Road Trip Activities for Kids

 

Going on a road trip this Spring?  Keep the kids calm and happy by trying out a few of these road trip games:

Hunting for Bottled Treasure

Create a self-contained buried treasure game that your kids can do together. In "Bottled Treasure," you fill a 2-liter bottle or other plastic container about three-quarters full with rice or birdseed. Then add a variety of small household objects such as paperclips, buttons, marbles and different colored toy Army men. Be sure to keep track of how many objects you put in and what they are. Most importantly, seal the container tightly so you don't get rice or seed all over your car.

Your kids can then shake the bottle and try to find all of the treasures you "buried" in the bottle. If you've got a long trip ahead of you, they can also guess what the objects are. Once they've found everything on the list, reward them with a treat, like choosing the music for the next hour.

Fun With Maps

Maps are not just essential for knowing where you are on the road; they can also be the source for many great car games. Another plus to using map-based games is that you can teach your children map-reading and geography skills.

Give your children each a map and let them mark it up to help them keep track of where you are in your journey. Let them color, draw on it, highlight your route or use stickers to help them create their own personalized mementos of your road trip. As you pass different towns and landmarks, they can note them on their maps.

Older children can maximize their map-reading skills to figure out how many miles you have left until your next stop, and they can also calculate how long it might take to get there based on your speed.

Counting Cars

When you have younger children who are learning their colors and numbers, your fellow drivers on the highway can provide the perfect opportunity for them to practice. Come up with fun, yet age-appropriate challenges like being the first to find five green cars or 10 semi trucks. Engage older children with guessing how many of a certain type of vehicle you'll see in 10 minutes. Let the winner choose the next DVD or hour of music.

If you're traveling with teens, make the game a bit of a surprise. Have everyone in your family choose a color and when you find 10 vehicles of that color, you have to provide a reward for the family. Whether it's dessert at dinner or a family activity like mini-golf, it's a way to engage older kids who may want hide behind their iPods and cell phones during the trip.

Looking for more ways to keep the kids engaged as you hit the road?  Check out the full article here:  http://adventure.howstuffworks.com/destinations/road-trips/10-noise-free-road-trip-games-for-kids.htm