If you are like most parents, you are willing to consider just about anything to keep your kids busy during road trips and car rides to local venues. Even adults who take the bus or the train often struggle to kill the time between point A and point B in an entertaining manner. Fret not, we have come up with four ways to have a blast on those lengthy road trips and commutes.
Draw With Me
When was the last time you put pencil to paper to draw something? If you are like most people, you enjoy putting pencil to paper yet have not used them in years, possibly even decades. Grab a sheet of paper, a book or other hard surface for support and a pencil. Begin drawing something vague yet stop before fully forming the shape/object. Pass the pencil to the person next to you and let him or her add something to your beginning sketch. Continue passing the pencil throughout the vehicle, collaborating on your shared drawing. You will have a blast working together on this artistic endeavor, possibly coming up with quite the creative illustration that serves as a family keepsake for years to come.
A Shared Story
This is another game that harkens back to the good old pre-digital days. Grab pen and paper and write the first two lines of a story, stopping halfway through the second sentence. Pass the pen to another rider and let him or her complete the sentence and write another sentence or two, stopping mid-sentence. Continue building this “shared story” and you will be quite amused as to what your fellow riders come up with. Read the story aloud when you are within a couple minutes of your destination.
Play The Movie Game
The Movie Game is the perfect game for long road trips as just about everyone loves movies. There is no need to have pen, paper or any other items on-hand to play this family-friendly game. The premise is to link actors to the movies they acted in. The game beings with the naming of an actor people in the car are likely to know. The rider to the left of the person who named the actor is challenged with naming a movie that star acted in. The next person to the left is tasked with naming another actor from the selected movie. The game continues onward until someone provides an incorrect answer. You can check the accuracy of answers in mere seconds thanks to your smartphone’s web connectivity.
I Heard That…
Nowadays, just about everyone stays up-to-date on pop culture thanks to the ubiquity of the internet and other digital media. Think of a news story or pop culture factoid others in the vehicle are unlikely to know about. Tell everyone in the car, “I heard that ____ occurred.” Riders can respond by stating they would like to know more or, alternatively, refute the event by stating it did not occur. If the riders correctly guess the event did not occur, they get a point. If a rider’s guess turns out to be wrong, he or she loses a point. Play 10 rounds of “I Heard That…”, add up the points and the player with the highest score wins.
