It’s school holidays time which means long car journeys, in (hopefully) warm weather and lots and lots of traffic jams (hopefully not). Whilst many kids will have their heads buried in an ipad or DVD player, I’ve decided to go retro, with the top five car games for kids. No technology needed, no chargers, no apps and definitely NO Pokemon Go.
5) Eye Spy
The oldest activity in the car game book. Eye spy is a favourite in our house, particularly when my young son utters the words “I spy with my little eye, something beginning with blue.” He’s like a three year old version of the Riddler!
4) The Number Plate game
This can be just as appealing to adults and kids alike. You take the letters on a nominated number plate, and make a sentence with words that start with the aforementioned letters. Let’s take the number plate below for example
My answer would be Mad Apes Make Curry
Get it? Good. There’s no winner in this game, but the more creative you get, the more laughs you’ll have. The Adults only option is very entertaining when there’s no limit on words that can be used.
3) The Restaurant Game
Each person in the car chooses a restaurant/takeaway/food outlet. Every time you see your restaurant on the side of the road, or on a sign, or mentioned on the radio, you get a point. The game can go as long as you like, but it’s always fun to put a limit on it. We like to go for ‘by the time we reach the next motorway junction’ or ‘When we get to the next city’. Whoever is making the rules does have the advantage of setting a finish line before or after a restaurant should they know when it’s coming!
2) Car Cricket
If, like me, your kids are sport mad, this is a good way to get sport and car journey’s working together. One of you is the batsman, the other, the bowler. If you spot a number plate with a double number, you get that number added to your runs tally. If it’s a triple number, you get twice the number on your total. The bowler needs to look for double letters, when you spot one of those, you get a wicket. 10 wickets claimed and the innings is over and you swap roles. Look at the one below, that’s a wicket, no third umpire required!
1) Yellow Car
Without doubt my favourite car game just because of its simplicity. The game starts when all car doors are closed, he game ends when the first car door is open after a journey. When you see a yellow car, you shout “Yellow car” and you get a point. If you shout yellow car and it’s not a yellow car, you lose a point. The rules are very straight forward, it has to be a yellow car to count. So if a question is asked that starts along the lines of “Does a campervan count” you know the answer… NO, it’s not a yellow car.
