Fun car games for long summer trips

Traveling far for your summer vacation? Whether your car ride is an hour or several, playing car games is always a fun way to pass the time. Here are some amusing and easy activities to keep your family during that long drive.

Make a map: Have your kids craft their own map of the drive! It’ll be fun to see their description of where you go and how they see it in their eyes. A Polaroid camera can be a fun way to include actual pictures of the places you go on their map, offering creativity and memories for your children.

Play cards: War, Go-Fish, Crazy eights, whatever game you children enjoy the most, playing cards in the car can be a competitive way to pass the time. With the time you may have to spend driving, it’ll give everyone a chance to win a game!

License plate game: Print out a map of all 50 states and have your kids search for a license plate for each state. Once spotted, highlight the corresponding state on the map. Play the first to find all 50 states or work as a team together! Children can get a quick education lesson on geography while at the same time having fun.

Scavenger hunt: Before you take off, make a list of things that based on where you are traveling to, your kids would see during the ride. For example, a list could include schools, traffic signs, animals (such as cows on the side of the road), and the fist to see everything on the list wins!

The alphabet game or the name game: Through any type of sign seen while driving, find each letter of the alphabet (in order!) and the one to get to Z first wins. Get a little more creative and use names instead, and the first one to finish spelling their name is the winner.

Mad Libs: Bring along a pack of Mad Libs and have your kids fill in as many silly words as they can to make stories that will have them giggling all the way to your destination. Learning what words are adjectives or verbs can be a way to include some learning on the trip.

Twenty questions: One child chooses anything, an object, place, person, etc. and the other has 20 questions to guess what it is. If you guess before the 20 questions are up, they amount of questions you have left over are extra points. The winner is the person with the most points by the end of the trip!

With all these games to keep them occupied your children can be entertained throughout the longest of drives without the need to pop in a movie or show. Keep your children’s minds active and innovative by incorporating these fun games into what for them could normally be a long, boring drive.

How do you keep your children occupied on long car trips?

Mom Central