you still get the, “I’m bored…” “Are we there yet…?” Yeah… me too. Well, here
are a handful of ideas that hopefully will help pass the time and not make you
lose your mind on a road trip with the kids:
1.
Invest in a portable DVD player
If your vehicle doesn’t already have
one, it’s worth the money to purchase one.
I’ve seen them priced from $50 on up. You can also load movies onto a
tablet or smartphone and have them watch movies on those as well.
2.
Load games to a tablet or smartphone
In my experience, that will keep my
kids quiet for quite some time.
3.
Play car games
I do like my kids and I don’t want to necessarily
keep them quiet the entire trip. Here are a few ‘classic car games’ that even
you can join in on:
·
I Spy – ‘I spy with my little eye, something…’
That was one we played on road trips. Someone finds inside the car and gives
everyone a clue (color, letter, texture). The others playing have to guess what
the object is.
·
The Alphabet Game – The object of this game is
to go through the alphabet using road signs or something in the car that begins
with the letter that falls on your turn.
·
The License Plate Game- There are a few
different ways you can play it.
o
Look for license plates from different states
o
Take the letters from the license plate and name
a celebrity with those letters (JF = Jimmy Fallon).
o
Take the letters from the license plate and make
phrases out of them (BEO = Big Elk Outside).
·
Celebrity Name Game – How this game works is the
first person to go picks a celebrity’s first and last name. The next person has
to take the first letter of that celebrity’s last name and name another
celebrity with it. Did I confuse you yet? It’s a little difficult to explain
but here’s an example: First player names Julia Roberts. The next player would
us the ‘R’ in Roberts and chose another celebrity – Ryan Reynolds. In a
situation where the celebrity’s first and last names start with the same letter
(and there are more than 2 players playing), the turn reverses back to the
‘Julia Roberts’ player. This game can go for hours!
4.
Bring board games that are car-friendly
Playing cards in a car can be tough but it’s
doable. There are car-friendly games you can buy like Battleship and Checkers. Though it’s not a board game, there is an app
called Heads Up. That’s a good time,
too.
5.
Have story time
Even if you have older kids that don’t care about ‘story
time’. If doesn’t have to be about
fairytale’s and dragons. Tell them your
stories (maybe not all of them…). Road trips can be a great time to tell
stories, catch up and find out more about your kids and vice versa. We all have busy schedules and may not always
have time to just sit and talk to our kids. What better setting than to trap
them in a car and chat away.
So, with
summer vacation in full swing for the kids, I hope a few of these help to keep
you as sane as possible on road trips and keep the craziness in the backseat to
a minimum.
Safe travels
every one!
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