Fun Games to Play on the Road

Classic Road Games

• Play License-Plate Bingo. One or more children can play. Each player writes the letters of the alphabet on a piece of paper. Whenever a player spots a letter on a license plate, she crosses that letter off her list. The first player to cross off the entire alphabet says, "Bingo" and is the winner. You can make the game more interesting for older children by adding the rule that the letters of the alphabet must be crossed out in order. You can also play Billboard Bingo by using letters from billboards instead of license plates.

  Play, I Spy. Name an object that all the players have to be on the lookout for, such as a red front door on a house. The first player to spot the object says, "I Spy a red front door" and is the winner. If you're getting close to your destination, you can look for a sign with its name or a landmark associated with it.

  Play, I'm Going on a Trip. The first player says, "I'm going on a trip and I'm taking something that starts with the letter A." The other players then guess what the first player is taking. You can specify that the players have to "take" things that they'd logically pack for the trip, or that they can take anything in the world.

Tell Stories

• Tell a round-robin story about the trip. One player starts the story, then each player adds to it in his turn, saying as much or as little as he likes. This game can go on until someone creates an ending, or you can start with the ending and create the story that leads up to it.

  Tell a story one sentence at a time. The first player starts with the first sentence. The second player must start his sentence with a word beginning with the last letter of the last word in the previous sentence. For example, if the first player says, "Max is going to California," the second player might then say, "And he's going to visit his grandmother." Vary the game by using last words that end with letters in alphabetical order. For example, in this version the second player might say, "And he's going to visit his Uncle Bob."

Sing and Clap

• One player "claps" a song and the other players guess the name of the song. If nobody can guess the song from hearing just the claps, the player doing the clapping can give a clue consisting of one word of the lyrics. The first player to guess the song correctly is the winner.

  Sing theme songs. Each player must sing a song with the "theme" word in it. For example, if the theme word is "dog," one player might sing, "How Much is that Doggie in the Window?" and another might sing "Hound Dog." If a player can't think of a song containing the theme word, she can make up her own.