Kids
and car travel aren't always the greatest combination but, with a little
imagination, complaints and bored youngsters can be occupied with a few well chosen games.
Games are essential for a smooth journey. Travel
Connect-4 or Gameboys are great for older children, and
tapes with songs or nursery rhymes are good for little ones. You can visit
your local library, where you'll be able to find a huge selection of audio
books to suit the whole family.
Some tried-and-tested
games include:
Beetle Bingo Get your children to aim for a line, then a 'full house', by
spotting cars by make and/or colour. You can make bingo cards in advance
(print them out on your home PC).
Word Games Play The Alphabet Game by deciding on a topic
and taking it in turns to name something from that topic in alphabetical
order - it seems easy until someone gets to X! You could try animals,
countries, towns, makes of car, famous people and so on. With TLA
('Three Letter Acronyms), make up funny 3-word sentences using
the initial letters from passing car registration numbers.
Just A Minute
Talk on a given
topic for 60 seconds without hesitation, repetition or deviation. One
point is awarded for a successful challenge, and the challenger gets
to take over the topic for the remainder of the minute. When the time's
up, the person speaking at wins two points. You'll need a stopwatch
for this one.
Silly Stories
Start with 'Once
upon a time...' and build up a story where everybody takes turns to
add a word, or a sentence, at a time.
Memory Games
'I went to market
and bought some... apples.' 'I went to market and bought some apples,
and bananas.' 'I went to market and bought some apples, and bananas,
and cheese.' Take it in turns to repeat the list and add an item - using
alphabetical order makes it easier on the memory but harder on the imagination.
If going to market seems boring, adapt it to your children's interests
e.g. 'I went to the Oscars and met...' or 'I went on safari and spotted...'
20 Questions One person thinks of a famous person, place or thing. Everyone
else is allowed to ask the player 20 questions which can only be answered
'yes' or 'no'. Whoever guesses correctly gets a turn to think up something.
