We had a family trip to Worthing on the South Coast a few weeks back. My other half’s family lives down there, so every now and again we pack up our lives and make the day long journey from the North West.
I never look forward to it.
That’s got nothing to do with my in-laws, they are wonderful people – it’s just so far away. With kids in the car, that can turn into a bit of a nightmare unless you have some tried and tested car games to distract them.
This is where being born before the internet comes in handy. I can still remember all the old favourites from before ipads could do our parenting for us. Don’t get me wrong, I still stick my kids in front of a screen but that will only hold them for so long – I need car games to break things up.
The journey would be 5 to 6 hours of driving without stopping, but even if we didn’t have an electric car we need to charge on the way, that’s an insane distance to do in one go. So the journey is punctuated with at least two stops, giving us 3 periods of around 2 hours to fill in each stint.
The kids will usually fall asleep in the middle one, leaving us with a 2 hour drive in the morning and a 2 hour drive in the afternoon that both require some creative car fun to stop the children losing their minds.
This is all to say I am proficient in car gamery, so if you want ideas on how to keep your little darlings happy in the back, you’ve come to the right place.
I spy is not on the list because a: it’s boring, and b: who doesn’t know that one already? No one needs a long list of games that everyone has heard of before.
Here are some much better more original ideas.
I Went to the Supermarket
This is a memory game, but it’s also a bit of a challenge.
One person begins by saying, “I went to the supermarket and I bought a….” then they choose something beginning with A. It can be as mad as you like. An armadillo. Anything.
Then the next person says “I went to the supermarket and I bought an Armadillo, and a…” then they say something beginning with B. A Bivouac, for example.
The next person has to do the same but add on a third item beginning with C, and on it goes through the whole alphabet.
If you have young kids it will be apples, bananas, carrots, dogs, elephants, etc., but it’s fun nonetheless. It’s secretly educational too if you think about it. A little bit at least.
If you all get too good at it you can put extra rules in like not being allowed to pause, or say ‘erm’. It’s best to play it in a supportive way though, especially with young kids, so you are allowed to help each other.
Singalong Challenge
You will need to use your stereo for this one, and ideally have control over what is being played.
Everyone takes it in turns to pick a song they think they know well. The person in charge of the music then puts on the song, the person who chose it sings along, and then the music is turned down.
The person singing has to keep singing the song without being bale to hear it for a while, and when the music is turned back up 5 or 10 seconds later they need to still be in time.
It’s not exactly a calm game because it’s noisy as hell, and if you aren’t a family blessed with musical abilities it’s going to sound bad too, but hey, if that was such a big deal karaoke would never have caught on.
Who Am I or 20 Questions
These are the same game really.
With Who Am I the person playing chooses a famous person dead or alive and everyone else has to ask yes or no questions to work out who they have chosen. So “Are you a singer?” “Are you alive?” “Did you ever play for Manchester United?” etc.
Eventually you will get the person right, but the aim is to do it in as few questions as possible. There’s no limit though.
With 20 Questions you have to get the answer within that set number or else you lose.
We always choose a famous person but if you wanted to simplify it you could choose an animal (“Have you got fur?” “Do you eat meat?” etc.) or an object to make it more accessible.
Road Trip Bingo
You will need to be prepared for this one because it required props.
Well, I say props, a pencil and a sheet of A4 with a grid and some words drawn on it will do. You can probably buy them if you look on somewhere like Etsy. I’ve never looked.
Anyway, the game is really easy and it can last quite a long time, but it doesn’t need your full attention.
Each kid (and adult if you like) has a bingo card. It can have as many spaces as you like, but each card needs to be different and each square needs to have something you might see on your journey written on it.
So cows, sheep, red car, police car, roadworks, etc.
If you see something you have on your bingo card you shout it out so everyone else can see it too, then mark it off your bingo card.
The first person to complete their card wins.
Another way to do it is to use other people’s car number plates. So you might need to spot a car number plate starting with every letter of the alphabet (minus I and Q as these aren’t used). You can do it with numbers too if you want a shorter version.
Would You Rather?
Most people probably know what this is, but I don’t know many people who use it as a car game.
Everyone in the car takes it in turns to present a silly or crazy binary choice question: “Would you rather have a nose on your bum or a bum on your face?”, for example. This is my son’s personal favourite…
The more bonkers it is the better, because this game is all about making each other laugh.
Once the question has been asked everyone else in the car has to decide what they would rather have. You aren’t allowed to say ‘neither’ or ‘both’, you have to pick one. So if asked would you rather eat a bogie or a snail you can’t opt out. You are allowed to ask questions though, so you could ask if it was one of your bogies or someone else’s, for instance.
Young kids will like this one because it appeals to their juvenile sense of humour. Dads will enjoy it too because it appeals to their juvenile sense of humour. Mums might not be so keen…
It’s actually the discussion after the question is asked that usually ends up causing the most laughter. Give it a go.
Story Chain
I feel like we made this one up but it’s so simple it must have already existed. Maybe it has a different name.
Anyway.
This game is all about story telling. Once person starts the story, then passes it on to the next person to continue it. They tell the next bit then pass it on to the next person, and so on.
I like this one because it encourages their creativity and teaches them how to structure a story. You can play around with character voices and stuff too which my kids love.
We usually decide if it will be a short story or a longer one before we start, that way everyone knows what the end point is. So with 4 of us in the car, we might tell a ‘once round the car’ story, where one person starts it, the next two people fill in the middle, and the last person ends the story. If we want more of a challenge we might go for a ‘three times round the car story’ instead.
Whether it’s a scary story, a fantasy story, a sci fi story or any other genre is up to the person who starts it.
You can do it however you like, but it’s good because it takes up a good chunk of time and usually keeps them engaged.
Pub Cricket
You will have to save this one for when you get off the motorway, but if you hit A roads it’s great.
We play it by splitting the car down the middle so the driver (me, it’s always me…) and the kid behind me is on one team and the passenger (her, it’s always her) and the kid behind them is on the other.
You have to look out for pubs on your side of the road and call them out. You then count the legs of anything mentioned in the pub name and that’s how many runs you get for that pub. The prince of Wales would count as 2 legs, for example, The George and Dragon would be 6 (2 for George, 4 for the Dragon).
Some, such as The Coach and Horses, are debateable as they don’t specify how many horses (or whatever) are included. In cases like this, refer to the pub sign. If it shows 2 horses then you get 8 legs. When we play, if there are people/animals on the sign but not the name we let them have the legs of those people. On the flip side, The Kings Head would still count as 2 legs because even though it’s only his head that is mentioned, he’s got legs too.
Basically, lean towards whatever gets you counting the most legs. Although if you get The Royal Oak followed by The Rising Sun then it’s tough luck I’m afraid.
If the car passes the pub before the team on that side call it out, the other team can steal it, but the pub has to still be in view for a steal to count.
Song Lyric Mashup
You won’t need music for this one, it’s all acapella. You do need to sing enthusiastically though.
Whoever goes first has to sing half a song lyric as brilliantly as they can, but they stop half way through and the next person has to carry on with a different song lyric from another song that starts with the same word.
So someone might belt out the Whitney Houston classic: “And IIIIIIIIII will always love….”
When they stop, the next person has to quickly jump in with a lyric beginning with the word ‘You’, as that is the next word in the Whitney Houston song.
Here’s how it might carry on: “You raise me uuuuppp so I can…” “Stand by your man, and show the world you…” “Love love me do, you know I love you, I’ll…” “Always look on the bright side of…”
… and so on.
I’m showing my antiquated taste in music here but you get the picture.
Your new lyric doesn’t have to come at the start of a sentence, it can come from the middle of the song. The next word in the sequence above is ‘life’, so you could jump in with “Liiiiife, it’s now or never, I ain’t gonna live forever” from It’s My Life by Bon Jovi. The idea is to just get in there as quickly as possible.
It’s really difficult because all you can think of is the song that’s just been sung. Try it and see how you do.
The Question Game
This doesn’t always last that long but it’s very easy and very silly.
You have a conversation about anything you like, but you can only talk in questions. You must never finish a sentence without a question at the end of it, does that make sense?
(I just did it then)
So it might go:
“Are you looking forward to seeing your cousins?”
“Are they going to be there?”
“What makes you think they wouldn’t be there?”
“Do you remember last time when we arrived and they weren’t there?”
“Are you remembering correctly?”
“Do you think I might have memory loss?”
“Is that something you’ve been worrying about?”
…etc.
One big no no is you can’t repeat what someone just said to you, as if you didn’t hear them or didn’t understand the question, for example. You have to say something new that continues the conversation.
You can play it as a whole car or set two people against each other until one of them can’t carry on. We tend to have a 10 second rule, so your reply can’t take longer than 10 seconds or you lose.
Yes/No or the Erm Game
A variation on the game above, but this time the person in the firing line isn’t allowed to say yes or no. You can choose any words you like I suppose, this is just how we play it.
In my opinion, this one works better if the whole car is firing questions at one person because it’s more challenging, but you can set two people against each other as well.
However you do it, the game is divided into 2 minute rounds in which the objective is to trick the person into saying yes or no. If you manage it you win, if not, they win.
You’re not allowed to ignore or avoid questions, you’re not allowed to answer a question with another question, and we put a limit on 3 “I do” or “I don’t” responses in a row.
If you play the erm game variation instead, you can talk about anything you like but you can’t say “erm” at any point or make any other sort of thinking noise.
You can smash the two games together for a real challenge, or include stutters to make it harder.
Word Association Games
This is another that is probably quite well known, but there are numerous ways of playing it so it’s well worth having in your repertoire.
The basic version is really simple and quite easy. Someone starts with a word, then you take it in turns saying something that is associated with the last word that was said. This naturally takes you all over the place: football, grass, mud, rain, clouds, fluffy, pillow, sleep, snoring, ear buds, music, etc.
You can add to it though.
For example we play a version where we pick a category and everyone has to say a word associated with that category. When it’s your tur you have 5 seconds to think of something or you’re out. So if the category was fruit you could name any fruit, say pips, stalk, supermarket etc., but eventually you would run out of words. The aim is to be the last one standing.
Another version we play is a ‘guess the word’ association game. I might be thinking of the word “fire”, so I would give three words associated with fire (hot, orange, burn) and the first person to guess the word I’m thinking of wins. It’s better if you give the 3 associated words with a bit of a gap, so people have time to guess before getting another clue.
There are loads of ways to adapt word association games.
Alphabet Game
This one isn’t my favourite because it’s so simple, but it’s a good back up.
You take it in turns to pick a category then you go round the car and everyone has to say something from that category in alphabetical order.
If the category was animals, the first person might say Ant, the second person might see Bee, the third person might say Caterpillar, the fourth person might say Dog, then its back to the first person again.
You keep going until someone runs out of ideas. Repeating something that has already been said is not allowed.
The game falls down with certain letters, like X, so we often just skip that one or whoever lands on it loses and it’s less fun.
You can adapt it to things you can see out the window and all play as a team, or if you have older kids you can play it so the first letter of the new word must be the last letter of the previous one. This is quite good if you want to be competitive because you can screw each other over. For example if I said Springbok and someone else had already said Kangaroo and Koala you’d be in trouble, right?
…
You’re never going to think of another animal starting with K, just give up and finish reading the article.
Why Car Games are Better Than Screen Time
Like I said at the start, I’m not against ipads in the car and I let my kids use them too, but like most things in life I think a healthy balance is best.
I’m lucky in a way because my two get bored of doing pretty much anything after 40 minutes or so, which means I never have to prise them away from their screens, but even if that wasn’t the case I think I would limit them.
Why? Because how often do you all spend hours in the same confined space all together? This might be enforced family time, but it’s family time nonetheless. You should make the most of it.
I genuinely feel like I have gotten to know my children better after spending time playing games with them on long car journeys. You see their sense of humour come out and develop, you get an insight into their minds and the way they think, and honestly, there is nothing better than all laughing together as a family.
I know it’s tempting to give them a screen and hope for the best, especially on shorter journeys, but you won’t feel any less tired or stressed at the other end of the journey. On the other hand, if you have enjoyed a good laugh with your kids and engaged with them in a meaningful way, you’ll emerge from the car a happier more energised Dad.
