Category — Travel Car Games

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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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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Mad Libs. I have recommended this as a great car activity for many years. Recently we found a way to enjoy them even further.

My daughter pulled out the Mad Libs tablet that we used a few months earlier on a previous trip. She began to read some of the stories that we had already completed. They were HILARIOUS — And much funnier than they were the first time. This was probably due to the fact that the crazy words were a complete surprise this time since we didn’t remember them.

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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.

One of my readers recently sent me this game that her family plays. They call it “Virtual Hide and Seek”. It’s a great game for the car that only requires your imagination.

Pick a place inside your house to hide, and imagine you are there. You can be any size, so you can hide in the silverware drawer, inside the toilet, in the dryer, wherever you can imagine! The others ask yes/no questions only, such as “are you in the kitchen” until they narrow it down to the room, area and then….find you! Kids love this game because it’s so fun to hide in places you’d not really fit into.

You may have to clarify no hiding between walls and in plumbing!   (Submitted by reader, Beth K. Thanks!)

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Someone finally put all the fun printable car activities into one big fat ginormous printable book. It’s the Ultimate Road Trip Games book, that you can download and print. I love it!

It’s over 140 pages of stuff to do in the car. Print just the pages you want, and as many as you need for all your kids, and print more for your next trip.

A few activities are similar to the printable car games that I have available on MomsMinivan, but they have taken them to a whole new level, and included many many more, in an easy printable format.

We’re excited about the “secret mission” game. This one sounds just right for my school age children, and we can’t wait to play it on our next trip. None of the activities require any extra materials other than a pencil and the printed sheets. Use it over and over for every trip you take.

Overall, I think it’s terrific! It’s definitely worth the purchase price, and I feel really good about recommending it to my readers. You can find it on their website at Ultimate Road Trip Games!

Meanwhile, make sure you stock up on printer ink! Here’s a place I love to get mine – use the coupon I found for a discount! 15% Off Compatible Inkjet Cartridges – use Coupon TAK658W
(Expires 09.30.09)

Happy travels!

My cousin Kirsten is taking a road trip with her kids this weekend in Oregon and found some great new products she recommends! They are called “Flip to Win”

Here’s what she says:
We got Hangman and the Travel Bear Hunt – and both are good. Memory looks fun. There are No parts to lose except the pen on Hangman (which has a clip to store the pen when it’s not being used).

Here’s More:

• These fabulous, travel-style games bring new fun and convenience to old family favorites
• Innovative flipping pieces won’t get lost
• Includes one game board with erasable whiteboard, self-storing marker and eraser
• Great for the road and at home

Sounds great! Definitely worth checking out “Flip to Win“.

Thanks, Kirsten! Have a great trip!

~ Road Trip Mom ~
Momsminivan.com

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More Fan Mail! After reading my article, a reader wrote in a while ago to share her experience with making a cootie catcher. She also sent the picture on the left.

Hello, my name is Abby. Today is my first time to visit your website: MomsMinivan.com. I enjoy reading it very much as it brings me lot of memories about playing games with kid. Currently, I’m working for a child centre in Hong Kong where we play games with kids.

I just want to share with you about the “Cootie Catcher”. In our culture, we have the same stuff but we named it differently. we simply called it “ESWN” that stands for EAST, SOUTH, WEST and NORTH. (See the attached jpg file). Inside the ESWN, we write the “action” for the kid to do when they choose the number. For example, “sing a song”, “do sit-up”, “jump 10 times”….etc. Using the “Direction” as an alternative of “Color” is fun too.

Cootie catchers, or fortune tellers, are making the rounds in many different circles these days. I had another reader write recently to tell me that she was using my blank cootie catcher template for her Bible study group (She put scripture verses in the message area). It’s also become a cute table activity at weddings (put love messages in the fortunes, or instructions to “kiss the person next to you” or “dance the next song”). You’re only as limited as your imagination.

Product Recommendation from Road Trip Mom! – Travel Bingo Shutter Card Game Set

This is not the old favorite “Auto Bingo”, but it does have the nifty sliding windows that kids love. It’s regular B-I-N-G-O, where the caller picks a random number from the bin and calls it out like “B-15″! Then everyone marks their cards. This one can be played over and over again since your numbers are marked by sliding the windows. A pluck of the finger marks your number!

I have found that kids will play this game much longer than the other auto bingo which is more like a scavenger hunt looking for items out side the car. Older kids especially appreciate this one. And if you offer up a prize for the winner (think lollipops, or Tootsie Rolls), you can guarantee to hold their interest for quite a while, though several games. Keep playing until everyone wins. Even the driver can “play” by having someone else in the car play the card for you!

This set has 6 cards in it, and is completely self contained. No loose pieces and no markers needed. Great for the car or a plane. A definite winner in my book. Get it here.

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One of my readers sent me a message noting a US plate that is missing from my printable license plate game sheet. My dear reader noted that although Washington DC is not a state, that it should still be included in the list. I’m inclined to agree.

So, I have added “Washington DC” to the checklist of all the states for the license plate game! Now before I start getting bombarded by readers asking me to add Puerto Rico or the US Virgin Islands, etc. I have also added a check-box for “bonus points” for spotting a plate from a US territory or other country.

Now, Go! Play! Enjoy!