With summer comes lots of travel for some, and often by car. I am sharing with you today 5 fun and simple road trip games to play with your kids.

Our family loves taking road trips, it is typically the way we travel.

After years of taking road trips with our kids we found some things to help with boredom.

Traveling by car with children can bring with it some stress and outburst if you do not pre-plan for the ride.

Planning typically helps things go much smoother and car games are a great way to entertain your kids on road trips.

One thing to bear in mind, though, is that you want to make sure you stay focused on the road while the kids are having fun. Introduce these games for them to enjoy, but refrain from joining in. As any car accident attorney could tell you, distraction is one of the top causes of accidents on the road. So, no matter how fun a road trip game might sound, remember that the driver must remain in control. 

Brain Games For Road Trips

When our children were very young we started playing simple, educational games while driving.

We found that playing games while driving kept them from getting bored with being in the car.

Using brain games is a great way to practice their reading and math skills.

These 5 games are good for families with varying ages of children and take little prep work to get them ready for your road trip.

Yellow car – this is just what the name states.

While driving if you spot a yellow car and are the first one to yell out, you earn points.

The first one to reach 20 points or the number you choose decides when or where our next stop will be.

There are just a few simple rules.

First to tag the car by yelling out “yellow car” gets the point.

Cars with advertisement on it of any kind, one point is deducted from your total.

You may be wondering why yellow car.

There are less yellow cars on the road than other colors making it harder to find.

This makes it easier to keep up with on long trips that could last hours.

It keeps them entertained and looking at all the scenery.

A favorite road trip game of everyone who plays.

Word Association Brain Game

This is my husband’s favorite and he is so good at this game.

He is the one who always starts it and we all play along.

An example is say a word like sunflower.

The first one to say a word that is associated with that, such as yellow comes up with the next word.

This game goes until no one can come up with a word associated with the one before.

Head of the class road trip version

Head of the class – this is the board game that has been around for years.

We carry the dice and the question book with us in the car and play without the board. You can tweak this however needed for your particular children.

This is a fun game for everyone in the car and it is a great brain game to practice school skills.

Here are a few other fun and simple games to play to keep the kids entertained.

ABC game – finding things for every letter of the alphabet outside of the car, in alphabetical order. Example: airplane, bike and car, just to name a few.

License plate game -this is a fun game where we try to see if we can find a license plate from all 50 states.

It helps the kids learn their states if they don’t know them and is great for reinforcing reading practice in a fun way.

You can print out the sheet below to have for this game.

Flexibility

Another fun way to keep the kids entertained is by allowing time in the traveling schedule to stop and experience new places along the way.

We love stopping at local shops, coffee houses and unusual restaurants, it is one of the reasons we often choose to drive to our destinations.

This also gives everyone a chance to stretch their legs and get some fresh air which always makes everyone feel better.

Next time you are headed out on a road trip, plan some of these games for the entire family to play.

Keep the fun going by finding somewhere fun to spend the night!

While getting there is half the fun during a road trip, you can make sure there’s a smile on your kids’ faces all day (and night) long by finding somewhere fun to stay, too. For example, instead of settling for a motel, why not spend the night at an RV Park instead? This way, you’ll wake up each morning surrounded by nature, and can spend your evenings playing games, telling stories, and of course, roasting marshmallows by a roaring fire. This is much more fun and will help you make memories that last a lifetime.

These 5 fun and simple road trip games to play with your kids will help pass the time for all.

I promise the trip will go so much smoother.

Happy traveling!!

Till next time

Xoxo

Sonya

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