Do you get tired of hearing “are we there yet” when you are traveling with your kids? It can be a challenge and sometimes frustrating to try to keep your kids quiet or busy when going on a long road trip. The good news is that there are multiple activities you can use to keep them entertained! The following are four activities to have your kids try on the next road trip.

Entertainment of Other Cars on the Road

A classic game is to look for certain cars and call them out. For example, “slug bug” for a Volkswagen beetle. The one to call all the cars first is the winner! Another game is to have children look at the letters on license plates and come up with a fun acronym. For example, “BCTY” can be “birthday cake tastes yummy”. To make it more interesting, you can have the kids focus on themes like animals, colors, sports, and more!

Paperback Fun

Don’t overlook fun-filled activities that paperback materials such as puzzles, books, Sudoku, activity pages and more can bring. A good, long children’s book like Harry Potter will keep kids busy for long periods of time. If your child does not have a long attention span for reading, you can give them brain-stimulating activities like puzzles, word searches, and other materials that will keep them mentally active and will present them with new material and challenges quickly.

Scavenger Hunts

Scavenger hunts are a clever game to keep kids preoccupied with looking out the window and not jumping around. Before leaving, create a list of items for the children to look for. These items can include examples like cow, railroad tracks, mountain, gas station, lake, and other things likely to be seen along the way. Children not old enough to read can be given a list consisting of drawn pictures. To “raise the stakes”, you can promote a surprise for the winner and take the family out for a treat like ice cream to reward good behavior.

Electronics

Electronics is a full-proof way of keeping kids amused. Watching a movie or two can eat up a chunk of time and some older kids may be perfectly content with listening to their music. If your car does not have built-in DVD players, you can download movies on a tablet or smartphone for them to view. It’s best to save this tool as a last resort since it does not involve a lot of interactions within the family and can be done anywhere, not just on a road trip. However, it is nice to be prepared in case the kids are not interested in the activities you’ve planned.

Plan Before You Leave

It’s a good idea to have entertaining activities ready-to-go when taking a long road trip with kids. Bringing things like scavenger lists, books, puzzles, tablets and other items can help keep them amused without driving you crazy! If your activities seem to lose some interest, you can always take a break at a rest stop to stretch and let the kids burn some physical energy.