Great 'Free Car Journey Games' Hunt

elyphant

Two of our latest favourites are:

In my suitcase...
First player says 'In my suitcase I have a something', then each other player comes up with their own item that they have in their suitcase. Then the first player says what they're going to do with what's in their suitcase, and then all the other players have to do that same thing with theirs. An example might make it clearer! So one round my son said 'In my suitcase I have a spaceship' (nb your suitcase is infinite in size!!!), I said 'In my suitcase I have a pencil sharpener'. Then he said 'I'm going to get the NASA scientists to inspect my spaceship'...and I said...'I'm going to get the NASA scientists to inspect my pencil sharpener'!!! Can be very very hilarious.

and

Ghosts...
one player starts by saying any letter. You go round each player, and everyone must add a letter. The sequence of letters must form the beginning of a word, but you musn't actually say a word. So you could have c then a as that makes the beginning of cat, can etc, but if you are the next person and you say 't', that makes a word so you lose that round. You have 3 lives and when you've lost 3 times you become a ghost and are out. It sounds simple but sometimes you have a very complicated word in your head and end up accidentally finishing off another much simpler word. Hope it makes sense, much easier to play than to explain!

We also do travel bingo, 20 questions, making words out of number plates, spot the x coloured car, travel snooker as mentioned before. Another one is to look out for Eddie Stobart lorries as they all have a name.

justanna

We play a game withour 5 year old in the car called "rat a tat". Probably not the best on Motorways but as we live in Mid wales we spend at least half of any long drive on country roads!

You need to keep a look out for post boxes, churches and phone boxes. If you see a postbox shout out "rat a tat", "ting-a-ling" for a phone box and "ding-dong" for a church. You get a point for the first person to shout out as long as they shout the right sound, loose a point if you shout out the wrong thing or at the wrong time (eg loose a point for shouting rat-a-tat when you see a red dog poo bin rather than a post box!).

This is a game passed down from my husbands family and we haven't come across anyone else who plays it. It does pass a bit of time though and out son likes to try and think up new things to look out for and sounds you can make for them.

JayW

A good counting game to help with arithmetic - the players take turns to say the numbers in order from one upwards, but every time they get to a number that divides by 3 you have to say Fizz and then when you get to a number that divides by 5 you say Buzz. One that divides by both 3 and 5 is Fizz Buzz. It starts 1,2, fizz,4, buzz, fizz, 7, 8, fizz, buzz, 11, fizz, 13, 14, fizz buzz, 16 etc.
Probably one for older children!!

toptart

This game doesn't work well on motorways for obvious reasons. But it's great fun on all other routes and suits all ages.

Allocate each child (or two teams) to left or right hand side of the road. Every time you pass a pub the child with that side of the road scores for the number of LEGS in the pub name. eg. The Swan = 2, Fox and Duck = 6, Builder's Arms = 2 (count only one builder), Duke of Wellington = 2. (but if he's on a horse on the sign score 6). Add up scores at end of journey.

When multiple names like Hen and Chickens, Fox and Hounds, Coach and Horses arise, you declare an outright winner and start again, to avoid arguments.

Simple and good for arithmetic and observation training!

PS Obviously The Moon and Sixpence or The Slug and Lettuce score 0 !

sams247

When our offspring were little I'd get them some catalogues (woolworths, empire stores etc) and then they could pick out some of the things they might see on the journey. I'd cut these out and then they'd spend a happy hour glue-paste them onto card (we used the old method of flour-water paste, sets like concrete and very cheap). This kept them amused whilst we packed etc. Then, on the journey they could look out to see if they could find the things on their cards. It was excellent for when they were not at the age of reading. One DD used to pick wierd and wonderful thngs like a tent, or a toaster, but it's amazing how often we'd (eventually) see some of these things.

We also did the 'I went to market and bought....' game mentioned above.

And although it sounds odd, it is the one game the children mention now they are adults - the what would you do game. You make up a scenario. So, what would you do if you were in a shop and you could pick anything at all to have for free. What would you do if you saw a dragon. What would you do if you went on holiday and all of your friends were on an island and their boat had sailed away without them, what would you do if you were King/Queen for one day. We also used to place 'real' situations in as well as fun imaginary ones. What would you do if a really lovely lady came up to you and offered you some sweets? What would you do if you got lost in a big shop? These became lively conversations, and could be directed to be fun even in serious times.

tpaien

My wife and I regularly drive from Surrey to Yorkshire, and have perfected a few games which enjoy playing on the drive up. One of our favourites is the alphabet game, where you pick a topic, and then have to take alternate turns through the alphabet naming the appropriate subject (like Cities – Aberdeen, Birmingham, Cardiff etc). Restaurants, High Street Shops, Drinks, Sweets and Chocolates are all good topics, but probably our number one “topic” is “Things Americans Say”. Of course, when it’s your turn, you have to put on your best American accent, and just let rip! A typical game might cover “Yee Ha Grandma!”, “Supersize me”, “Have a nice day”, “Scotchland - where’s that?” and “Corn Dog”. Oh how we laugh.

esmy

Another vote here for pub cricket ie counting the legs in the pub name, though we solved the rows about Coach and Horses etc by counting that as a 6. First to 50 won.

mandlou

We play a game called The Ministers Cat, this is one from my childhood from when we used to make the 9 hour car journey to visit family in the north of scotland twice a year and works equally well with my children now that we make a regular 3-5 hour journey (traffic and baby feeds depending lol).

Each person take turns to 'describe' the ministers cat in alphabetical order i.e Person 1 might say 'The ministers cat is an artistic cat' and person 2 might say 'The ministers cat is a blue cat' (they don't have to be likely scenarios lol) My children use some highly amusing adjectives for this one and we find that with a 7 year age gap between our two girls it is perfect as my 11 yr old can show of her vastly superior vocabulary and teach her little sister a thing or two, and my 4 year old can hold her own in the game too as long as you tell her tell her what her starting letter 'sound' (phonetics) is.

Just don't ask me why it is the 'ministers cat' specifically. Lol

iankerry

one child has pencil and paper. person 2 has an image in their mind (say a football pitch viewed from the air - or a side on view of a fish tank). person 2 then gets child to draw the picture by describing what thye have to draw. thye mustnt look at the picture as it evolves.

so, i might say (for birds eye view of footy pitch) draw a big rectangle. then draw a line down the middle from top to bottom. then on the left side of the left box, draw a square and the same of the right. draw 11 small circles on the left and then 11 on the right. get the idea? it is creative - imagining interesting pictures - good for clear communication - and a laugh when either the drawer guesses or when you see the picture of how badly to expressed your vision!:j

lewisirl

On long journeys, my kids enjoy our 'linking' game as follows:
Start with any word - car, for example - and the next person/child says - lorry -
next says - petrol - and so on.
This can go on for hours and all can play! Only limited by imagination!
Enjoy!