10 Fun Road Trip Activities for Kids of all Ages

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Do you need some great road trip activities?

Spring Break! These are two words every child loves. It is one week that gets a lot of hype in their friend circles, in school, and in the media. Fun, laughs, and almost magic is supposed to happen during this week. That puts a lot of pressure on you, mom. You are the one holding the wand in this scenario. 

If your plans include an extended time in the car, you need to plan road trip activities for the kids. Children look at this time, in the car, differently than you do, and while you may be looking at the destination, they are looking at “hours of boredom.”

There are a lot of places you can go that are not too far from home. “Are we there yet?” is the song of a bored kid. If you read my Top 10 Mom Do-Overs, you would know that I would actually have sought out times for my children to be bored and then taught them how to be creative and imaginative during these times. A roadtrip is perfect for you to put away the electronics and start teaching boredom busters!

First, we need to prepare for the trip.
Choose a destination that is enjoyable for all ages in your family.
I live 2 hours from the Grand Canyon, so this is an easy roadtrip and a memorable vacation. However, if I took a child under 4 there or one who does not follow instructions well, I would go crazy with anxiety. If you have not been to the Grand Canyon, there are no “fences” or barriers. A child can easily run right up to the edge…and over it.

We are looking for fun, memorable, and laughter…for everyone. This also means that you do not want to be saying “don’t do this” and “watch out for that” at every turn.

Gauge the length of the trip.
How long can your child “last” in the car? Your goal is to eliminate as much bickering amongst siblings and “no’s” from you as possible. If your family has never ventured out together in the car for an extended time, keep it to under two hours each way.

Plan fun in the car.
Are you interested in capitalizing on this forced time together? Do you want to use this time to teach imagination, communication, and creativity?
Here are some activities you can do instead of having everyone “plugged in” to their own headphones and games:

Question Game
This was a favorite road trip activity of ours and saved my kids from many “horrible” places like restaurants that took a long time, appointments with long waits, all travel, and even when they were feeling “out of sorts” or had anxiety.

The “it” person, comes up with an animal, but does not tell anyone.
Everyone takes turn asking a “yes” or “no” question. If a person gets a “yes” they get to ask another question.
The person who guesses the animal “wins” and gets to be the “it” person for the next round.
Example good question: “Does the animal live in the water?” (yes or no)
Example bad question: “What color is the animal?” (not a yes or no)

The added benefit of this game, from a teacher’s standpoint, is it teaches children deductive reasoning in a fun way. Even young children will learn that they need to “add” an animal you can find on the farm, that has two legs, that has feathers and not guess a cow, because that does not fit the clues.
They also learn very quickly to not start guessing animals without clues, they just lose a turn that way.

Alphabet Game
Yes, this is an oldie. Do you need a break? Do you have children who can read? If you are on a stretch of highway that has signs and cars, kids can play this game on their own. The rules are simple. Everyone starts at “A” and the first one to “Z” wins.

“Simply” find a word, sign, license plate, etc with the letter you are currently looking for. When you have found that letter, advance to the next letter. For “competitive” play, players do not tell others when they find a letter; everyone would then see that letter.
However, if you have a child that tends to not tell the entire truth, is incredibly competitive, or if you have a little one who is on the verge of reading and can identify letters, but cannot do this on their own, play together.

Name that Tune
Technology, there is good and bad. The great thing about the music services is that you can get them…wherever you are.
First, ask each child what their favorite type of music is: country, current hits, blues, classic, 80’s, etc.
Next, you are going to change your “preselected” stations on the “radio.” Each channel option now will match the preference of one person in the family, yourself and your partner included. You guys get to play too!
Have something that covers the readout that says who is singing and what the song is.

Everything is set up!

Now, when you are traveling down the road, take turns “naming that tune.”
Whoever is in the passenger seat, controls the channel selector, but they cannot see the readout either.
Choose a song.
The person whose turn it is to guess, gets a specified amount of time to guess the title of the song and the artist (you can change this if you want, this is how we do it).
If they cannot guess, it goes to the next person, they get a chance.
Then the channel selector chooses the next station and the guessing starts again!

Categories
My younger son, Alec, and I made this up. I am pretty sure something like this has been played by others.
Alec was 15 at the time, so the animal question game had lost its appeal. He is not much of a conversationalist and we were out to dinner.
Hmmm, what to do?

Do you know what he loves and knows more than anything? Cars.
Do you know what all children love more than anything? Knowing more than their parents.
Well, I do not know much about cars, so this was perfect.

We started with A and proceeded alphabetically.
We then took turns. Each person had to name a car make, like Acura (A) or model, like Bronco (B).
Alec loves this game; he always wins.
You can play this with any category.

Who are you?
This may seem like a funny question, but seriously, how well do you know each other? If you are an adult with siblings, think of how you get “stuck” in a role you have not been or have out grown.

The forced closeness of a road trip makes this is a great time for everyone to learn about each other. But what do you talk about? How do you get this started?

I love Talking Point: 200 Conversation Starters, the family edition. This is designed for families with children ages 5 and up. This company does have a Kids edition, however, the sample questions that are shown are not as good, in my opinion as the family edition.
These questions are intended to allow your child to express what they feel about specific topics or issues, what they really care about, and what they want. Do kids want to participate? Kids live in a “directed” world. Their choices are limited, even when we try to give them as many options as possible. Usually, children are excited to express their opinions and have someone listen to them.

Would you rather?
This is voted as one of the funnest and silliest road trip activities.
Yup, this is the game you have heard of before. This is a question game like Who are you? However, it is fun and silly. 
One person is on the “hot seat” and another person asks a question. You can choose to have the question be “randomly” picked, by having the cut out questions in a jar or if you have a deck, spread the deck and have the person on the hot seat choose their card.

Each would you rather goes something like this:
Would you rather have a pet goose or a pet turtle? The fun of these is often when you find out why, for example, I am terrified of geese, there is no way I would choose a goose!

I looked, all over Amazon, for a great Would You Rather game for families. Honestly, I just could not find anything I really liked.
What do you do when you just can’t find what you want? You create it! 

Rest Stop Activities:
Stop. Often. Children need a break. Take advantage of parks and rest stops along your route.

*Grab 3
Everyone is excited to get out of the car. Have everyone grab three pieces of trash to throw out so you can keep the car clean! You can change the number based on the amount of garbage that has been piling up. Allow everyone to race to the garbage can and dump their stuff.

*Balance on curb
There are usually a lot of curbs around parks and rest stops. Have the kids walk in a line on the curb, testing their balancing skills.
A game you can play on the curb is have everyone find a place on the curb.
Then pick an order, alphabetical, by birthday month, age, etc and organize your selves but you always have to be on the curb somehow (no falling off).

*Sidewalk chalk 
Sidewalk chalk is your best friend. You can draw a quick game of hopscotch. Another favorite is rubber playground balls.  Be sure to read 10 Mom Hacks to Create an Easier Life and learn all about the fun these rubber balls bring. One of the favorite games is four square, which you can quickly set up with sidewalk chalk and some pavement.

*Run
Do you remember playing tag on the playground when you were a child? running is a great way to expend energy and have fun.
In case you do not remember, there are many kinds of “tag” games.
Cartoon tag
Freeze tag
Animal tag
Duck, Duck Goose
Sock tag (and this one is my favorite!)
You can have any kind of “subject” tag. When you are close to being tagged, you can quick “sit” and be “safe” if you say a cartoon or animal before being tagged.
In Freeze tag, if you are tagged, you are frozen until someone who is still “free” tags you and frees you.
Sock tag-this one is fun, because everyone is “it” in a way. Have everyone get out two socks before you get to the park or rest stop (I would have them ready!).
Each person puts the socks in their waistband.
The object is to run around and “gather” as many socks as possible without losing both of yours!

*Games
Bring the outdoor games. You can say that the only time the family “gets” to play croquet, frisbee, bocce, marbles, catch, etc. is when you are on the road and you stop. Choose a game that is fun that the entire family likes to play AND that can be set up, played, and completed in 20 minutes.

Audio book
Is everyone ready to just zone out for awhile? In 25+ Fun and Fabulous Books for You to Read over the Weekend. I have a section about how to get audio books…FREE!

Every library “carries” an audio book selection. You can narrow your search by audience. My library has over 6,000 books in the juvenile category. A series we listened to that the adults, a 6 year old and an 11 year old all enjoyed was The Incorrigible Children of Ashton Place series.

Another benefit of listening to audio books is that you are developing auditory skills. Most educational models are based on visual and auditory modalities. 65% of the population can be categorized as visual learners. 30% of the learners are auditory. If your child can learn to listen and gather “important” information from only an auditory source, education, career, and communication will come more easily to them.

Build it
Do you have a child that just wants to touch…everything? Chances are good that your child will be happy building and creating. This may seem like a difficult road trip activity. However, you can make “travel packs” that are designed with building in mind.

There are many different crafts that can be created from pipe cleaners varying in skill level on the internet.
I recommend buying a lot of pipe cleaners (the long craft ones) in varying colors and adding things like small jingle bells (they can be “slid” onto a pipe cleaner), craft sticks, and beads.

Let the creativity begin!
Activity books
I limit the reading activities, simply because I get carsick very easily. However, there are a lot of fabulous and very entertaining roadtrip activity books out there for different ages. If you have a child who is content to draw and complete various puzzles and games this may be a fabulous option.

You are creating memories. The time you spend in the car, as a family, getting to your destination, can be just as valuable as the vacation itself. With a little preparation on your part, you can plan the perfect road trip activities so that the children will be entertained, the electronics can be turned off, and you can all interact with each other, cheerfully and peacefully.

“Life has no remote, get up and change it yourself.” – Charlie Brown