No Go
Before you leave home, pick three words that mustn’t be said during the journey. Then try to trick each other into saying them in conversation. The person who notices a slip says “No Go” and gets a point.
License plate headlines
Using the letters on licence plates as the start of words, and see who can make up the funniest headline! (For instance: KWQ might end up as Kids Welcome Queensland!) For younger kids, see who is the first to count to 10 using the numerals on licence plates!
Mix and match stories
One person starts with the first sentence in a story, and the next contributes the second… the story continues until someone says “And they lived happily ever after”.
Cricket
One person counts the cars passing in the opposite direction. Each car represents a ‘run’. When a truck passes, the innings is over and the next person starts counting.
I Spy
It’s an age-old favourite, but hard for preschoolers, so why not play I Spy with a difference…and change the letter to a colour?
10 Fingers
One person chooses a category and holds up 10 fingers. The rest of the family name as many things in that category as they can and the fingers go down, one by one!Categories might be: Towns we have visited, Cities in Australia, Things we did yesterday, Types of cars, Things in the car beginning with B, Hairy things. The list is ENDLESS!
In my backpack
Like the old ‘grandma’s shopping list’ this memory game is all about listing things in your backpack. One family member starts with “In my backpack I have…”. The next person repeats the items mentioned by the person before them and adds one item on the end. The game continues round the group until someone forgets the order.
You’ve got one minute
This is a good one if the kids are fighting in the back seat… Parents choose topics and kids take turns doing a one-minute (timed) speech about that thing. The rest of the family must stay silent while they talk. This suits all ages. Topics might include: My favourite activity yesterday, What I want to be when I grow up, Why I love the beach, If I could be an animal, which one and why.
On my journey I saw…
Give each child a large piece of sketch paper, something hard to lean on and plenty of coloured pencils. (Pencils are less dangerous in the back seat than textas.) Write the name of the day’s starting location in the middle of the page then kids draw things they see along the way around that location. (Zoo, park, swings, church, lighthouse…)They can draw arrows between them if they like. This way they end up with a ‘time map’ of their journey. This is a great way to encourage kids to keep a journal and even works for those who can’t write.
