Travel Games for Kids on Your Christmas Road Trip - Yahoo Voices - voices.yahoo.com

Traveling long distances in a car with children is the most challenging for one main reason they tend to get bored very easy. I can personally remember one long car ride home after visiting our family for a Christmas holiday. Picture this, a 2 year old and a 4 year old strapped in a car for 16 hours (traveling from Colorado to Northern Minnesota - mostly rolling plains). It was fine for about 5 hours into the trip. Then the unexpected happened. The portable TV player stopped working. I am not being the least bit sarcastic when I state this, a dark cloud had encompassed our children and that cloud was called boredom.

Looking back my largest downfall in this situation was my sheer dependence on modern technology as a babysitter. I have since then discovered numerous ways to occupy my children's (what I call) "puppy syndrome" during long tedious car rides.

The age old game of "I Spy" is perfect in the car with kids. What you do is locate an object and say, "I spy something ... (add the color of it)." Then everyone keeps guessing until they correctly state what the person has spied. The person that correctly figures it out gets to take the turn of spying. My children like to mix the game up a little and play in different languages. So for example, if your children know their colors in French then they would say the color in French instead of English.

Another time filling idea is to have them play the "Car Color Count" game. First you have each child pick out a different color. Then give each child a piece of paper with the name of their color printed on the top. Look on the map and figure a time frame between cities. So for example, you start once you leave Omaha and you stop when you reach Des Moines. Once you start have the children place one tick mark for every car they spot with the same color they had chosen. The child with the most tick marks wins. An idea for a winning prize is to let the child that wins choose the place to have the next meal.

Another favorite for my children is the "Storytelling" game. The oldest child gets the pleasure of going first in this game. To start out you have the child point out an object that you drive by. Have the child explain to you how you think that object got there and what the purpose of the object is. After 5 minutes of the story it is the next oldest child's turn to keep it going and so on and so on. It is very entertaining to hear the hilarious and incredible imaginations your children have.

Finally we like to play the "Name" game. Again give your child a time frame. City to city is usually the easiest. First have them write their name in big letters vertically down a piece of paper. They then need to find the letters of their name in the billboards and license plates you drive by. The tricky part is they have to find the letters in order. So for example, the child's name is Beth. Once the child finds a B have them put a tick mark next to the B. The child would then have to find an E and place a tick mark next to the E. The child would not be able to find a B again until they have found all the letters in the name. When you get to the stopping point the child with the most tick marks wins.

Games like the ones mentioned above are great time fillers and they allow quality time spent with your child when you are trapped in a car for hours. But, the best part is they happen to be some of the most reliable cures for "puppy syndrome" you can find.