Car games for grandchildren on 5 hour journey

My daughter and I took 5 eleven year olds out for a day trip, they all had tablets and played with them . it was quite noisy at times but they had a great day. We also had frequent stops and went Llama tracking. It was for !y granddaughters delayed birthday trip.

When my children were around 10 yrs old there were not I-pads/mobile phones in those days, we would check number plates starting with number 1 then number 2 and so on. Playing I Spy was a favourite, also listening to tapes. We would travel from Wiltshire to Plymouth, sometimes a 5 hour journey, M4 and M5 were not built then.

Oh, I do so remember the very, very long drives in Australia playing I Spy. After one excruciatingly drawn out game as we all tried to guess what started with 's' it was finally revealed as 'window'. When it was pointed out that window did not start with 's' we were told that 'it can if I want it to.'

I used to get my children to think of words that had the letters of car registration numbers in from cars in front Nowadays I presume children have their tablets as my grandchildren have

On motorways we use car reg numbers, make a sentence using NYU or make a word with PRL.

Oh yes, I'd forgotten that one. Motorways are hopeless for spotting things other than other vehicles, aren't they.

We sing, play alphabet games or I-Spy and listen to audiobooks like Polarbear2. Often we all listen. Games with prizes for scores go down well. One grandchild happily reads books but that makes others sick.
Once they have watched videos on long trips with their parents, that’s what they prefer to do.
We always have frequent snacks too, in bags with ‘to be eaten at. . . on -for some reason the time makes it fun. Things like a few raisins, an apple, grapes, cucumber or carrot sticks, a packet of popcorn or mini sandwiches.

I'd forgotten! Used to make up goody bags too. Pencil, puzzle book, sweets, etc. helped pass the time, plus I didn't give them out until there were signs of boredom. Don't know if they would work for todays children! For GS we were given a player that you clip on the back of seats and plays films. That was brilliant come to think of it.

We had some Sunday Times readings of The Famous Five books on a disc. They used to be dead silent through them. In fact we all enjoyed the stories. Five go to Kirren Island etc. Great, even down to the jam sandwiches. Good old Enid Blyton.

So recorded stories are a good idea and you can join in too.

Just to say, reading or using the iPad makes my little one sick

I Spy and points for say a red car, a brown cow, a blue door, etc and have a prize for the winner with the most points.

We play spot the….. two dog walkers, car with a window open and arm leaning out, man with a pushchair etc.
Adapt to suit the area.
On motorways we use car reg numbers, make a sentence using NYU or make a word with PRL.

Our kids loved the car game
10 for a fire engine, ambulance, police car or yellow car
7 for a pink car
5 for a black cab but only outside north or south circular road

My Father used to dupe us into writing down car number plates, we would win a prize for a duplicate!

We always spent part of long car journeys singing nursery rhymes and songs that we knew.

Identifying the make of passing cars or counting the numbers of cars of a particular colour. One child counts red cars, another blue, you count white and the winner gets to chose the next game.

Identifying animals in fields might be fun too.

When we were small we used to play ‘pillar box’ on long car journeys , spotting the most post boxes to win. On one particularly boring route, there were few landmarks at all ,so when all four of us children and our mum spotted a ‘PILLAR BOX!!!’ and cried out , my Dad almost crashed the car and had to pull over to gather his wits before continuing the journey. Such fun!

There is an excellent range of up to date I-spy books for long car journeys. Available from Amazon.

We played Beetle/Mini/Smart for years, either storing up sightings (3 minis, 2 beetles, 0 smarts) or not starting a new cycle until all 3 had been spotted. Also made up words (often rude) from number plates. Our car was called b****r you, as it's letters were BGU.

We used to play 'Who Am I' a lot.

You think of someone famous and not too obscure, and the others in the car have to ask you questions that can be answered yes or no. Officially, they are out if they guess wrongly, but we used to waive that rule depending on the age of the children.

We also played The Animal Game, where you take it in turns to name an animal beginning with the next letter of the alphabet, so Anteater, Bear, Cow, etc. That one can be adapted to countries, songs, anything you like, really.

You will lose the will to live, but the children will probably enjoy it.

We play quite a lot of i spy which can be hilarious
Especially with tinies who can't read or write much - they can keep you guessing for ages by which time the object has long disappeared.
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I’m not sure what the modern version would be but back in the day we had taped Harry Potter audio books and walkmans. Kept my two quiet for over 8 hours travelling through France.

midgey

Tablets only if they are not travel sick!

You can attach the devices to the front seats with a strap so that they are looking ahead at a film, not down. Ear phones so that you don't have to listen and they can each watch something different.

5 hours is quite a long time to play games, munch snacks so breaking it up with a film is a good idea. And, of course, a couple of stops.

Tablets only if they are not travel sick!

I agree with tablets.

If your car has a hotspot, they can even watch movies

Games: who wins the funniest joke, for example

Do they like drawing? Any hobbies they have and can be done in the car?

The I-spy books are useful. There is a transport one and my ten year old uses it sometimes. She also uses the iPad but more often than not just likes to look out of the window and listen to music!

We often have a 2 hour trip to collect or return little ones and now have a number of games they like to play.

I print out a sheet like a bingo card with the names of things we might see on the trip and they cross them off ( the littlest one has pictures but the same principle).

I have a goody bag and every 30 mins they get to choose a surprise - its just junk but they are always thrilled by it.

We play quite a lot of i spy which can be hilarious.

We have one car mad grandson so we have a list of car makes and he ticks them off as he spots them.

Snacks... you'd be surprised what they can eat on a 2 hour trip.

Good luck !!

This is a time when iPads are very useful, they can watch a film or play games.