Category — fun for the road

Here’s a car game you can play without any materials at all.  It’s a geography game that I found on Education.com, which also has a lot of other games and printable materials for kids — great stuff for road trips.

The geography game is super easy to play.  You simply take turns naming different cities, states or countries around the world. The only catch is that when it’s your turn, your geography point must begin with the same letter that the last person’s ended. Simple!  If you have an atlas in the car, this game will have your kids scouring through it and learning new places.

Devra, my friend and frequent road-trip cohort from Parentopia.com, has played this game with her family (and me) for years.  But somehow  it always seems to me like there are a lot of  geography points that start AND end with the letter A — Alaska, Alabama, Alameda, Australia, Angola, Argentina, Albania, …  see what I mean?  Next time I’m on a roadtrip with them, I’m using “Arkansas” as my secret weapon.  If you can’t spell it, you won’t know that it ends in an “S”! And if that doesn’t get them, then I’ll try “Albuquerque.”   Ha!

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On road trips, or just hanging out, kids love to color!  I found a website that has some of the cutest printable materials I’ve ever seen online.  It’s called Python Printables.

Check out their Holiday printable coloring pages (This link includes a $5 coupon when you download along with their free printable pages to use with their premium products later if you want).  They have lots of different holidays and other events to keep your kids busy and creative!

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Keep the kids busy in the car by having them make a Trip-Journal or Scrapbook of their own. Give everyone a big spiral bound sketchpad and a box of crayons or markers. Each day of the trip or for each event along the way, draw a picture of what you did that day, or draw a map of where you went, and write about it. You can also attach souvenirs.

Even children too young to write can draw pictures, and then you can write in the details for them by asking them about the picture. Be sure to include the date since this will be come a treasure forever.

Read more about kids travel journals …!

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My personal favorite road trip amusement item: All-American Car-i-Oke.

This is way better than ordinary music. It’s full participation music!

It has a CD with the music, and all the lyrics in the spiral bound book. It also includes several smaller lyrics booklets – one for the back seat, the way-back seat, and another for anyone who doesn’t like to share.

I bought a copy of All-American Car-i-Oke for my kids a few years ago (Ok, I admit that I probably bought it mostly for me – the biggest kid in the car).  We never tire of it, and use it at least once every trip. We have the most fun with the backseat drumming, and the “make up your own Blues” song.

In fact, it helped evolve a rule in our car — “No whining allowed unless you’re singing the Blues!”

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Do you have some swashbuckling youngsters about ye?  Are ye surrounded by crazy mad rowdy tricksters?  Need ideas to keep them busy?  Send them on a treasure hunt!

Start with your very own authentic looking map.  Here’s How to make your own authentic looking pirate treasure map!

Avast ye, mateys!!  It’s time for some fun on the high seas!

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More fun ideas for the road — check out this video of some travel games you can make with paper plates!  Make them in the car, or make them at home to bring on the road with you.

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It’s time to share some of YOUR favorite car travel activities!

“We enjoy passing around a fake mike, as we take turns being the solo singer to the radio or cassette tunes! Sometimes we will unexpectedly lower the sound to make the singers voice really stand out.”  (Lin)

“A great car activity for children ages 5 (with adult help) and up, is to make a pot holder on a weaving loom! My 3 sons, ages 5, 10 and 12 all three enjoyed picking out their own colors and designing their own pot holder to give as gifts to grandparents and friends when we returned home from our trip!  They also make neon colored material for the weaving looms. You can buy a whole bag for under $2!” (Johna)

“Whenever we hit the road, we are always sure to grab a bottle of bubbles.  We turn on the car fan, hold the bubble wand in front of the vent, and voila! A car full of bubbles.  The bubbles generally go straight toward the back of the car, and are barely a distraction to the driver.  This is great fun in traffic, when we not only amuse ourselves but so many drivers alongside us.  And their happy grins
are a great amusement in themselves!” (Elaine)

Thanks Readers!  Keep sending in your ideas!  ~~Laurel (Roadtrip Mom)

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This is a photo of the scariest thing I have ever seen on the road. What’s scarier is that it’s inside my own minivan! This may look harmless to you, but you are not sitting in the middle of this heart clenching scene where I was when I took the photo and was completely white-knuckled. Don’t see what I’m talking about? Look harder…. It’s….

…… MY TEENAGER behind the WHEEL!

That’s right. His driver permit was obtained today.

Learning to drive is such a huge rite of passage, for the teen and the parent! Is any parent ever ready for this? I swear it was just last week when he was in kindergarten.

Seriously though, I am signing him up for a Driver’s Ed road training class, and he is taking a safety course as well. Not only that, but he told me himself that he plans to be a “good driver”. I guess we all were new drivers at some point, and I’m not going to last very long if I hold my breath every time I hand him the keys now, am I? It’s time to cowboy up and accept the fact that this day has finally arrived.

ATTENTION DRIVERS OF NORTH AMERICA: A new driver has taken the wheel. You have been warned.

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Here’s a truckload of turkeys going down the highway in South Carolina, April 2009. I took this picture with my cell phone while on a road trip a few months ago.

Roadside oddities abound, and occasionally they are on the road instead of along side it. Read more about where you can find strange and wonderful roadside attractions to help make your road trip smooth sailing in my new article Roadside Oddities.

Speaking of turkey — Happy Thanksgiving to all of my readers. I am so thankful to have had so many loyal readers over the years who helped not only make my website a huge success, but also a wonderful resource for traveling parents everywhere. I could not have done it without you.

A MomsMinivan reader, Barbie, posted a picture (above) on her blog Mamaology showing how to re-use the printable bingo cards from the printable car games page on Momsminivan.com.

She wrote, “I made some games from a website called… momsminivan.com. The Bingo game above is from there. You can print it out for free, place it in a ziplock bag and use dry erase markers to check off the items you find, then erase it and use it again. I plan to give lollipops to the winner of the games.“

These bingo cards are the perfect size to fit into a quart sized freezer bag. The dry erase markers work perfectly on them. Fantastic! Thanks for sharing, Barbie. I hope you had a great trip with all of your adorable girls.