With summer a week away, there’s no doubt my family will be taking a road trip or two. We like to take day trips as well as trips that allow us to spend the night at our destination. I love taking road trips, but I (like many parents) get overwhelmed with the “Are we there yet?” questions. And trust me, I get it. I want to be there, too. Sometimes taking your children’s mind off of the driving portion will help both parents and children in the journey.
Here are 5 fun games for road trips to try the next time you’re on a long drive, starting with my favorite:
1. The Alphabet Game
Starting with A, passengers look for words that start with the letter you’re on. If you pass a sign that says “Albert’s Travel Shop”, that would be an “A” word. Then, you’d move to “B”, and so forth. This game does get a little tricky with the letters “Q” and “Z”, but La Quinta hotel and Zaxby’s Chicken exist, so it’s not impossible. Of course, you could always claim that any word with the letters “Q”, “X” and “Z” in the word count for that letter.
2. The Disney Game
Based off the rules above, starting with “A”, one person in the vehicle names a Disney character starting with “A”, then the next person names a character starting with “B” and so forth. This is a fun game to play while driving to Disney World or Disneyland!
3. Theme Song Humming
One passenger hums the tune to a favorite TV show, and everyone else tries to name the show as fast as possible. The first person to guess correctly gets to hum the next song.
4. Twenty Questions
One person secretly thinks of either an animal, person or food. The other players then take turns asking yes-or-no questions, such as “Is it green?” “Is it an insect?” or “Does it grow on a tree?” After 20 questions have been asked, each player gets a chance to make a guess. The person to correctly guess the object gets to go next.
5. Memory Test
The first person says “A is for —” filling in the blank with a word beginning with “A”, such as “apes.” The second person comes up with a word for the letter B, such as “book,” but must also repeat the “A” word: “A is for apes, B is for book.” Then, you move to the letter “C” and continue through the alphabet, each person taking several turns and reciting more and more letters and words. By the time you reach the letter Z, that player will recite the whole alphabet and corresponding words.