Summer is almost here and for a lot of us that means spending a lot of time in the car driving to visit friends, family, and going on vacation. We have come up with our Top 10 ways you can avoid hearing “I’m bored are we there yet?” without using a TV or tablet as a distraction.
- Play some games – dig into your childhood and play some games you used to play on family road trips. Eye spy, alphabet games (start with “A” and find every letter on signs, license plates, or if you’re away from cars and signs get each person to name an animal that starts with the letter), tell a story one word at a time, find license plates from other Provinces, or play 20 questions.
- Download books – Download books or get books on CD’s and listen to them as a family. The library is a great place to start looking for audio books!
- Take a break more often – Instead of driving long hours make the drive part of your holiday! Have you seen the biggest Dragonfly? Biggest mallard duck? We made a list of giant road side attractions to help you plan your trip. Stop by as many as you can on the way to your destination.
- Talk to each other – It’s amazing what conversations you will have when you are stuck in a car with nothing to do for 6 hours. Road trips are when we have found out some of the cutest thoughts from our kids. We found out last year that my son wants to marry an Astronaut when he grows up so she will live in space and he can have the house to himself.
- Pack notebooks, pens and crayons – Play hangman, draw what you see out the window, start a journal, make paper airplanes. Notebooks entertain my kids longer than any other activity on road trips.
- Make an activity bag for each child before you leave – I always make a little bag for the kids and give it to them about halfway through the trip just before they start fighting. Inside is usually a couple new books (stopping at a used book store helps keep down the cost), an activity book with puzzles and games, Mad Libs for the older one, a few small toys (my youngest loves animals and bugs so I stop at the Dollarstore), and a special snack they normally wouldn’t have at home like the fun trail mix with M&M’s in it instead of just nuts and fruit.
- Name that tune – We play with Disney songs and try to see who can guess the movie it is from the fastest. If your kids are older naming the song title or artist off the radio station works as well.
- Tell stories about when you were younger – Kids love hearing stories about when their parents were little. Road trips are a great time to share these stories.
- Make up songs – My kids love changing the lyrics or creating their own songs while we drive. Most of them include lots of fart sounds and poop jokes so we don’t do this one very long.
- Let them be bored – Remember just sitting in the car with your head against the window being bored out of your mind? Let them have that time to get lost in their own thoughts.
What do you do to keep the kids entertained on long road trips? We would love to hear your ideas!
Other posts you may be interested in:
Be sure to check out some of our other posts!
- 8-day/7-night Alberta highlights road trip
- Ultimate list of roadside attractions
- 35+ Best Day Trips from Edmonton (<2 hours drive!)
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