In addition to keeping some
essential items in the car and ensuring car safety, parents should also suppply
children with adequate entertainment while on a long family road trip. Read on
to check out fun travel activities for kids and survival tips for the road.
Travel
Games and Activities
These are great boredom busters and
are particularly useful for older children in the car. Many magnetic games and
puzzles are now available. Check out some travel games on the FamilyTravelGear
website. Alternatively, you can print out travel games and activities such as
bingo, dots and lines games and tic tac toe. Try the FamilyFun and Momsminivan
websites for some great ideas.
Best
Routes to Travel
Give children the challenge to
figure out the best and fastest way to reach a destination. Make copies of relevant
pages on the street directory, for example from the house to the beach or theme
park or ski resort. Then give the kids the task to work out the best routes and
jot down what streets to use and important landmarks that the car will pass by.
It’s fun and trains kids to be good map readers and navigators!
Stopping
Frequently
Even with games and fun stuff to
keep kids occupied, they will get restless after a couple of hours stuck in the
car. So make pit stops every two to three hours. Ideally, stop at places with a
playground or restaurants with indoor playground. It’s a good idea to leave a
ball, frisbee and skipping rope in the car too. Breaking up the journey allows
the kids to eat, go to the toilet, rest and run around for a while before going
back into the car. They are less likely to complain and whine if they’ve had
their share of fun outside the car.
Travel
Scrapbook
This is great for road trips that
last more than a few days. Give each kid a big notebook or sketch pad, pencils,
markers and crayons. Ask them to draw things they see along the journey or
write down events as they happen. They can paste polaroid photos, ticket stubs,
brochures and other small souvenir items on the scrapbooks. These scrapbooks
are better than mere photos as they tell stories of the journey.
License
Plate Game
Ask children to look for other
license plates with the same number as your family car. To make things a little
easier, the number sequence doesn’t have to be the same. They only need to find
license plates containing all the numbers on your own license plate. For
instance, if the family car’s license number is 938, the kids can look out for
license plates with the number 389, 983, 398 and so forth. The kids will be too
busy looking out for license plates of other vehicles that they won’t have time
to whine and complain about being bored, hot, cold or restless.
Making
up Stories
This one is easy because there is no
need to bring anything. Get someone to start a story and let someone else to
continue. Get each child tell her part of the story for five minutes and pass
it to the next child. Parents can join in the fun too. Allow the story to be
passed around for half an hour. The storytellers can go as crazy and as
imaginative as they wish. Everyone will have a good laugh when the story ends.
Guaranteed.
Singing
This is an old favorite and never
fails to lift up the spirit on long car trips. Make sure everyone has their favorite
CDs in the car, play them and sing along. Can’t remember the lyrics? Search for
them online and print them out. Prepare some drinking water for the parched
throats after long periods of singing.
Keeping children occupied and entertained is key
to a successful family road trip. Try some of these ideas and the journey will
be just as fun as the destination itself.
