Road Trip Games and Activities for Kids

I usually only share things on my blog about the Bible. However, recently we went on a three-week road trip to visit some friends and family and to attend a Bible conference and some friends were asking some advice about activities that I used for my children on the trip. Not only did I need activities for more than 40 hours in the car, but I also needed quiet activities for my 4-year-old during some of our meetings at the Bible conference.

First, let me share about my kids. I have an intellectual 10-year-old who loves puzzles, video games, and superhero cartoons. Then, I have an active, enthusiastic 4-year-old girl who loves moving, educational activities, and preschool cartoons. Here are some things that worked for us on our trip:

WORD GAMES

First, we had a list of word games that we could play in the car. Some of these were easy enough for our 4-year-old and some were not, but none of them required anything other than the use of your brain. I made this list and now keep it in the car all the time. Whenever they can't think of something to do, I can always find an idea. You can find the printable here. I recommend printing it on card stock double sided. Then you can cut them in half and have one for the front seats and one for the back seats.

SUPPLIES TO TAKE/BUY

• Clipboards
• Tablets like an iPad or Kindle Fire
• Video game players like a Nintendo 3DS or Switch
• A tablet mount for the car

We have this one and this one. They both work fine with our iPad mini and Kindle Fire. The fit is a little tight with the Nintendo Switch but it does work. Just be sure to measure that the posts on your headrest are within the listed range.

• Tub or bag for holding activities
• Pencil bag with pencils, manual pencil sharpener, and colored pencils
• 2-Pocket Plastic Folders - a different color for each child
• Tub or bag for holding snacks 

A THOUGHT ON VIDEOS AND VIDEO GAMES

While we limit screen time at home, videos and video games can be very helpful when there isn't anything active your child can do. We had previously used a portable DVD player, but now that we had two children to watch and only one unreliable player we checked into using our tablets. Our kids prefer watching shows on Netflix or Amazon Prime Video over watching movies anyway so this would be better than bringing DVDs that they don't really like. Here are some things to consider:

• You either need enough tablets for each child or believe that your children will be willing to share them (there are ways of mounting a tablet in the middle of the car between the front seats).
• Be sure to have a way to mount your tablets so that the kids can watch while looking ahead instead of down. I believe that this reduces carsickness.
• Try to have some educational cartoons (like PBS kids shows) instead of only silly cartoons. It's amazing what your kids can learn from TV shows.
• If you have a basic Netflix account, you can only download a video onto one device. Increasing to a Standard or Premium may be worth the extra few dollars so you can download to two or four devices and it is easily switched back to a lower plan after the road trip.
• Each video may be under a different series, so the availability to download and the time until it expires may differ.
• If your kid likes to watch the same video over and over, you may need to redownload or renew it when you have access to Wi-Fi. This wasn't too difficult.
• Downloaded Amazon Prime Videos were not able to share to a child account on a Kindle Fire, so they had to use my adult account. It wasn't a big problem, but parents should be aware.

If you choose to do a DVD player, you can use videos that teach the Bible like What's In The Bible With Buck Denver. 

Also, you can listen to audio dramas (radio theater) such as Jonathan Park, Adventures in Odyssey, or others from Lamplighter Theatre.

ACTIVITIES TO TAKE/BUY FOR PRESCHOOLERS

• Magnetic playsets
• Crayola Mess-Free coloring sets
• Activity books - mazes, connect-the-dots, preschool educational books, and sticker activity books (bonus for dry erase books that you can use over and over)
• Stickers
• Reusable sticker playsets
• Lacing sets
• Puzzle snake
• Fidget spinner (one that fits their hands)
• Toy binoculars
• Dry erase board and marker
• Favorite stuffed animal or doll

ACTIVITIES TO TAKE/BUY FOR OLDER KIDS

• Madlibs books
• Where's Waldo books
• Puzzle games like IQ Blox or IQ Fit
• Rubik's Cube or better yet try the easier pyramid puzzle cube
• Puzzle snake
• Fidget spinner
• Find It cylinders
• Chapter books to read (or ebooks on a Kindle or tablet)
• Car bingo

PRINTABLES TO TAKE FOR PRESCHOOLERS

Put these printables in a plastic two pocket folder, so your preschooler can choose one and remove it. They can be done on one of the clipboards.

• Find and print activities from your child's favorite TV shows on pbskids.org or Disney Junior
• Bring magnetic letters, a metal cookie sheet, and some printables like this or this.
• Visual scavenger hunts, car bingo, or I Spy printables like this or  these
• Letter or number templates to be used with color coding labels (or bingo dabbers)

PRINTABLES TO TAKE FOR OLDER KIDS

Put these printables in a plastic two pocket folder, so your child can choose one and remove it. They can be done on one of the clipboards. We kept a state map always on a clipboard so we could color in states when we saw their license plates.

• "Would You Rather" printables like this, this, this, or this
• Scavenger hunts like these or this
• US state map to color the ones you went through or to color the license plates you saw
• Car bingo printables if you don't have the game like these.
• A map of your route (I made one in Google maps).

ACTIVITIES FOR REST STOPS

When you take a break from driving, your kids might need to get some energy out. Try some of these ideas.

• Bubbles - these fit easily in that lower cup holder in the rear doors that is mostly useless for kids
• Frisbees - these take up almost no room and older kids love them
• Scooters or skateboards - these take up much more room (especially since you'll need helmets), but if you might use them at your destination and have room for them they are worth taking

SNACKS

Snacks can be kept in a bag or tub, or even a storage cube bin.

• snack size bags of snacks like pretzels, goldfish, and teddy grahams
• snack bags of fruit loops with some yarn and a yarn needle to make edible necklaces
• granola bars
• bags of pretzels and marshmallows for building and eating

CAR-SICKNESS BAG

Most importantly, you should have a car sickness bag in case someone gets sick. Thankfully, we never needed it more than having some pretzels on hand. Here is what we put inside our gallon ziplock bag:

• several gallon ziplock bags to use as car-sickness bags or to seal dirty items inside
• pretzels to calm tummies
• Dramamine for kids
• extra clothes
• extra diaper or pull-up, if necessary
• wipes for cleaning up kids and the car
• kitchen size trash bags
• Plant Therapy's Kid-Safe Tummy All Better diluted roll-on (my family loves Plant Therapy with their quality, tested, affordable essential oils and their Kid-Safe line)

What have you done with your kids for road trips?

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