At the beginning of our series of Road Trip posts, I mentioned that we are really looking forward to a fun, relaxed, vacation-feel to our travels. So most of our planning focused on two points…

#1. Fun, simple activities while we’re IN the car!

#2. Not being IN the car the whole time!

I already shared about the individual road trip travel activity cases that we made each kiddo for some of our car time. But in our family, we have a couple of reluctant readers, who just also happen to get car sick if we’re not careful. You might have noticed that our games master binder is mostly visual games, not reading and writing-focused activities. That concentrated effort makes them queasy in the car.

Plus we wanted to take advantage of all that car time for some great family fun and bonding!

So here’s a list of 10 great car activities we’ve lined up for the whole group to enjoy together!

1. Family I Spy

Any of the I Spy games that we printed for their travel activity cases can be played as a group, out loud. One person can be the recorder, and every sighting has to be verified by at least one other person. Then, when the game is done, take a travel break and have a special snack! Another way is to turn any of the I Spy games into a bingo version where everyone is playing against each other to fill in the rows.

2. Lego Challenge

The kids are very excited about this one. I made Lego play boxes and filled them with 5 individual little packs of random Legos. Everyone gets a small pack of Legos to start with and someone draws one of the Lego challenge cards that we printed for the trip. (We found some simple free ones here, here, and here.)

Everyone has to build a version of what’s on the card, with only the Legos in their pack.

3. Movie Trivia

I found movie trivia that was just movie fact-based (like this Star Wars one), that was quotes, and that was music (like this Disney song one). Also, TV Commercials, Superheroes, and Candy Trivia.

I think this Disney quotes one is by far the best freebie I found and I’m super excited to try it (probably because I knew at least 95% of the answers!) Mr. Fix-It and I even came up with the idea of searching out some of the quotes on our phones to listen too “for real” as part of the game. Fun!

4. Learning Trivia

Of course I had to work some learning in! But really, for the fun of it all, the point of this learning trivia is to ask questions that they know the answer too. It just gives them an outlet to use some of that knowledge. We love the Professor Noggins cards for this kind of stuff. They have levels of knowledge so you can gauge your questions to the audience. We have US History, Space, and Science, but they have just about every topic imaginable.

And we give out sugar-free hard lifesavers as “prizes” for correct answers. {smile}

5. Would You Rather

This game was new to me, but the kiddos are crazy about it. It’s just a simple A or B question, but it leads to a lot of fun discussion (and laughs!) and thinking. Some of the ones the boys come up with are wild–Would you rather jump off a 40 story building or jump out of an airplane? But some are very thought-provoking–Would you rather be married or stay single your whole life?

There are lots of freebies available if you search Pinterest, but I would highly recommend this simple set of 250 questions over on Teachers Pay Teachers. It’s inexpensive and the questions are a great mix of thoughtful, fun, and interesting. I printed them on cardstock and we’ll probably keep them in the car all the time.

6. MadLibs

Mr. Fix-It was laughing when he saw Mad Libs in my master binder. Some old-school fun here. {smile} They’re a great way to sneak in a little language arts study without the kids realizing it. You can find some individual pages for free out there, but they aren’t expensive so I just grabbed a couple booklets from Amazon.

7. Selfie Scavenger Hunt

Family photo with Spiderman, anyone? I found these selfie scavenger hunts for the kids to do individually, but Mr. Fix-It suggested that we make them do it together, with all 3 of them in each picture. Seemed like a great idea! Now we might even try to get all 5 of us in the pictures together!

8. What Animal Am I? (Who Am I?)

Ok, my crew totally made this one up out of thin air one time. But it’s not complicated, so I’m sure they’re not the only ones. One player picks an animal in their mind (and if you’ve got little rule-stretchers, make them write it down!) then offers one clue. “I have black and white fur.” Everyone gets a guess. If no one gets it, they offer another hint. “I live in the woods.” On and on until someone gets it–then that person is the animal and gives hints. Oh my, they will play this round and round!

You could do the same thing with people or movie characters or trees or whatever your family is familiar with.

9. Family Stories Jar

Ok, this is a fun take on the idea of Fun Facts sharing. You put lots of family members names on pieces of paper and drop them in a jar (or bag). As you go along, pull one out. Then each person in the car has to tell a real, true, good story that involves that person. This is a great way to bond as a family and pass along family stories that they might never have heard before!

We have a big family, so there are lots of names to share. But you could also include family friends, church family, or other people that are important to your family history.

And don’t forget to put YOUR OWN names in the bag and make them share good stories about fun times with each other! (My crew likes to forget all their silly times together if I don’t make them stop and remember once in a while!)

10. AudioBooks

Crazy as it sounds, we’re new to the audiobook bandwagon. We’ve been long-time fans of audio-dramas like Your Story Hour (we’ve enjoyed these even for short car trips!) and Jonathan Park. But we hadn’t really looked into the actual literature side of things. Plus, we’ve never had a vehicle with Bluetooth before–and the Bluetooth in the new Dodge makes it so easy to use my phone to share with the family.

So I decided to give our Audible membership through Amazon a try.

And we LOVE it!

Even Mr. Fix-It (also a reluctant reader!) is enjoying it. What can I say, I’m a book lover surrounded by audio-learners. I can’t believe it took me this long to try things this way. It’s going great. Just testing our membership out around town we’ve already finished the first two Rangers Apprentice books as a family.

For our trip, I’ve pre-loaded some classic fiction that I thought would give us some context to connect the literature to. Like  Where the Red Fern Grows (because we’ll be driving through the Ozarks), and The Black Stallion (because we’ll be visiting Churchill Downs) and The Watsons go to Birmingham (since we’ll be driving through Alabama).

P.S. I think audiobooks are expensive. Having an Audible membership through Amazon saves you 30% off the top, plus 2 freebies to get started, and one freebie every month–which covers your monthly membership plus some right there! Plus you can use free Swagbucks to get Amazon gift cards. 

We’ll be hitting the road for the start of our adventure tomorrow–and now you know some of what we’ll be doing as we drive along! {smile} What are some of your tried-and-true family games for long car rides?