December 28, 2007
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Travel Games
I am in a Dairy Queen as I am traveling to Houston, Texas. I will be in Houston this whole next week so if you want to get together for a xanga gathering, let me know by messaging me.
We are traveling with three kids.
What is the best game to pass time while traveling in the car?
Comments (86)
ha. my sister and iused to count christmas lights over the holidays.
i mean, count how many houses there were with lights and things. but then, we were easily entertained children.
liscence plate game!
or um… those mind games like ‘the umbrella game’ / ‘the next destination’ / ‘my train runs’, etc. people always overthink them and it takes hours for them to figure it out.
*license
the males in my family played who can fart the loudest and it sounds nasty and stupid
but after 10 hours in a car
its get pretty funny
The Sleep game!!!
First one asleep wins!!
personally I like ‘in the land of nod’ because you either get it or you don’t or ‘the roadtrip’ game which you have to really know your sports teams
Sleeping
When I was little my brother used to hide under the blankets and pretend it was a cave.
Uhm… I’m not sure that’s a good one for anyone over the age of six though xD
my uncle taught us this alphabet game…everybody has to individually look for signs/billboards/bumper stickers/store names/etc. beginning with the letter A, B, C, and so forth, in alphabetical order. for example, if someone sees a sign that says “Airport,” they shout out the word and move on to B, but nobody else can use the word airport, and they’re still stuck on A. the first person to reach the end of the alphabet wins. it’s more fun than it sounds lol.
I never was much into playing the games. I would always either read or watch the scenery.
We played the license plate game, counted which side of the road had the most cows, sang silly songs, and my dad was always asking us history and math questions.
Punch the Sibling – Annoy the Parents.
Classic.
pin the crying child to the stoplight?
We never played games. When I was younger, my dad would rent this portable vcr/dvd thingy that fits in a nice lil backpack and he would hang it on the back of the front seats so me and my sister could watch movies. I guess that doesn’t help you now. But now, I just listen to my Ipod the entire time. We were never games people.
The quiet game. I don’t know, I always went with my mom, aunt, and a cousin or 2 and we’d play card games or read books.
We do 20 questions — especially Biblical 20 Questions — it is loads of fun….
i’m with countryangel.
The alphabet game-as countryangel said.
Travel Scrabble. o.o
Look at the liscense plates and see the different liscense plates.
always keeps me excited.
Charades.
Yes, car charades is quite fun.
Though on my road trips I usually play the “How many ‘are we there yets’ can I ask before my brother throws me out onto the highway and tells me to walk” game.
I Spy
The quiet game. Whoever keeps quiet the longest wins a special prize. My favourite kid is a quiet kid.
Either the alphabet game where you pick a category and come up with words for each letter of the alphabet in that category, or the license plate game–whoever sees plates from the most states wins! We also sing along very loudly to Disney soundtracks. =D
ohhh i’m like a zillion miles away from houston. haha
Lemonade
Books on CD, games on the laptop…
Have a safe trip!
You could always come through Nebraska on your way home.
The Alphabet game of course. One game we used to play was the car game. We would write the names of cars on little slips of paper and draw 4 or 5 a piece and then as the cars passed call at the car and whoever got rid of theirs first was the winner. We used to love it. We always had something like a Rolls Royce or a rare car that if you got it, chances are you would lose…didn’t always happen that way, but it was fun. Have a fun and safe trip Dan
~Grampy~
The “I’m Thinking of a Movie Game”
Basically, someone starts out with the phrase: “I’m Thinking of a Movie”… then you start giving clues about the movie until someone guesses it correctly… then that person has to “think of a movie”
Ages 4-adult.
Counting sheep?
The ABC game. You take turns looking for words in signs, on trucks, etc and you try to find them in the order of the alphabet. Johnny does AVE, Jane does BANKER, Dad does CARWASH, etc.
o-o My friends and I, when we’re bored and travelling together, play “Find the Alphabet”.
Look outside the car to find all the letters of the alphabet on roadsigns and see who can find the most, starting with ‘A’ and working to ‘Z’.
The kid who finds the most letters wins.
Like…someone calls ‘A’ and a kid points to ‘WAL-MART’ and he gets a point. Then ‘B’ and another kid points to ‘Burger King’ and they get a point.
bleck houston.
its too humid for me 
but a good car game? hhmmmmm kids must sleep. XD
one kid plays silver car, one kid plays white car, one kid plays black car. when you’re on the road, the kids count how many of their car is on their road. kid with highest number wins. gets boring after a while, though…just bring a book or an mp3
sleep
lol
Daniel (doubledb)
(1)The A-B-C game ascountryangel926 points out.
(2)The license plategame.
(3)See who can sallow a whole Ritz cracker game. (DONT DO IT, VERY DANGEROUS)
(4)The Rest Stop game. (see who is the first to see the blue Rest Stop sign) We kid only missed ONE out of over 15 years of traveling by roads!
I been on road trips every two years to visit Dad’s family that is over 2500 miles one way as a young kid. Traveling over the western part of I-80 is quite boring, so we made up alot of games.
singing, eating, sleeping,
monopoly, twister (probably tangled up in a car), scrabble,
updating xanga!
Sleeping.!
If its a long trip we listen to audio books like Harry Potter or we listen to Wait Wait Don’t Tell Me & other NPR stuff to avoid bickering.
No games for us. We’re too lame.
alphabetic bilboards
I don’t know of any good games because I usually just fall asleep.. or me & my friends would chat.. or do something non-game-ish.
You should come to that state above Texas though.. ’cause I live there. Right on the border.
Then I could say “OMG! Dan came to my town!”
& all my friends would be like “Who?”
& I’d call them lame for dropping Xanga for Myspace.
haha, houston! heck yess
you could play B for Botticelli
or the alphabet game where you look for the letters of the alphabet on signs or license plates, in order
WOAH! a comment from Dan himself. coolio.
and take advantage of the Texas DQ’s. I hear their not as good outside of my state.
weather down here is great, by the way. we finally had to put the short sleeved shirts away
The Alphabet Bilboard Game, though when I’ve played it we made it easier and just said you had to spot the letter somewhere in a word, it didn’t have to be the first letter of the word.
Adventures in Odyssey audio sets are amazing. Entertaining for the kids and the parents alike…
Count the number of times the driver gets pulled over by the cops. (if you are with my dad you can get up to needing two hands to keep count)
use letters on license plates and come up with random phrases…depending on how old the kids are. If they’re younger, keep track of where the license plates are from. Or there’s the alphabet sign game where you find A-Z on billboards or whatever.
We play the “I am going on a picnic” ABC game and print this page for the license plate game.
Be Safe!
Not exactly a game, but taking pics of random objects outside while in a vehicle is a great test of concentration and ability to remain still.
We play drinking games, you know like Never Have I Ever or Stinky Moose.
Just play slow soft Christmas music and the kids will fall right to sleep.
The alphabet game.
You have to find something that begins with each letter, outside the car, in order.
I used to have traveling songs…like down by the bay, where the kids had to think of an animal and rhymes…
how old are said children?
if by kids you mean over the age of 6 but under the age of 11, then i would suggest sing-a-longs.
if by kids you mean under the age of 6, telling stories is always fun. but if you go around in a circle and let everyone tell a little bit of the story, it’s even better.
if by kids you mean older than 11, well…
they probably don’t want to play games with you. other than the psychological mind games that tweens and older are so good at.
if by chance you have a nice child older than 11, then fun stuff like Mafia and Cops and Robbers is wide open. Logic puzzles are always good fun too, but not the incredibly intelligent kind. oh no. i’m talking… Green Glass Doors. the kind where it takes everyone a long time to catch on, but at the end there is one person that doesn’t get it and everyone invariably says, “oh, come on! it’s so easy!”
i babysat a lot. and i have three older siblings. and a lot of theater friends.
-e
“I went on a picnic and I brought…”
Kid 1- Apples
Kid 2- Apples and Bananas
Kid 3- Apples, bananas and carrots
You keep adding to the list as you run throught the alphabet, eventually, people start leaving things out and getting eliminated.
Good morning, Dan! Hope you have a safe and enjoyable trip!
A little game I like to call “sit still and shut up!”.
The Dairy Queens here (except for the sub-par fast food selling variations) are all ply wooded up for the winter. Their parking lots were used as Christmas tree selling venues, a good seasonal switch off business I suppose. Have a fun trip. Play some rock-paper-scissors perhaps.
How old are the kids Dan
The quiet game, first one to speak loses
depends on ages. We loved 20 questions. licence plate game ok, but not as good.
sing songs to each other.
The category game. like birds….leach names a NEW one. ast one out, is out. SO next round fewer, and so on.
we ,made figures with pipe cleaners and made dramas. Pupets were also good.
CLAY can be great, but must systematize.
CLOUD watching, Star gazing…what do YOU see …is always good.
MAPS -routes – time, and sites to see. planning.
Many nice trips….Best for YOURS!
oh yes, forgot one minute mysteries! they are good too.
oh, and an iPod and a nintendo DS help bunches.
then again, only if you’re a dork like me….
Just talking makes the time fly by the quickest.
Don’t forget to sing. You can always use the alphabet……sing a song that starts with A, then B, etc. If you get to Z, the only one I know of is “Zaccheus Was a Wee Little Man.”
Depending on the age:
“ABC” – first to find all letters of the alphabet, in order, on signs, bumper stickers, etc….wins.
“license plate” – find as many states as you can as you travel.
“Finish the story” – first person starts a story and ends with “….and then….” The next person picks it up from there.
“My ship sails” – another abc game. First person says, “My ship sails with apples (anything with an “a”), next person says, “My ship sails with apples and bananas…” each person continues adding an item with the next letter of the alphabet. See how far you can go.
“Motive” – set up a senario, “My best friend told me a secret that could cause her some danger. I told my parents and now she hates me.” then ask your kids. “Was she right or wrong to break her friends confidence?” “What was her motive?” “Does that make her right or wrong now?” This is great as your kids get older and have to make some hard choices.
“Counting Cows” – (great for texas) Each person counts cows and tries to build up their score. When you pass a church you have to start all over. I don’t know the spiritual significance and I hated this game but to each his own.
We traveled a lot when my three were young. Stuffed animals, books, crayons and coloring paper etc…..good luck.
The ABC sign game
You look for words on signs that start with A and call it out when you see it, and the first one to reach Z wins. But your little one might not enjoy that game as much as the others :/
Have fun with Q and X though… it’s intense
We played alphabet games as kids…
As adults, Hubby and I find signs with double-entendres and laugh…but you have the kids with you, so…
the alphabet game.
“My Rich Uncle Died.”
I wish I knew. I have three kids of my own. We just use a portable DVD player. Let me know if you pass through middle Tennessee on your way back.
The cow game. Depends on what kind of country you’re in; Texas should work. You count the cows that you can see on your side of the car. If you pass a graveyard, you lose all your cows. If you pass a church, all your cows get married and have babies, so they double (I know, the math isn’t right, but that’s how the game works). The person with the most cows at the end of game wins.
I had over 3 million cows once…lots of churches, absolutely NO graveyards.
Either group singing, card playing, or reading…
I love the idea of the sleep game… hahaha
You should make a stop in Dallas!
We played the quiet game a lot. It’s a contest to see who can go the longest without talking. I was a rather talkative child, I think it helped preserve my parents sanity.
horse. (it’s a long explanation, so watch out!
)
somebody starts out with a letter, the next person says another letter, another person says another letter…etc. to spell a (real) word. the goal is to not let the last letter of the word land on you. if it does, you get a letter in “horse” starting with “h”, then “o”, then “r”…etc. person who gets all of “horse” spelled loses. if you think the person before you is making up a word, you can challenge him/her. if the person doesn’t have a word that they were thinking, they get a letter in “horse”…if they do, then you get get a letter in “horse”. plural words are not allowed, and the words have to be more than 4 letters long, and it has to be a REAL word.
example:
person 1: L
person 2 (thinks of a words starting with “L” and says next letter in the word they thought of): E
person 3 (thinks of words starting with “LE” and says next letter in word they thought of): M
person 1 (thinks of words starting with “LEM” and says next letter): O
person 2 (tries to think of another word, so the “N” doesn’t land on him, but can’t): N
person 2 loses and gets “H”. loser starts new word.
person 2: J
person 3 (thinks of words starting with “J”): U
person 1 (thinks of words starting with “JU”: D
person 2 (can’t think of words starting with “JUD”, so challenges): challenge
person 1: JUDGE
person 2 loses and gets “O” (next letter in “horse”) because person 1 had a word. loser goes first again.
person 2: S
person 3: I
person 1: L
person 2: E
person 3: N
person 1 (knows that it could end on him with “T” but doesn’t want it to, so he changes word): C
person 2 (can’t think of another word beginning with “SILENC”): E
person 2 loses, gets “R”, has “HOR”, two letters away from losing. starts the next game again.
…etc. my sister and I play this when we’re waiting around sometimes and it helps pass the time for an hour or so…it’s sorta interesting to see what words we end up spelling (and how long they are), and strategizing so that the last letter doesn’t land on me. if you want a longer game, you can use the word “telephone” instead of “horse”. if you want to make it more difficult make it so the minimum length for the word is 5 letters not 4. if you want to make the game more interesting, you could make it so that the loser has to buy everyone ice cream or clean the car.
sleep (everyone can play except the driver)
2o questions…..and spelling bees!
my friends and i played boggle and scattergories when we went on a roadtrip over the summer.
We used to count the VW (beetle’s) along the way. Now we count how many people are talking on their cell phones while driving. Be safe
Rapping. Seriously, take turns freestyling, while the rest of the family beatboxes. It’s amusing to no ends.
I also would recommend renting books on tape from the library.
The License plate game, car Bingo with those little boards with the red windows that covered the picture & “Let’s-pretend-I’m-asleep-so-dad-will-carry-me-in-the-house.” Worked everytime. My 10-year old niece plays “Punch Buggy–NO PUNCH BACK!”
This is pretty late, but Blockus and Quarto are fun games.
The song game!
nap game
The alphabet game or I Spy.
Jello is only good for if you’re traveling in the city.
The substance you are penning blows out my nous.
spreets