The JumpStart Blog

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“Are we there yet? Are we there yet? How about now?”

Road trips are a part of summer for many families. Although they‘re a great way to see lots of new places, backseat boredom can be a tough thing to tackle. Try these tactics to help your little ones handle the trip!

License plate fun. Have the little ones see who can find all of the letters in alphabetical order on the license plates that go by. Or, give them a list of all 50 states and see how many of them they can find. For a shorter game, have them try to make phrases out of the license plates they see. For example, “BYSB 7845” could be “big yellow school bus.”

Map your journey. Showing your kids where you are on a map will help the miles fly by, and it’s a great opportunity to teach them a little geography. If you bring a road map for each child, they can trace your trip in pen or crayon and draw landmarks on the map themselves. When they ask you how far away you are from the next stop, show them how to determine distance using the legend.

Counting games. Road trips provide lots of opportunities to practice counting. Assign each child a side of the car and see who can count the most cows, horses, billboards, or sheep. If you have one child, you can compete or see how fast your child can make it to 100 items. Try switching items every once in a while to ward off boredom.

Aluminum foil sculptures. Aluminum foil is an easy, cheap, and non-messy modeling medium. Bring a roll of foil along for the ride, and let your children make jewelry, crowns, silly hats, masks, and more.

Breathless. When you go through the tunnel, see which passengers can hold their breath all the way until the end. Another classic variation is holding your breath whenever you pass a cemetery. Some families include wish-making in this game: Successfully hold your breath until the end of the landmark, and your wish will come true.

Sock Puppets. You can pull them off your feet if you like, but we recommend bringing a few pairs of inexpensive socks, a permanent marker, fuzzy pipe cleaners, and pre-cut pieces of felt.  Simply slide your hand into the sock, and you instantly have a very basic puppet.  Use the pipe cleaners to make ears, a fuzzy nose or necklaces for the puppet.  The felt and permanent marker can be used to add silly details like buggy eyes or a droopy tongue.  Then take turns creating stories with the puppets.

Bottle of Treasure. Before you leave on your trip, construct this fool-proof and quiet game for your kids.  Fill a dry, empty water bottle with colorful sand or rice.  Drop in about 20 small but identifiable objects like beads, buttons, safety pins, and tiny figurines into the bottle.  (Make sure you create a list of everything you put in the bottle.) Secure the lid and shake the bottle until the objects are well dispersed throughout the sand.  Now, give the bottle of treasures and treasure map ( the list of hidden objects) to your child, and challenge them to find all the hidden objects by shaking and shifting the sand around in the bottle, without removing the lid.

What are your favorite road trip games?

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