Secret Writing

If you have more than one kid in the car, have one child close their eyes and put out their hand.  The other child uses their finger to trace a letter on the palm of the out-turned hand.  Try to guess the letter, then trade places.  If the kids are good at guessing, they can try spelling out whole words. 

Two kids can also enjoy playing classic paper games like Hangman, Tic Tac Toe, and the paper version of Battleship.  Card games like Crazy Eights, Old Maid, and Gin Rummy are also great ways to pass the time.  And don’t forget to sing songs.  Nothing passes the time like a sign-along!

Fun with Maps

If you get tired of being asked “how much farther is it?,” try giving your child their own map.  You can photocopy part of your road map or atlas, then show your child how to use signs and markers to find your location.  If your child is old enough, you can ask them challenging questions like “what’s that mountain range over there?” or “how many miles is it to Round Lake?” 

Part of the fun of travel for kids is getting accustomed to different place names, river names, and the look of the land.  Ask your child to pick out their favorite town name or to let you know when you’re going to cross different rivers or forests.  You can pick the town or city you’d most like to live in someday or watch for the funniest looking car.

Kids can also have fun making their own maps.  They can draw a different picture for every big town you go through or of different landmarks like bridges, mountains, and rivers.  At the end of the day, line all the pictures up for a visual reminder of where you’ve been.

The License Plate Game

This classic game is a staple of all road trips, and it has a few variations.  The easiest version is to ask kids to look for letters of the alphabet, one letter at a time.  They can get the letters from road signs, billboards, and, of course, license plates.  When someone finds “A,” everyone moves on to “B” and so forth.  License plates come in handy for tricky letters like Q, X, and Z! 

A variation of this game for older kids is to try to spot license plates from every state in the U.S. (excepting Hawaii and possibly Alaska).  For younger kids, print out a map of the U.S. and let your child color in the states as you spot license plates from each one.  Keep these maps over various road trips and see if you can get them all filled in. 

Yet another variation involves making up sayings to go with the letters on license plates.  RGF might be “really good Friday” or “rabbits go frolic.”  And you can watch for different collections of numbers, like numbers all in a row (4, 5, 6) or groups of three of the same number (3, 3, 3) on one plate.

Who am I?

This is a guessing game for older kids or adults. One person, the “lead,” starts by thinking of the name of a person, either real or fictional, dead or alive—but with a first and last name, such as Nancy Drew. They announce to the group “my first name starts with N.” The group gets busy thinking of famous people whose first names start with N, like Napoleon Bonaparte, Nora Roberts, Nicholas Cage, Nancy Reagan—but they keep these names to themselves.

The person who thought of Napoleon then comes up with a question that fits Napoleon’s life, something like “Did you try to conquer Europe?” They voice their question out loud. If the lead can think of the person they have in mind—or any famous person for whom the answer to the question is yes—they can answer “No, I’m not Napoleon.” They’ve managed to defend their person’s identity for the moment and someone else takes a turn. If they can’t think of anyone who fits the question, then the person who asked it gets to ask one question about their person (Nancy Drew), something like “are you living?” “Are you fictional?” “Are you a woman,” etc.
If the lead is able to come up with a person who fits the question—but it isn’t who the asker had in mind—the lead’s secret name is still defended. The asker can then come up with another question that fits the name they had in mind.

After the lead successfully defends themselves, someone else can take a turn. For instance, the person who thought of Nicholas Cage might try to think of the most obscure fact they know about the actor, in order to stump the lead. So instead of asking “Are you a famous actor?” they might say, “Were you in Raising Arizona?” If the lead can’t answer, they get to ask a pointed question about the lead’s name.

Because this game takes a lot of thought and planning, it isn’t necessary that the players go in order. If one person has a lot of questions ready to ask and no one else has any, go ahead and let the person ask, since this keeps the game moving forward. This is a fun game to play with mixed generations, since some will know all about Harry Potter while others are well versed in the lives of Mickey Mantle and Doris Day.