For the past 10 years my husband and I have been Road Trippin' it with kids! After making several and I mean several..7 hour trips from Northern Ontario, back to Southern Ontario (visa versa) ..I have to admit, we have this down to an art! Below are some ideas to entertain your little munchkins on a long road trip! I hope these ideas help your long drive fly by fast and make the road trip memorable and fun!
(Based on kids 3+)
1) Turn a Baby Wipe container into a "Container Of Fun." Visit the Dollar store or scour the house for small objects that are sure to entertain your little ones on the trip! Place all of these items in the container. Make sure to include some stickers to decorate the container during the ride.
(Based on kids 3+)
1) Turn a Baby Wipe container into a "Container Of Fun." Visit the Dollar store or scour the house for small objects that are sure to entertain your little ones on the trip! Place all of these items in the container. Make sure to include some stickers to decorate the container during the ride.
For my kids we included..
- Stickers
- a notebook
- a multicoloured pen
- Silly Putty (only use if you are confident that it won't end up on your car seats/floor, kids hair etc)
- mini pin ball toy
- Learn to Draw flash cards
- Littlest Pet Shop Toys (just add an active imagination)
- pipe cleaners to make bracelets, rings, hairbands, creatures etc
- Rainbow Looms (not in picture)
Other ideas of objects to include in the "Container Of Fun"
- Barrel of Monkies
- A Rubiks Cube
- A mini set of binoculars
- A mini Etcha-Sketch or mini Magna Doodle board
- A mini Kaleidoscope
2) Test your memory by playing "In My Bag I Packed..."
example:
Player one says "I am going on Vacation and in MY bag I packed.."A Towel"
Player two has to remember the previous item, plus add another "In MY bag I packed.. a towel and a..Beach Ball" and it continues!
This game keeps going until somebody forgets an item, if they forget an item, they are out.
3)Play The "Would You Rather" Game; make up silly scenarios and have a good laugh choosing if you would rather have super sharp claws or antlers on your head....would you rather eat a spider pizza or earth worm spaghetti?
4) Play Name That Tune; take turns humming a song and see if the others can guess what it is, you can also hum TV show theme songs!
5) Make up your own story! ie; Person one could say "Once upon a time there lived a mouse" Person two says "but she wasn't an ordinary mouse, she was a Princess."
Person three then continues on.."The Princess Mouse was very happy except she was hoping to soon meet a handsome prince"....etc!
6) Prepare a Personalized Word Search for the kids; use graph paper or a ruler on regular paper to make a word search grid, then fill it in with fun words that apply to the interests of your child! This is sure to bring a smile to their face and help blast boredom on a lengthy road trip.
7) Play The Alphabet Game; you can do this for any topic, we typically do food or places. ie; person one starts with the letter "A", topic is places.."Alberta"..person two has B, they may say "Brazil" and so on and so on.
8) Play The Animal Trivia Game; have the kids randomly answer the animal questions that you make up and then they can quiz the parents. Below are some examples of questions.
9) Play, Name That Person! In this game you must give clues about a certain person that you all know and see who can guess who it is. ie: "This person has blond hair, owns a dog and is always smiling" people guess and you give more clues as needed. "This person also drives a white car and likes country music.." etc.
10) Write your kiddies a funny little letter and hand it to them to open in the middle of the drive. If your little one can't read, just draw a few silly pictures on the paper and it's sure to make your little monkey giggle!
11) If you are super sure that you wont lose the books in your travels, borrow some books from the Library especially for the ride. The books will be new and interesting for the kiddies to skim through.
12) List your favourites! Select a topic and each person has to say their favourite from each topic. ie: Topic is food! Person one says "Pizza", person two says "ice cream", person three says their top pick is "watermelon" and person four says "spaghetti" then the topic changes to something new such as a favourite song, and each person takes a turn sharing what their favourite song is etc.. other ideas: favourite, TV show, actor, animal, vacation spot.
13) Play "20 Questions" The game where you think of a person, place or thing and people ask you questions to try and figure out what it is. You can only answer yes or no and they can only ask you 20 questions!
14) Print out a list of jokes off the internet or bring along a joke book. If you are all in a silly enough mood try making up your own jokes. Little ones make up the cutest little knock knock jokes, they may not make any sense but that makes them even more funny.
15) Tell the kids stories of road trips you took as a kid. I told my girls all about my road trip to Nova Scotia with my Dad, we drove through many places and when we got there I got to take part in a coal mining tour and go fishing. The downfall was on the way back I had somehow managed to lose my 4 rolls of film containing all of my pictures from my trip. this led to my kids asking "what's film??"
16) Play "Guess That Character" think of a character that your child would know of and give hints until they guess who it is. ie: "She has brown hair, likes to explore...and her BFF is a monkey"...who is that, you ask? Yep its Dora! "These guys are green, very tough, but they are funny and considered "good guys"..Have you guessed it yet? it's the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles!!!
17) For some down time.. pop in a DVD (if you have a DVD player in your vehicle). A kid friendly CD is always fun for the little munchkins or..a children's book on CD (these items can also be borrowed from the library). This might be a good time to spend a half hour on an IPOD, DSI or other electronic devices. Another relaxing activity is cloud watching, have the kids look for clouds that resemble the shapes of animals or various objects.
18) Find all letters of the alphabet! As you travel you must find letters A to Z but the catch is they must be found separately. If you find "A" on a billboard, you cannot also find B on the same billboard..you must look elsewhere. Perhaps it will be discovered on a license plate..or a bumper sticker...then on to the letter C etc.
19) Stop to check out a neat little shop or General Store. Kids will love checking out the various items unique to that area plus it offers an extra little refreshing stretch break.
20) Partake in a Road Trip Scavenger Hunt!
example:
Player one says "I am going on Vacation and in MY bag I packed.."A Towel"
Player two has to remember the previous item, plus add another "In MY bag I packed.. a towel and a..Beach Ball" and it continues!
This game keeps going until somebody forgets an item, if they forget an item, they are out.
3)Play The "Would You Rather" Game; make up silly scenarios and have a good laugh choosing if you would rather have super sharp claws or antlers on your head....would you rather eat a spider pizza or earth worm spaghetti?
4) Play Name That Tune; take turns humming a song and see if the others can guess what it is, you can also hum TV show theme songs!
5) Make up your own story! ie; Person one could say "Once upon a time there lived a mouse" Person two says "but she wasn't an ordinary mouse, she was a Princess."
Person three then continues on.."The Princess Mouse was very happy except she was hoping to soon meet a handsome prince"....etc!
6) Prepare a Personalized Word Search for the kids; use graph paper or a ruler on regular paper to make a word search grid, then fill it in with fun words that apply to the interests of your child! This is sure to bring a smile to their face and help blast boredom on a lengthy road trip.
7) Play The Alphabet Game; you can do this for any topic, we typically do food or places. ie; person one starts with the letter "A", topic is places.."Alberta"..person two has B, they may say "Brazil" and so on and so on.
8) Play The Animal Trivia Game; have the kids randomly answer the animal questions that you make up and then they can quiz the parents. Below are some examples of questions.
- Name 3 animals that live in the Arctic
- Name 3 types of fish
- Name 3 examples of farm animals
- Name 3 types of reptiles
- What animal likes to eat bananas?
- What animal likes to eat cheese?
- Name 2 examples of animals that are very slow
- Name 3 animals (amphibians included) that hop
9) Play, Name That Person! In this game you must give clues about a certain person that you all know and see who can guess who it is. ie: "This person has blond hair, owns a dog and is always smiling" people guess and you give more clues as needed. "This person also drives a white car and likes country music.." etc.
10) Write your kiddies a funny little letter and hand it to them to open in the middle of the drive. If your little one can't read, just draw a few silly pictures on the paper and it's sure to make your little monkey giggle!
11) If you are super sure that you wont lose the books in your travels, borrow some books from the Library especially for the ride. The books will be new and interesting for the kiddies to skim through.
12) List your favourites! Select a topic and each person has to say their favourite from each topic. ie: Topic is food! Person one says "Pizza", person two says "ice cream", person three says their top pick is "watermelon" and person four says "spaghetti" then the topic changes to something new such as a favourite song, and each person takes a turn sharing what their favourite song is etc.. other ideas: favourite, TV show, actor, animal, vacation spot.
13) Play "20 Questions" The game where you think of a person, place or thing and people ask you questions to try and figure out what it is. You can only answer yes or no and they can only ask you 20 questions!
14) Print out a list of jokes off the internet or bring along a joke book. If you are all in a silly enough mood try making up your own jokes. Little ones make up the cutest little knock knock jokes, they may not make any sense but that makes them even more funny.
15) Tell the kids stories of road trips you took as a kid. I told my girls all about my road trip to Nova Scotia with my Dad, we drove through many places and when we got there I got to take part in a coal mining tour and go fishing. The downfall was on the way back I had somehow managed to lose my 4 rolls of film containing all of my pictures from my trip. this led to my kids asking "what's film??"
16) Play "Guess That Character" think of a character that your child would know of and give hints until they guess who it is. ie: "She has brown hair, likes to explore...and her BFF is a monkey"...who is that, you ask? Yep its Dora! "These guys are green, very tough, but they are funny and considered "good guys"..Have you guessed it yet? it's the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles!!!
17) For some down time.. pop in a DVD (if you have a DVD player in your vehicle). A kid friendly CD is always fun for the little munchkins or..a children's book on CD (these items can also be borrowed from the library). This might be a good time to spend a half hour on an IPOD, DSI or other electronic devices. Another relaxing activity is cloud watching, have the kids look for clouds that resemble the shapes of animals or various objects.
18) Find all letters of the alphabet! As you travel you must find letters A to Z but the catch is they must be found separately. If you find "A" on a billboard, you cannot also find B on the same billboard..you must look elsewhere. Perhaps it will be discovered on a license plate..or a bumper sticker...then on to the letter C etc.
19) Stop to check out a neat little shop or General Store. Kids will love checking out the various items unique to that area plus it offers an extra little refreshing stretch break.
20) Partake in a Road Trip Scavenger Hunt!
I hope these ideas are helpful! Happy travels! Please feel free to comment below and offer your fabulous tips on entertaining kids while road trippin!