Summer months often mean long family car rides on the way to-and-from vacations. I remember one particular family vacation where my family of five drove 24 hours to Florida. One thing that’s important on these long drives is to be prepared for the dreaded question…”Are we there yet?” Recently, writer, Jennifer New, wrote about eight different games you can play with your children on long car rides.
One game that New mentioned, which would be great for younger kids, is called “I Have a Cat.” There are many different ways to play this game, but in New’s version one person starts with the saying “I have a cat named (A-Name) who likes to eat (A-food)” and then the person to the right starts with the letter b, and so-on through the alphabet.
For children who are a little older, New recommends a fun game called “Bob is a Volkswagon Bug.” To play this game one person must think of a family member or friend that everyone in the car knows well. Then the other people in the car ask questions to figure out who the person is, however the questions asked must not be specific to the person. Sample questions that New gives are “if person was a country, what country would he be?” “If person were a car, what car would he be?” etc.
One game my family liked to play on long car rides was a game we called pattern. One person would think of a pattern or a clue, such as “question must be about a person” or “question must start with the letter d” and everyone else in the car has to start asking questions. The game gets interesting when people start asking questions that are irrelevent to each other but both meet the criteria for the pattern or clue. The game continues until someone is able to guess what the pattern/clue is.
There are many other fun games to play with kids of all ages on long car rides, we’d love to hear your family’s favorite games in the comment section.
To read New’s full article, you can click here.