Car Games - Playing with Content

Riding in the car can be frustrating, boring, annoying .....or FUN! My riders get antsy at the end of the day, right before dinner, while we are riding home from day care, school, camp, or sports. Trying to keep the older ones engaged, and the younger ones from falling asleep, we've had great success with car games!

Their favorite, by far, is “Finding A to Z” - we start at the beginning of the alphabet, call out the letter, then find something along the way that begins with it! Some are REALLY hard, like Q (we found a quarter on the floor of the car!) or X (we let that one be an ending sound too!). You can make your own rules, of course!

“Shape Find” is another fav! One player calls out the shape of choice, while others have to find it in a sign, shapes like windows or doors, or even roof lines or wheels. You can also play this like an I Spy game. 

“I Spy” can switch to be shapes, colors, actions, etc. or a combination of these. It relies on powers of observation :) “I spy something yellow that moves…” or “I spy something that spins and is shaped like an oval …” Have fun with it! 

Longer trips may require longer games - see this post for some more ideas: 

https://makeearlylearningfun.blogspot.com/2011/07/simple-travel-games.html?m=1

Car rides are also the BEST places to get some one on one conversation time with little ones!  If you ever get a chance, ask them some open-ended questions about what they like best to eat or play with, and maybe the conversation will help you bridge to other interesting topics :) 

Have fun!