I Spy With My Little Eye is a popular one with my kids. Of course it gets old after a while LOL
We've taken turns seeing who can find certain shapes or colors during the drive.
Hangman was a good one, of course this doesn't work for the driver LOL, but when I was the passenger I played this with my son and kept him occupied for 90 minutes!
Hi! My little ones (2 and 3) enjoy singing and listening to tapes. We have a tape about things that happen on the farm and a tape about shapes and colors. They really enjoy those. They also like to sing all of the songs that we can remember.
Other than this, I really don't know. We haven't traveled much with them on really long distances. They went on one trip with us that was 5 hours there and 5 hours back the same day and did really surprisingly well.
I would love more tips. Thanks for getting this one started.
cat:
My son, Dakota, was 3 1/2 yrs. old this past summer when we took several long car rides. Although he cannot read yet, he loves books and music. So what I did was get him his own cassette player with head phones, fisher price makes a durable one. I had him choose his favorite books, 5 or 6, I think, then I read them on tape, telling him when to turn the pages. This way he could look at the pictures of these familiar books and hear them too. He was so surprised to hear Mommy's voice on the radio! I also bought some kids music tapes that he could sing along with. This worked very well for us.
B. Brudon
The game my family has always played on long trips (or short ones too!) is the A-B-C game.
It's where you look for signs that begin with a certain letter. Like for the first letter, A, you'd look for a sign that starts with an A. And then for the second letter, B, you look for a sign that starts with a B. And the words can be on anything, too. Street signs, business signs, even bumper stickers! It can get very competitive, but it's fun for all ages!
And I have a sneaking suspicion it's good for learning the alphabet too. But, like I said, it's fun for more than just the kids.
My kids are grown now, but when they were little they loved video arcades. Whenever we went on a trip, they each got a Pringle's can with quarters----usually about $5 in each can. If they argued, tattled, or were generally onery, they had to give up a quarter. The deal was that they could have what ever was left for the video arcade.
We traveled about 3 hours to get to our dentist, so we also played the ABC game. We varied it by naming fruits, boy names, girl names, etc. And last but not least, we played a story telling game. Using a certain sound as much as possible, one of us would start a story. After a certain time, usually at an exciting point the story teller would stop and call out the name of one of the other passengers, who then had to continue on with the story. The stories were always new and got quite inventive. There was one I remember about Horrible Harry Hippo who hated hazelnuts.
I have done alot of travelling with my children. We have between 45 min to 2 hour drive for shopping, doctor's appt, banking. We also travel 6 1/2 hours at least once a year to see my family.
My children are 9, 6, almost 4. I always took them with me from the time they were born and were great little travellers without having to keep them entertained. Since they have been in school and not going with me so much they have gotten alot worse, so i've come up with some things that work with my children.
My oldest likes to play a couple of games. One is the ABC game as alaskaluver mentioned. Also he likes to start with a word such as banana-apple-egg-grapes-salmon until you get stumped.
All the kids like singing songs, eye spy, who stole the cookies from the cookie jar, look at books, play hand video games, punch buggy, look for wildlife along the road, how many different licence plates from different states and provinces we can find, tell stories, who can be the quietest for the longest, tell jokes and car bingo.
I also pack sandwiches and snacks to eat along the way. I also take a drinks but limit the amount they drink so that we do not have to stop for bathroom breaks.
3 years ago I drove with my kids from home to Fredriction, New Brunswick in one day. It took 12 1/2 hours and we only stopped once for a bathroom break. When we travel to see my family we don't need to stop at all. I know my kids travel well but it all takes them getting used to it. I also warn my kids ahead of time that it is going to be a long ride and let them know how long by related it to a length of time they understand. If I am travelling to see my family I tell them it is going to take as long as it is from the time you get to school until the time you leave school. Or for my youngest it is from the time we eat breakfast until it is your nap time. It helps give them an idea how long it is going to be so they aren't asking "Are we there yet all the time."
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Scouter8, I like you ideas for explaining time to your kids. We are lucky that my son loves to travel in the car too but he still wants to know "how much longer ? ". I will definitely use this one !!
When we travel from GA to TX we say goodbye to the states we left. For instance when we arrive at the Alabama state line we say "goodbye Georgia, hello Alabama." The song continues on to "goodbye Alabama, goodbye Georgia, hello Mississippi." On our way home we say it in reverse. My children learned the order of the states in a fun way. We make up similar songs when we travel to North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, & Florida.
When we travel at night we try to name as many constellations as we can and we guess what type of vehicle is in front or behind us based on their headlights or taillights.
We play I spy.
My son makes origami figures and we guess what he made.
We look for as many different license plates as we can.
We take turns singing songs and telling our own version of The Three Little Pigs. They have lived in a lot of exciting places. I feel sorry for the big, bad wolf though.
We name as many trees and plants as we can.
We tell a story about living in someone else's house or town.
We look at the people in other vehicles to see if we recognize them.
We smile and/or wave at the people we notice are staring at us. They usually look away some smile or wave back. It's funny to see peoples' responses.
TTFN,
Shell
We like to play the ABC game as well but we just look for the letter not necessarily the first letter but just anywhere in the word. Also we like to sing and tell stories. We play the memory games as well. Like going on a picnic.
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What's your favorite car game? 
A Few Things Mine Like 
My son, Dakota, was 3 1/2 yrs. old this past summer when we took several long car rides. Although he cannot read yet, he loves books and music. So what I did was get him his own cassette player with head phones, fisher price makes a durable one. I had him choose his favorite books, 5 or 6, I think, then I read them on tape, telling him when to turn the pages. This way he could look at the pictures of these familiar books and hear them too. He was so surprised to hear Mommy's voice on the radio! I also bought some kids music tapes that he could sing along with. This worked very well for us.
The ABC game 
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