· How to keep children entertained on long road trips
Summer vacation: Chevrolet tips for long-distance car travel
Are you planning to drive to your vacation destination by car with your kids on board? Really? Long journeys can create some wonderful memories but they can also be very stressful. Keeping kids in the confinement of a car for hours often leads to back-seat quarreling and a constant chorus of, “Are we there yet?”.
It is a good idea to plan some entertainment and games to keep everyone amused and distracted. Stock the car with the basics: decks of cards, coloring and activity books, paper and pencils, crayons, stickers and some small toys. Modern handheld game consoles, portable DVD players, music or story CDs can also make long trips more enjoyable for many families.
Today’s parents remembering their own childhoods will know that electronics are not the only solution, though. Younger children in particular will enjoy having some quality family time with a few simple games. Chevrolet has collected are a few examples that will make long-distance trips feel much shorter for the entire family:
I Went Shopping. One person starts and says “I went shopping and bought a …”. The second person repeats the first person’s phrase and adds their own item, and on, and on, and on, until someone or everyone forgets who bought what.
Alphabet Hunt. Even children who are just learning their ABCs can play this game. Start with the letter “A” and find one on a sign, truck, building or license plate. The first one to get to the letter “Z” is the winner. You can do this as a competition or together as a family.
Odds and Evens. A simple game for younger children. They watch out for number plates and look carefully at the last number on each. One is searching for odd numbers, and the other for even numbers. Each player keeps his own score, and the winner is the first to reach 21 points.
I Spy. Look around and pick an object you can see either in the car or along the road. Then give others a clue such as, “I spy with my little eye … something green”, or “I spy with my little eye … something brown and furry”. Continue to give more clues until they can guess what it is.
20 Questions. Think of a person, place or thing. The others have to guess the answer within 20 questions by asking a series of questions with ‘yes’, ‘no’ or ‘sometimes’ answers.
Rock-Paper-Scissors. Players each have one palm face up and lay their fist on it. As they count to three, they pound their fist into their hand. On “three”, they turn the fist into the object of their choice. There are three to choose from: rock (a closed fist), paper (an open palm), or scissors (two fingers in a sideways V shape). A rock wins by crushing scissors, paper wins by covering the rock, and scissors win by cutting paper. If they both come up with the same shape, they go again.
Story-Go-Round. Someone in the car thinks up a title for a story. Based on the title, the next person starts with the first sentence of the story — “Once upon a time there was a …”. The third person then continues with the next sentence of the story, and so on.
Occupying your little ones this way as well as planning regular stops for everyone to stretch their legs and burn some energy will keep your kids from getting bored and cranky and do wonders for your nerves. Everyone will be much more relaxed when you arrive at your final destination.
