You are free to give it away but you may not sell it. You may not change the report in any way.

Transcription

1 100 Road Trip Activities for Kids Keeping them Occupied on the Journey From RV Travel with Kids Rayven and Ed Perkins Copyright 2011, All Rights Reserved, Rayven and Ed Perkins This report is copyrighted and does not include resale rights. You are free to give it away but you may not sell it. You may not change the report in any way. Copyright 2011, All Rights Reserved, RV-Travel-with-Kids.com Page 1

2 Rayven and Ed Perkins are the authors and webmasters of a website which chronicles their family s journey exploring North America full time in an RV. This website helps all those interested in traveling with kids, either full or part time, with travel ideas and destinations, discounts, resources, and in-depth information on the full-time RV lifestyle. Additionally, a free forum is offered to other traveling families as a place to network and form relationships. Rayven and Ed have been full-time RVers since The biggest challenge they have faced when deciding to travel full-time has been a source of income. They have solved this problem by becoming content based website creators and webmasters. Ed teaches a course through Austin Community College online for those interested in duplicating their success. In addition, the Perkins roadschool their two preteens. Sign up for updates from RV Travel with Kids and receive free information on travel destinations, and discounts: Copyright 2011, All Rights Reserved, RV-Travel-with-Kids.com Page 2

3 100 Road Trip Activities for Kids Traveling with children will be what you make of it. If you head out dreading the hours of whining, crying, and little ones beating each other up in the backseat, then you are probably going to experience a lot of that. On the other hand, if you head out the door with an arsenal of kid-friendly road activities you will be met with more smiles than frowns and more giggles than whines. Here are 100 great activities guaranteed to please children of all ages. These are your weapons against boredom, tears and miles of whining! What's Out the Window? 1. The Window List Before leaving home, make up a list of things that may be seen through the windows as you drive through different states. You may want to have a different list for every state. You can find some unusual items by doing a bit of research on each state. Find interesting facts by state here: Print out a list for everyone in the motor home or truck and have them hunt for the items as you move through the state. You can turn this into a contest by having everyone guard their paper to see who has the most items crossed off by the time you drive out of the state. Who is more observant? 2. Counting Cows Have children count cows seen from their side of the truck or motor home. There are lots of rural towns with farmland, so don't assume that there won't be many cows along the way. Want to take this a step further? Give bonus points for longhorns or babies. Copyright 2011, All Rights Reserved, RV-Travel-with-Kids.com Page 3

4 3. License List Find out what states do the most traveling by keeping a tally of how many license plates you see from each state. Provide each child in the truck with a list of all states in the country with enough room for tally marks beside each one. Or, just have one tally sheet that everyone works together to keep accurate as you progress along your journey. In the end you can count up the tallies to see which state seems to be out on the road most in this part of the country. 4. Map Making Find maps of every state you will be crossing through and print them out. Make sure the major highways you will be traveling on are represented. You can add in lines for smaller roads as well and then make copies of the adjusted map. Give the kids highlighters so they can highlight each road or portion of the highways as you move along. 5. Wave Watch Who is the most popular person in the truck? Allow the kids to wave at others passing by and count how many people actually wave back. Smiles are nice, but they don't count! 6. License Plate Fun Have an adult pull the letters from a license plate passing by and read them out to the kids. The kids can then create funny sayings with one word representing each letter of the license plate. For instance, an adult may call out "CFT" and a kid may respond with "cat fight Tuesday!" 7. License Plate Bingo Make up some bingo cards before leaving home with random letters in the squares. Cards for smaller kids can include extra "free" spaces. Hand each kid a card and have an adult in the truck call out letters spotted on passing license plates. Whoever gets bingo first wins a small prize, such as quarters for an arcade or gumball machine at a rest stop, or a soda or candy at the next gas station. Copyright 2011, All Rights Reserved, RV-Travel-with-Kids.com Page 4

5 8. Billboard Story Have children write a list of words that they see on passing billboards at random. Don't tell them what they are going to use these words for at first. Allow them to collect their list for a given period of time, then instruct them to create a short story incorporating all of the words. They can write the stories out if they re in a motor home at the table, but those riding in a truck may want to tell the stories aloud on the spot. 9. Billboard Puzzles You can also use the word lists that your kids collect from billboards to create your own word searches or other puzzles. They can then pass their unique puzzles to one another to see who can complete them. 10. Car Watch Have kids work together to identify the type of cars, trucks and semis passing by. This can be as technical as you wish. Older kids with knowledge of cars may be able to name exact models while young children may only know "bus" or "SUV." See how many different vehicles you can identify as a family. 11. Window ABC Start with A and have kids identify three things out the window that start with that letter. The first child to find three things can pick the next letter at random or you can go in alphabetical order. For instance, one child may spot an apple on a billboard, what they think was an ant climbing on a speed limit sign, and then an arrow decorating a restaurant sign. They call out "apple, ant, arrow" and then select an new letter. 12. ABC Race Race to find the alphabet. Teams are formed according to where you are sitting in the truck. Each side of the vehicle becomes a team and has to find all the letters of the alphabet on passing signs. They have to go in order, so each team would have to find an A before they can move on to searching for a B. The team to get to Z the fastest wins. Copyright 2011, All Rights Reserved, RV-Travel-with-Kids.com Page 5

6 13. Hold Your Breath Have everyone draw in a big breath just before driving into a tunnel. They have to hold it until the end of the tunnel is reached...if they can! You can also have them take a deep breath then sing one note to the end of the tunnel. 14. Hybrid Hunt It is believed that you can see a hybrid vehicle on the road every 45 seconds in areas of the country that are eco-friendly. Have kids call out when they see a hybrid vehicle, then everyone should immediately hold their breath for 45 seconds while actively scouting for other hybrid vehicles. You can determine whether you are traveling in an eco-friendly area or not based on the findings of this research. 15. Cloud Watch Have kids look out the windows on a cloudy day and make pictures out of the clouds. This is a fun game when you are lying flat on the ground looking up, but it gets even more creative when you are in a moving vehicle! 16. Color Wonders Have an adult name a color and challenge the kids to find three to five things of that color out the window. The first person to do so gets to name the next color. This is a traveling version of the old I Spy game. 17. ABC War Have an alphabet war. Teams are assigned based on who is sitting on which side of the truck. The war is made up of a series of battles. Each battle pits one person from each side of the truck against each other as they stare out the window and try to find a specific object in passing. They have to find the object on their own side of the truck and the first person to find the item (or even the item spelled out in words) scores a point for their team. Copyright 2011, All Rights Reserved, RV-Travel-with-Kids.com Page 6

7 18. Rhyme Time Rhyme in rounds as one person calls out something they see outside the window and others take turns shouting out words that rhyme with that object. 19. Animal Game Play cribbage with passing wildlife. This is a great game if you are traveling in the spring and summer, but there might not be a lot of animals out and about in colder seasons. Assign different point values to all of the animals you may encounter in the state (do some research if necessary). The more rare animals should have much higher point values than very common animals for the area. Teams are formed according to who is sitting on which side of the truck and scores are calculated according to animals passed on each side of the truck. You can throw in some challenges such as requiring scores to be wiped to zero if a graveyard is passed and a competitor spots it first. 20. Animal Count Make a graph before leaving home that shows some animals that are common to the state you are driving through. The chart should show each animal along the bottom with numbers up the side. Kids have to find the number of each animal represented to complete the chart. For instance, if "deer" is at the bottom with a line up to number 10, they would need to find 10 deer by looking out the window before leaving the state. 21. Colors of Nature Identify the colors of the natural world. Have an adult keep record on a piece of paper while kids call out colors that they see outside their windows. This starts out easy, but the record keeper writes down the colors and doesn't accept those that are already on the list. The goal becomes finding different shades of common colors and unusual colors that might not otherwise be noticed. Copyright 2011, All Rights Reserved, RV-Travel-with-Kids.com Page 7

8 22. Word Find An adult or older child should call out something that may be found on billboard signs, license plates, or other things passed by. Everyone else has to try to find something that would fit the order. For instance, someone may call out "a girl's name" and then someone else may see "ANN" on a license plate. 23. Tag, You're It! You probably have "no running" rule in your RV, but you can play a travel version of tag without moving your legs. Each player is assigned a symbol that is commonly seen on the side of the road. This may be a bed for hotels, eating utensils for restaurants, or the shape of a stop sign. One person is "it" and has to spot their assigned symbol before they can tag someone else (lightly) so they can be "it." 24. Car Colors If you have some car lovers in the truck, you can play a game of automobile colors. Have the names of major car manufacturers on scrap pieces of paper in one hat or bag and scraps of paper with colors in another hat or bag. Shake them up and have every player take a scrap of paper from each container. They then have to find the type of car and color of car that they drew out. For instance, one person may be looking for a red Hyundai while another person needs to find a green Honda. 25. Drawing Cards Make blank flash cards by cutting pieces of paper in four smaller pieces. Allow the kids to draw pictures or write names of things that they hope to see out of the windows on the trip. This is a great way to get them excited for the trip before it's time to load up in the motor home or truck. Once the initial excitement of hitting the road starts to wear off, pull out those cards and have children draw one at random. They can then play a matching game by trying to find their chosen item out the window. Copyright 2011, All Rights Reserved, RV-Travel-with-Kids.com Page 8

9 Getting Physical 26. Rock - Paper - Scissors Paper covers rock. Scissors cut paper. Rock crushes Scissors. Does this sound familiar? Rock, paper, scissors is a game just about everyone knows and it is a great way to burn off some energy when riding in the truck. Kids count to three then make the required motions with their hands to see who "wins" each round. You can increase the physical movement by requiring them to hold their hand gestures over their heads and bang their hands hard on their knees while counting to three. 27. Switch There is another variation on rock, paper, scissors which allows small movements for children pent up in a truck for long periods of time. Instead of the rock, paper and scissor hand motions they use a double salute with both hands raised over the eyebrows, an L shape formed with fingers of hand touching the elbow of the other hand, and an X with arms crossed over the chest. The first player says "me...switch!" The other player waits to hear "switch" then forms one of the arm motions. The first player makes a motion at the same time. If the arm motions match the first player scores a point and gets to go again. If they choose different arm motions, then it is the other players turn. 28. Thumb Wars "1,2,3,4, I declare a thumb war!" Have children sitting near one another clasp their fingers together so their thumbs are raised at the top, positioned across from one another. They each touch their thumbs from one side of their hands to the other while counting to four and declaring war. They then struggle to get their thumb on top, pinning down the other person's thumb. This works best if you match children according to general body size and strength. 29. Simon Says Simon Says is another game that typically requires body movement, but which can be adjusted for a moving motor home or truck. Have an adult or older child be Simon and call out motions for the others to perform. All actions must be reasonable for the amount of movement allowed during travel and those who move when "Simon says" is not at the top of the order must sit out until one winner is declared. Copyright 2011, All Rights Reserved, RV-Travel-with-Kids.com Page 9

10 Music to Your Ears 30. Radio Sounds Children don't always want to listen to talk radio or music that adults might find entertaining. That's why you turn those adult enjoyments into a game for the kids! You can draw bingo card boxes on pieces of paper and write random words that may be heard on the radio in each box of each paper. Give each child one of these bingo sheets and have them listen to the radio for the words on their cards. They can put an X over each box as they hear their words and the bingo winner of each round gets five minutes of a radio station they find more enjoyable (after mom and dad are finished listening to their program). 31. Scanning Tunes Everyone wants to be a DJ, right? If your RV or truck has a scan button that quickly moves through the stations, have someone up front hit that button and the person immediately behind them gets to call out when they want the scanning to stop. They get to listen to the remainder of the song they have chosen to stop on, and then the scan button gets hit again. The person to the right gets the next turn playing DJ and choosing a song to stop on. You can also do this with an mp3 player that can be connected into the motor home or truck speakers, too. Each person gets to pick a song before passing on the turn. 32. Favorite Songs Before leaving home, burn CDs from the computer with each child's favorite songs. Or, just load songs that you know they love into an mp3 player. A lot of time can be burned just allowing them to take turns listening to their own favorite tunes. 33. Drum Up Some Fun Become a family band! Hand out plastic kazoos, harmonicas, drums, and other instruments that you can find at dollar stores or toy stores. Think of sing along type songs like Old MacDonald or BINGO and allow your family to become a band. (Until it gets too unbearable!) Copyright 2011, All Rights Reserved, RV-Travel-with-Kids.com Page 10

11 Getting to Know One Another 34. If You Could What would your children change about your RV if given the chance? What would they do with $100 if they were handed it right at this very moment? Who would your children bring back to life if they could miraculously raise a celebrity from the grave? You can find out these things plus lots of other fun facts by playing the "If you could" game. One person starts off by saying "if you could..." and then filling in something of interest. For instance, "if you could bring one celebrity back to life, it would be..." Everyone gets a turn to educate the rest of the family about their choices. 35. The Hate Game The Hate Game is similar to the If You Could game on this list, but it is a bit different. One person says "I hate..." and fills something in to complete the sentence. This should not be a person or anything mean spirited, but something they genuinely dislike. The others then raise their hand if they agree. 36. Dream Vacation Give children paper and writing utensils and have them draw pictures or write a story describing their dream vacations. You can put a time limit on this or just wait until everyone has finished their vacation. They then switch papers and each kid gets to present someone else's vacation out loud to the group. It is fun for each kid to come up with their dream vacation, but it is even more fun noticing the discrepancies when one child misunderstands what another child has written or drawn. If you have time and energy for another round, ask them to do it again but this time getting very silly and making it truly a dream that could never come true...even though they wish it could! 37. That s My Car! Do your children have different ideas of what a sweet ride looks like? Have kids look out their windows and point out vehicles they would like to own when they grow up. They say "that's my car" when they see something they like. If more than one kid likes the same car, the first to speak out gets it. One person has to "release" a car by choosing another before someone else can pick that same car again. Copyright 2011, All Rights Reserved, RV-Travel-with-Kids.com Page 11

12 On the Road Arts & Crafts 38. Pipe Cleaners Take along some colorful pipe cleaners and a set of nail clippers to give children something imaginative to do with their hands. They can create different shapes with the pipe cleaners, cutting with the nail clippers as needed. This can just be a free time where everyone gets to create whatever shapes come to mind, or you can make it a more organized family affair by asking them to create a farm with a variety of animals. This requires them to work together by assigning roles. One person may be in charge of a mama pig and her piglets while someone else in charge of a few stallions. 39. Window Art Give children washable markers that can easily be wiped off of the windows. Crayola makes FX markers specifically for this purpose. Create a family art gallery by allowing children to decorate all the windows. When everything is filled up they can erase with a cloth and do it all over again. This is great for children riding in a truck with limited movement allowed. 40. Map it! There are a few other activities on this list that require you to use a map, but this is a different spin. Instead of mapping the trip on a real map, kids are allowed to draw their own maps. You can give them basic information such as states you may pass through or highways you will travel on. They get to draw their map with a picture of the final destination and what they think it will be like to arrive. Another spin is to have them create this map slowly over the course of the trip, adding in all the stops they make along the way. 41. Memory Book Give each child their own sketch book or perhaps a scrapbook kit. Have them complete a page in their scrapbook for every day of the trip. They can draw, use stickers, write down things they want to remember, or do whatever comes to mind. In the end they will have a scrapbook to remember the trip by. Copyright 2011, All Rights Reserved, RV-Travel-with-Kids.com Page 12

13 42. Paper Dolls Bring paper, scissors, and markers along and have kids make their own paper dolls (or action figures) and clothing. You may even let them cut people out of magazines and use them as paper dolls. 43. Aluminum Foil Whip out the aluminum foil and see what your children create with it. Foil can be purchased very cheap and can be turned into a variety of things from a necklace to a football. Bring it out and see what your children create. 44. Create a Passport Create a traveling passport. Give each child a small book or notebook before leaving. Decorate the front or let the kids decorate them, calling them Passport across the front. Every time you stop to get fuel, eat, use the bathroom, or just stretch your legs and explore, have the children write down where they stopped, the date, time of day, and other details they find important. They may be able to get waitresses to sign and visitor's center personnel to give them stamps or stickers. 45. Roadside Bingo Have children create the grid for bingo boards and then fill in the squares with symbols they see on the side of the road. They then swap cards and see who can get a bingo first. Copyright 2011, All Rights Reserved, RV-Travel-with-Kids.com Page 13

14 Activities that Teach 46. Spelling Bee Hold a family spelling bee. An adult should call out the words according to the age and reading level of each child. Try to make it challenging while considering the level of reading each child is on. (Believe it or not, but this is my daughter s favorite activity!) 47. Family Reading Sessions Bring a book that everyone will like and take turns reading chapters or pages. Get creative here. Bring books of fairy tales and other things that no one has read before but which children of all ages may like. This allows children to brush up on reading skills and learn to enjoy literature. 48. Math Time Kids can work on basic counting skills, addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division with one simple activity. Have them count out how many SUVs, compact cars, sports cars, semi trucks, pick up trucks, and hybrid vehicles they see out on the road. They should work together to count how many they see in all categories out of all windows in the truck or motor home for a given period of time. They can then be asked story problems and use the data to find the answers. You can even have children make a prediction of how many they will see in each category before you start counting. How close were their predictions to the actual data in the end? 49. Geography Game How many locations around the world could your children name? You can play a fun geography game that will show just how knowledgeable they are about places around the world. Have an adult start off by calling out a city or country name. The person sitting next to them must then come up with the name of a real city or country that starts with the last letter in that location's name. For instance, if the first adult says "India," then the next location must start with the letter A. Copyright 2011, All Rights Reserved, RV-Travel-with-Kids.com Page 14

15 50. Where Are We? At random points in your trip, whip out a large travel map and ask children to find where they are at that very moment. They can look out the window for signs showing how many miles they are from big cities to get some ideas. Have them mark the spot on the map once they correctly guess where they are. They should start actively watching where they are once they know these random map checks will be presented. Figuring it out is one thing, but finding it on the map may be a bigger challenge for some kids. 51. Remember Mad Libs? Find books of Mad Libs at book stores, or take a small steno notebook and create your own. The top page allows children to list nouns, adverbs, numbers, and so forth which are then placed into a story at specific points to create silly stories. Children are challenged as they try to remember what adverbs are, nouns are, and so forth. 52. Travel Math Problems You can turn your vacation into a wild math problem at any point. If the truck is traveling at 65 mph and you just passed a sign stating the next rest area is 50 miles ahead, what time will it be when you arrive there? Come up with these story problems as you go through your trip and the brainiest math whizzes will find their brains consistently stimulated. 53. Categorize Select a category such as "compact cars" or "flags" and have all of the kids work together to count 100 things that could fit into that category. Smaller children learning to count will especially benefit from this simple travel game. Copyright 2011, All Rights Reserved, RV-Travel-with-Kids.com Page 15

16 54. Color Estimates Have children write down all the most popular colors of vehicles, such as red, black and grey. Then have them make tally marks for each car they pass on the road of each color. Do this for a given period of time, and then ask children to give estimates of how many cars they saw in each color. They can then count the tally marks specifically to see if their estimates were close to the actual findings. They can then find the which color was more frequently seen or come up with a variety of other math equations comparing and contrasting the data collected by different children. 55. Odd or Even Have one child call out odd or even and then the children count to three before sticking out one or two fingers each. They add up the number of fingers together and determine if it is odd or even. If it matches what the player called out in the beginning, that player gets a point. 56. Are We There Yet? Do your kids ask "are we there yet?" too often for your liking? Break this habit by taking them very literal. Figure out how many miles you will be traveling altogether before leaving for the trip. When they ask how much longer or if you are almost there, show them how many miles there was to travel in the beginning and have them figure out how many miles have already been traveled. They can then do a math equation to figure out approximately how much longer they have to go. 57. Story Hour Have story hour with smaller children in the truck. Have an older child read stories out to the younger kids in an animated voice. They may even want to team up and act out some short children's books. Copyright 2011, All Rights Reserved, RV-Travel-with-Kids.com Page 16

17 58. Postcard Power Have children take turns picking out a postcard in every state or major city you pass through. Teach children to write something about their experience on the card, put on a stamp, write out the address, and mail it to someone back home. 59. Gas Guzzler Turn gas and fuel into math problems. You can have children figure out the gas mileage your truck is getting or have them estimate where they might be on the map when it is time to fuel up again. They may even enjoy finding the average price of gas in a particular state by collecting data from gas station signs passed along the way. Of course, you might not enjoy being confronted with the cold, hard facts of how much gas it takes to drive the RV a mile! 60. Mileage Mission Pick something up ahead in the road and ask children to guess how many miles away it is. Use the odometer on the truck to track the exact distance. 61. Buzz and Fuzz Buzz and Fuzz is a great math game that can be made easier or harder depending on the age of your children. For young brains, have them start counting out loud, each person taking a number. When they come to a number that has a 5 in it or a number that is divisible by 5, the next person should say Fuzz rather than the number. This is made harder for older brains by using 7 instead of 5. To really challenge everyone in the truck, make it so you have to say Fuzz for numbers divisible by 7 and Buzz for numbers divisible by Counting Games When all else fails, simply start counting. Count how many light poles you pass in five minutes or count the cows in a country setting. Kids will at least be entertained for a short period of time and they will be learning something. Copyright 2011, All Rights Reserved, RV-Travel-with-Kids.com Page 17

18 Guessing Games 63. Who Am I? Have one person think of someone that everyone in the motor home or truck should know. This can be a celebrity or just someone everyone knows in real life. They should announce the initials of the person they are thinking about and see how long it takes everyone else to guess the person. If a long time passes without guessing correctly, clues can be given. 64. Movie Memory One player says a line they remember from a movie, trying to imitate the voice of the character from the movie. Everyone else has to try to guess what movie the line was from. Throw in some cartoon lines for the little ones who may not be big movie buffs just yet. 65. Name That Tune! One person starts to hum a tune and the others have to guess what song they are humming. The hummer has to keep going until the song is guessed correctly. 66. Theme Songs One person thinks of the theme song from a TV show and starts to speak the words. They cannot hum or sing the tune. It is resting on the words of the theme song alone. This can be looked up online if you have an Internet connection and want to make the game more interesting. Whoever can guess the correct show goes next. 67. Classic I Spy One person says "I spy with my little eyes, something..." and then finishes with the color of something they see out the window. The others have to think fast because the item may be gone fast as you are in a moving vehicle! Copyright 2011, All Rights Reserved, RV-Travel-with-Kids.com Page 18

19 68. Name Game One player thinks of a name at random. It doesn't have to be the name of someone they know. They reveal the first letter of the name and whether it is a boy or girl's name. The others have to think of names that fit to try and guess it. This may not entertain older children, but for younger ones it is simple enough to be fun. 69. Blind Drawing Have one child hold a pencil in hand, hovered over a piece of blank paper. Another child guides their hand to draw something on the paper while the first child squeezes their eyes shut. The first child holding the pencil has to guess what they are being guided to write or draw before opening their eyes. 70. Favorites Game The "favorites game" can be played with any number of people and age does not matter. Have one person say "my favorite color is..." and then be quiet before giving the answer. Others have to guess what they think their favorite color is. The person who picks correctly continues the game with another fun thing that the others may not know. For instance, someone may say "my first crush was..." or they may say "if I could be any animal, I would be..." 71. Hangman Pull out a Magna Doodle or use old fashioned pen and paper to play Hangman. This is a classic spelling game that can be made harder or easier according to the words and phrases chosen. 72. Does your poodle know how to swim? In this fun guessing game, "poodle" becomes the keyword for a mysterious pet that your child would like to own. One child starts the game by saying "I have a new pet poodle." The other kids ask questions to determine what pet "poodle" actually refers to. They have to form questions with the word "poodle" in place. For instance, one child may ask "does your poodle know how to swim?" while another asks "does your poodle walk on a leash?" Older kids can get silly here by bringing out unusual animals that could never actually be pets. Copyright 2011, All Rights Reserved, RV-Travel-with-Kids.com Page 19

20 73. Missing Places Take postcards collected along your trip and mix them up in a pile. Everyone is given a short period of time to look at the cards thrown out on a table in the motor home or just on the seat of the truck. The postcards are then collected and one is removed at random. Who can look at the pile and figure out which card is missing? Questions Play 20 questions! One person thinks of a person, place or thing and starts fielding questions from others in the motor home or truck. Someone asks a question about the object in question and the first person will simply answer yes or no in response. The person asking the question can then take a shot guessing at what the other person is thinking about. If 20 questions are asked without anyone guessing it, the person wins. Memory Games 75. ABC Food Commit your grocery list to memory as you drive down the highway. Have one person start off the list by naming a food that starts with the letter A. The next person repeats that food and adds a food that begins with the letter B. It continues around the truck until you reach Z...unless you all forget the list before you get there! 76. Treasure Bottle Create a treasure bottle and test the memory of your children along the way. Simply fill an empty clear two liter bottle partially with rice or lentils and then add in small objects found around your home. You may add some change from the penny jar, Legos, paper clips, and thumb tacks. Whatever you can find that will fit through the top of the bottle is fair game. Children are then allowed to hold the bottle during the trip for a given amount of time each. They can turn the treasure bottle around in all different directions to see the objects hidden within the rice or lentils. When their time is up they pass the bottle to the next person. They are then given a short period of time to list everything they saw inside the bottle. You may want to create a master list for yourself at the time you make the treasure bottle. This will make it easier to determine who wins on the trip. Copyright 2011, All Rights Reserved, RV-Travel-with-Kids.com Page 20

21 77. Picnic Basket Everyone loves to eat, so why not go on a picnic right from your motor home? Have one person call out a list of ten foods they are packing into their basket for a picnic. The others have to listen and try to call all ten foods back without missing anything or substituting the wrong foods. You can do five foods if you are working with younger children. 78. Category Crunch Come up with categories of movies, bands, and other groups of people and things. Someone may say "bands with female singers" and then everyone has to try to think of bands with female singers. Someone else might suggest foods with only four letters in their name. 79. I Could Eat a Horse Its past dinnertime and the kids are starting to get whiny. The next stopping point is not close enough for your sanity, so you start a dinnertime related game. You start it out by saying "I'm so hungry, I could eat a..." and filling in the blank with something silly. The next person has to be so hungry they could eat something that rhymes with whatever you chose. The round keeps going with rhyming words or perhaps things that start with the same first letter until the eating point is finally met for your starving family. Copyright 2011, All Rights Reserved, RV-Travel-with-Kids.com Page 21

22 Listing the Time Away 80. Category ABC The first person in this game calls out a letter and a category (animals, celebrities, cities, countries, etc.). Everyone works together to name five or more category items that start with the given letter. 81. Treasure Lists Get the treasure bottle that you created for the memory game back out. This time use it for a listing activity with your children. Pass the bottle around from one person to the next, allowing each person to spot something inside the bottle and add it to the list. The trick is they cannot repeat any item. It helps to know exactly how many objects are in the bottle so you know when the list has been completed. 82. Celebrity List Have one person call out the name of a celebrity and then the group works together to create a list of movies the celebrity was in, songs they sang, or other trivia facts. 83. Color Lists Have one person call out a color and then everyone must work together to create a list of at least 25 things that share that color. 84. ABC List Have someone call out a general category like in number 80 on this list, but this time everyone has to make their own list of items that fit within the category. The catch is they have to list one thing for every letter of the alphabet. Copyright 2011, All Rights Reserved, RV-Travel-with-Kids.com Page 22

23 Creativity Has No Bounds 85. Story Time Earlier in this list you were encouraged to pass around a book for a family reading session, but there is a more fun way to do that. You can create your own story! Each person takes a turn adding one line to the story and it continues to go around and around until a final conclusion is reached that pleases everyone. You may want to designate someone to write down the story as you go, or you can set a time limit on each person so they have to think fast and get the story out quickly. 86. Poem Inspiration Have children look out their window and make a list of different words and numbers that they see on signs. You may even have them make a list of objects that they see instead of words. They then take those words and create a poem. Everyone gets a turn to recite 3-5 poems that they created, turning the trip into a fun poetry reading. They then have the poems to remember their trip by later on. 87. "I'm going to Louisiana and I want to see a..." Have the first person in this game make this statement and add something that starts with the letter A. The next person repeats this line with the first person's answer and adds something that starts with B. This will end up being a long list of things you would like to see once you arrive at your final destination. You should substitute "Louisiana" with wherever you are headed. How many of your wishes will actually come true? 88. Hide and Seek Everyone should imagine that they are free to move around in the RV. They can be as small or large as they want to be. There is a game of hide and seek going on and everyone is playing. The first person imagines where they would hide in the RVand then allows the others to ask questions regarding where they believe the player is hiding. They can ask he is in a specific room and then start narrowing it down to different areas and objects within that room. Remember, you can be any size you want so hiding places are literally endless. You could be inside the silverware drawer or tucked into the black tank connection hose. Copyright 2011, All Rights Reserved, RV-Travel-with-Kids.com Page 23

24 89. Tape Fun Just as you were encouraged to whip out the foil and let kids get creative earlier in this list, you are now encouraged to hand every child a roll of tape and see what they do with it. Tape is inexpensive and completely harmless. It doesn't make a mess and can even help get the dog hair off the seats if you are traveling with the four-legged family members. Challenge children to make something useful their tape such as necklaces, earrings, or imaginary seatbelts. 90. Puppet Power Make a brown bag puppet before leaving home and create a character with a special voice for your puppet. Use this puppet throughout the trip to educate children with interesting facts about places you are passing through. You can even have older children make their own puppets and put on small puppet shows when the littler ones get fussy. 91. Stringing Along String comes in a variety of colors and can be knotted, tied and looped into many creative shapes and objects. Bring balls of string or yarn on your trip and you could have kids playing happily just like kittens! String can also be glued or taped to paper to make pictures without the mess of markers. 92. Silly Words Have each child pull one word from a passing sign and write it down on a piece of paper. Everyone switches paper and writes a poem or story based on the word someone else chose. Encourage kids to be completely silly and use words in unexpected ways. 93. Unfortunately Positive thinking will take your children far as grown adults. Unfortunately, a lot of children think in the negative, especially when they are bored on a long trip. You can turn that negativity into a traveling game by asking questions using "unfortunately" and then having kids give answers using "fortunately." So, you might say "unfortunately, the rest area is still fifty miles away." Your children may then respond with "fortunately, we have an empty Coke bottle." Copyright 2011, All Rights Reserved, RV-Travel-with-Kids.com Page 24

25 The Good Ol' Games 94. Card Games Go to the toy store or the toy department of any local store and purchase Old Maid, Uno, and other card games you remember from your own days growing up. Children still love these games when the Playstation is nowhere in sight! 95. "Knock, knock." "Who's there?" Print out a bunch of silly knock-knock jokes, riddles, and other silly items that children can play with as you drive down the road. You may throw them out at random times along the trip or simply allow children to play with the list on their own and make up their own additions. 96. Lines and Dots Get out pen and paper and play a variety of old school games from Hangman to lines and dots. Lines and dots is played by making a grid of dots and taking turns connecting two side-by-side dots. The object is to make a square and then put your initials in the center. At the end, the person with the most squares completed will win. It helps to have each person make lines in different colors of ink to clearly see who has made a complete square. 97. Tic Tac Toe Tic Tac Toe can be played on a Magna Doodle or again with old fashioned pen and paper. Children can play this game in rounds, seeing who can win four out of five or eight out of ten. Who will be the Tic Tac Toe champ? 98. Slug bug, you owe me a Coke! This is a game still played by many kids today, though they oddly say you owe me a quarter or a dollar rather than a Coke. We give two punches for vintage bugs, and one for the newer model. Copyright 2011, All Rights Reserved, RV-Travel-with-Kids.com Page 25

26 Stretching Your Legs 99. Taped Tires You don't have to stop the games when you get out to stretch your legs for a bit. Why not place pieces of duct tape on the tires? Each piece of tape should have the name of someone inside the motor home or truck written on it in black sharpie. Every time you stop, check to see whose name is closest to the very top of the tire or down closest to the road. That person wins an extra snack or some other special treat everyone wants. This must be something you can afford to give out every time you stop along the trip. You may even want to have a goodie bag they can choose something from Bubble Gum Have kids pick out different flavors and brands of bubble gum found in visitor's centers or gas stations along the road. They can mix them together to create different flavors and funny colored bubbles. Why not have a bubble blowing contest once you have a nice selection of gum in the collection? Whew! Are you still looking for more interesting ways to keep the kids from whining or fighting all the way down the road? Use these ideas to come up with your own creative activities. Think about what makes your family special and what makes you love each of your children individually. Play on their strengths. Find ways to help them improve their weakest subject in school. Think about the next destination on your travel list and get creative. You will find many ways to quiet the whining and fill the truck with laughter! Copyright 2011, All Rights Reserved, RV-Travel-with-Kids.com Page 26