10 Travel-Time Activities
When you journey far from home, take learning on the road with you!
Learning on the road
Try these ideas to help keep backseat (or airplane-bound) fidgeters having fun and learning from point A to point B. You'll get great mileage out of these entertaining activities!
1. Travel Scavenger Hunt
Before setting off, give your child a list of things to find on your trip (if you've got more than one child in tow, make up a different list for each). Customize it for the terrain you'll be traveling and make sure to throw in some hard-to-find or unusual things to challenge his mind. For example, your list for a country drive might be: "Barn, School, Gas Station, Cow, Goat, Tractor, Playground, Deer Crossing Sign, Roadside Mailbox, Billboard for Radio Station, Bicycle, Purple Car." For an airplane trip, list items he might spot in the airport and aboard the plane. If you're traveling with a pre-reader, draw pictures (or cut and paste photos) of each item so he can join the hunt. A variation on this theme is to create your own set of road trip bingo cards.
2. The Alphabet Game
Starting with "A," challenge your child to find each letter of the alphabet on signs as you travel. Players call out the letter and the word it's in as they see each one — the first one to reach "Z" wins. Vary the action by limiting the places to find letters to only license plates, road signs, or billboards.
3. Twenty Questions
In this game, one person thinks of something and the other people try to guess what it is by asking yes or no questions, such as "Is it bigger than a toaster?" You can have players choose from something in the "Animal, Vegetable, or Mineral" categories, or start with a "Person, Place, or Thing." For younger children, try limiting it to just animals. Whoever guesses correctly in fewer than 20 questions wins.
4. License Plate Game
Give the age-old travel game a learning boost by printing out a map of the USA and having your child check off each state as she sees it on the map. She can keep count of how many from each state she sees, mark the date and time she saw it, or write down the license plate number itself within the state. For added fun, have space for a column where she can write down any vanity plates she sees. Have her compose her own vanity plate or take turns composing funny possibilities, like "2 GR8."
5. Miles of Maps
Keep your child from endlessly asking "how much farther?" by giving him his very own map with stops on your journey highlighted. Have him try to guess which roads you will travel (or airports you'll visit), how long he thinks it will take to get from one destination to another, and find places on the map as you travel past them. Reward his efforts with small prizes, snacks, and toys doled out when he correctly answers questions. Challenge him to count 100 cars in 100 miles, or use miles as a measure instead of time to determine how long he can play with his Game Boy.
For a younger child, consider drawing a simple map with major stops and cities. Encourage him to highlight the places you see and the distance you travel as the trip goes on. Another way to boost map and directional skills is to give your child a compass he can check to see which way you're going.
6. Records on the Road
Why not populate your trip with stops at unusual roadside attractions? Guides like Roadside America and Eccentric America are filled with weird wonders and amazing attractions. Check out Roadside America's Web site and search for interesting places along your route. It'll give your child something to look forward to, and what better way to teach about how to tell time than with a visit the world's largest sundial in Arizona?
7. Retrace Great Explorations
For a truly ambitious and wonderful learning experience (requiring just a little research), infuse some history into your trip. Discover the history of famous monuments you'll pass or stop at a Civil War battleground along the way. Standing in the very place that an historic event occurred will make your trip memorable — and make history come alive in a fresh new way.
8. The Professor's Cat
This game is ideal for cars, trains, planes, airports, and even restaurants. Build your school-age child's vocabulary as you go through the alphabet, alternating adjectives to describe the professor's cat. You say, "The professor's cat is an A_____ (angry, agile, avaricious, etc.) cat." The next player says, "The professor's cat is a B_____ (big, boring, bodacious, etc.) cat." See if you can find words from A to Z.
9. Family Fact or Fiction
This game works while you're on the road an also as an icebreaker at family gatherings. Ask each player to say three things about himself — two true and one false. After hearing the three statements, the other players pick which "fact" they think is false. Appoint a scorekeeper who will award one point to each player who guesses correctly. If everyone's wrong, he'll give a point to the player who made the statements. Another game that works for assorted ages, the winner is the one who knows the most about his family or bluffs the best!
10. Street Sums
Build basic math concepts with an addition and subtraction highway game that will challenge your grade-schooler. Each player picks a car color. Every time a car of that color passes, he wins a point. But each time a pickup, 18-wheeler, or RV of that color passes, he loses a point. The first person to spot an emergency vehicle gets five bonus points and the first to 25 points wins. You can tailor this game to your child's math level by multiplying and dividing by two or three (make the target score 50 or 100).
To banish boredom and boost skills, you can also host a Spelling Bee or have your child calculate your gas mileage. Other great ideas to pass the time include singing songs, listening to books on tape, playing "I Spy," counting animals, or taking turns saying what clouds look like. And don't forget to bring books!
