Road Trip from Texas to Floriday - any games we can play in the car?

[ttkvaca]

I have a 9 year old daughter, only child, and we are driving from south Texas to Florida in June for our WDW trip. I was wondering if anyone had any road trip games you could suggest. This is our first LONG road trip and I am open for any suggestions! Thanks

 

[Jesussavedme]

Check out http://www.momsminivan.com/

and is she in to American Girl? They have some great puzzle books that keeps my 10 year old daughter busy every road trip we take.

I always give her a map of the US and she marks off each license plate she finds. When she finds 10 states she gets a small prize like a pack of tic tacs or something.

Have DVD player in the car? If not, there are great books on CD you can rent from Cracker Barrel. Just stop at any cracker barrel and rent then return to any cracker barrel when done.
(They have many kids choices!)

Speaking of Cracker Barrel, they sell those invisible ink books, Mr. Mystery or something like that. I had them when I was a kid, and now my 13 year old son loves them too!

 

[Tiggerish]

The alphabet from signs. We played this when I was a child (and I have passed the half century mark) and I still play it with my neices on road trips. You have to find words that start with each letter of the alphabet. You can not both use the same word and only one word from each sign. Words can be on billboards or road signs but not on the sides of trucks or other vehicles. The hard ones are x, q and z.

 

[Sweedee]

A few ideas:

1. Cracker Barrell Books-On-Audio-You pay anywhere from 25-35.00 for a BOA. When you return it to ANY CB, you will get back all but 3.50-4.00 (I think for a 7-day period). Basically, if you get it and like it, you can keep it cause you bought it. If you just want to listen to it and return it, you are renting it for a bit of change. Some of our surprises we found were Hoot, and Peter And the Starcatchers (written by Dave Barry and Ridley Pearson).

2. A laptop computer and an inverter OR a portable DVD player, headphones and your DVD collection-we let our kiddos watch ONE movie, then they have to find something else to keep their hands busy for a couple of hours.

3. New books-a new book in a series, a new author, etc

4. A bag of Disney paraphenalia...a new disney pen, a disney coloring book w/ new colored pencils (won't melt in a hot car like crayons), a disney puzzle book, a deck of Disney cards, etc.


When our kiddos were younger (they are a few yrs older than yours), we allowed them some talking time, some quiet-look-out-the-window time, reading time, close-your-eyes time, and the ALWAYS important...stretch your legs time. We traveled by car extensively when they were little (anywhere from 6 to 16 hrs at a time), and we got into a good routine!

Happy Traveling!


I just re-read your post, and realized you were asking for GAMES, not ideas! One of our fav games is Punch Bug. We also play "If I was Going to the Fair I would take A/An" then you start at the beginning of the alphabet, going through until you get tired. Different variations....we have named states, animals, locations, etc. in alphabetical order while taking turns. HTH

 

[Mom to Jordan]

WE have an only and he has always enjoyed me reading out loud to him in the car. Harry Potter books are good at that age. We play all sorts of guess the.... games. Guess the Disney character is a favorite on the way down. Always the car tag game...We have found all but one state.

 

[DawnaJean]

We've bought an expensive game of Travel Bingo. It has items on there like "Yield sign", "Truck", "Volkswagen Beetle", "Rest Stop", etc. When you see one, you move a little window to cover that item on the bingo card. You could have a little prize for "Bingo".

Twenty questions...one person thinks of something (could be a Disney character) and the other person asks up to 20 yes or no questions to try to figure out what the person is thinking about.

We used to play "purple car". My dad said he would give 50 cents to whoever was the first to spot a purple car. This was back in the 70's where those were rare but it kept us busy looking outside the car!! When we did spot one it was so exciting.

Have a great trip!
Dawna