We’ve all experienced it, the “Are we there yet” syndrome.  Being trapped in a car with bored children strapped into car seats is not my idea of a fun filled weekend.  Is it yours?  I doubt that I would find anyone that truly enjoyed this situation.  My children were 3 and 6 when we moved within an hour of my mother, up until this we were travelling 6 hours to visit her – yes 6 hours one way with small children buckled into car seats.

If your children enjoy DVD’s and your vehicle is equipped, then this can be one way to help pass the time of a long road trip.  But, if your vehicle does not have such technological advances, as ours did not, then you will enjoy these more traditional boredom busters for the car.

Boredom Buster #1 – An old favorite – Twenty Questions

This is an old, reliable boredom buster.  One person thinks of a person, place or thing and each of the other players has up to 20 questions to figure out what the person was thinking of.  Each of these questions has to be a Yes or No question.  It is recommended that a parent (or adult) is the first to “go” so the children experience a round and thus understand how to play the game.

Boredom Buster #2– ABC game

The object of this game is to complete the alphabet first.  As you see the letters on billboards, signs, license plates, you call out your letter and point.  Once a letter has been claimed by one player, the other players cannot use the same letter.

Boredom Buster #3 – 50 states game

This game works especially well in a popular tourist spot.  The object of the game is for the family to find one license plate from each of the 50 states.  A notepad to keep track of the states found is recommended.

Boredom Buster #4 – The Animal Car Game

We usually play on long car trips through the country, because animals are in more abundance there. Everyone in the car plays and looks for certain animals alongside the road. The animals looked for are ONLY the domesticated kind, because birds would be almost impossible and the game would be over too fast and would be too boring. As one person spots an animal, they say the sound the animal makes and gets a certain amount of points for that animal. Ex: cow–moo, horse-neigh, cat-meow…. etc. The points are given on the difficulty of the animal that was spotted: cow-1 horse-1 dog-1 sheep-2 llama-3 cat-3 donkey-3 pig-4 (rarely seen, except on REALLY long trips), anything else spotted everyone must agree on the amount of points given. The game is usually played until a player gets to a certain amount.  10 points usually takes about 30 minutes or so to complete

Boredom Buster #5 – I’m going on a trip ….

This is a great memory game.  One person starts by saying, “I’m going on a trip and I’m going to bring __an item____.” The next person say’s, “I’m going on a trip and I’m going to bring _ what the first person said_ and _there item___.” Each person keeps repeating what the previous person said and then adds their own item.  This is fun and often ends and lots of giggles and happy children.

Boredom Buster #6 – Car Counter

Each person picks a type of vehicle: Make, Model, van, truck, convertible, etc. or a color of vehicle (easier for small children).  Then they keep track of how many of that type they see.  See who can find the most.

These happen to be our favorite car boredom busters.  Besides these games, we also pack a bag consisting of cd’s, coloring books, crayons, mp3 players, some small toys (that do not make a ton of noise) and an occasional book (once my daughter out grew the car sick stage). I do hope these help you and your children enjoy your next long haul car trip.