Best Travel Activities For Kids - Tired Mom Supermom

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Whether you’re going on a family road trip or any other long tip, here are some fun games that are a great way to minimise screen time for kids.

Road trips are fun as long as your kids don’t get bored. The problem is, most kids get bored really easily and quickly.

They can even get bored just being in the car for an extended period of time and not even going anywhere. To help you out, here are some road trip car activities for your kids. These activities will keep them entertained and their attention focused on the road.

These activities are great because they involve both concentration (in order to complete the task) and fine motor skills (in order to complete the task). You see, they are also fairly simple and affordable so you won’t have to break your budget to make this happen.

Try one or more of them on your next road trip with the kiddos!

How To Keep Kids Busy On A Long Road Trip

Word Scramble

One of the best car activities for kids is a word scramble. You can make a scrambled word puzzle on your laptop or computer at home.

Or, you can use a road trip word scramble puzzle book. You can find plenty of them online. You can even make a travel word scramble puzzle book with a notebook and a crayon. This car activity will help your kids practice their spelling and vocabulary skills. It will also keep their brains active during the trip.

This is a must-have word scramble game for your next road trip. It is perfect for any age children.

Apps for children

Download these applications to your phone or tablet before you go to offer your kids some instructive screen time on a long haul flight. I have options on both the iPad and the android tablets. You can also download some documentaries and youtube channels as well as Netflix shows.

Plastic Electronics

My kids are very drawn towards pretend laptops and cell phones, so these make excellent road trip toys for us.

Workbooks

Children like completing the tasks in workbooks. I enjoy going to the dollar shop for cheap alternatives for road trips, and Amazon offers a few nice selections as well!

The main disadvantage is that you may need to read the directions to smaller children who can’t read yet but yet want to do the task correctly.

Water Wow Books

We love water wow books! I have introduced them to my children before they even turned 2. It’s pretty much the best way to keep kids coloring but in a mess free way. All you need is water!

Audiobooks

Go to the library and get some free CDs of books to listen to as a family on a long flight or on other family trips. Remember that kids may grasp a narrative at a greater level when they listen to it than when they read it, so don’t be afraid to choose a chapter book!

You can also go to Audible (Only $5.95 a month on your first 3 months) and download several children’s audiobooks on your phone!

Activity Binder

Print some educational worksheets and place them in a binder for your child to use throughout your family travel trip. Include a three-ring binder pouch for pencils, pens, and crayons.

Put the worksheets in plastic page protectors and give the students a dry erase marker to use over and over. This is a great alternative to portable video games.

Wikki Stix

These bendy, sticky tiny sticks will keep you entertained for hours. These are so much fun and make an excellent gift for kids as well.

They’re ideal for a car trip because they don’t make a mess, they encourage kids to work on their fine motor skills and the stick aspect keeps them from dropping all over the place. Check out the Wikki Stix blog for more fun ways to use them on the road.

Boogie Board

Boogie Boards are LCD writing tablets that include a stylus. Just make sure to get a spare pair of styluses because your child will undoubtedly drop or misplace the original. Despite the fact that it has a stylus clip at the top. We used one of these on our last trip and it was one of the best travel games we could have brought.

Sticker Books

My kids are completely fascinated with stickers. If we ever sell our house, I’m sure I’ll have to spend an entire day looking for stickers on every surface. We love these reusable Melissa and Doug sticker books for road trips since they don’t get stickers all over the car seats and windows.

Tape in Various Colors

Give your children a couple rolls of colored masking tape or Washi tape and let them rip, shred, and create as much as they like.

Calculators

I’m serious, you guys. Next time you’re at the dollar tree, pick up a couple of inexpensive calculators for the journey.

My kids assume they’re phones, therefore calculators are cool and thrilling to them. Teach your toddlers or kindergarteners how to enter simple math problems. This is a great hack for kids of all ages and is the perfect way to get a little learning in while on the go.

Foil Ball

Another one of my fun ideas is to play a game called foil ball. Roll a lot of tin foil into a ball and let the kids shape and mould it whatever they like.

Of course, this isn’t ideal for very young children who put everything in their mouth, so use your best judgement as to which ages this is acceptable for.

Stamped Magnadoodle

I’d be negligent if I didn’t include this iconic road trip gadget. This small travel version comes with stamps and a “pen” to let you create masterpieces.

Scavenger Hunt Using the Letters of the Alphabet

Look for the letters of the alphabet in alphabetical sequence, or have the kids check them off or circle them on a piece of paper as you discover them.

Scattergories for Children

Take turns selecting a letter and just listing all the words that began with that letter that we could think of.

Guessing Games

Choose basic activities for very young children, such as “guess which animal I am.” You have the option of making noises or describing the animal.

For older children, you may make it more difficult by asking them to “guess which song I’m humming.” or “guess which food/plant/place I’m describing.”

I Spy

A traditional car trip game is “I spy something (insert color).” Though it is extremely boring for Mom and Dad, children like having their parents guess what they are thinking. The wonderful thing is that even the youngest passengers in the car may participate.

Coloring Pages And Colored Pencils

If you have children who are under 4, this may not be a great activity for the car. They could easily get the coloring pages and crayons everywhere.

However, if you have children who are over 4, this is a great and fun road trip car activity. Coloring pages are great for kids because they can choose what they want to color and how they want to color it.

Coloring pages are also great for kids because they can relieve stress. If you have both coloring pages and colored pencils, your kids can color and color. This car activity will help your child practice his or her fine motor skills. It will also keep their attention focused on the road trip.

If you have the coloring books with pencils attached, you don’t have to worry about losing them. This is a must-have coloring book and colored pencil set for your next road trip. It is perfect for kids aged 4-10 years old.

Travel Games

If you are bringing along travel games, your kids will be engaged and entertained for hours. There are lots of travel games available. Some of the best include travel Bingo, travel Scrabble, travel chess and travel Jenga.

You can find travel Bingo and travel Scrabble almost anywhere. Travel Bingo and travel Scrabble are great for all ages. They are best for kids aged 6 and up. Travel chess and travel Jenga are great for kids aged 8 and up. Some travel games have pieces that are small. Be careful to keep track of those.

Otherwise, your kids will lose them and you will have to go through a major cleaning session when you get to your destination. This is a must-have travel game for your next road trip.

Sticker Activity Book

Another car activity for kids is a sticker activity book. These are available at most bookstores and online. You can also make your own sticker activity book with a notebook or a journal and some stickers.

You can find sticker activity books with a variety of themes and subjects, like animals, sports, princesses and more. This car activity will help your child practice his or her fine motor skills. It will also keep their attention focused on the road trip. Most sticker activity books have pre-designed pages.

If they don’t, you can always add your own pages. Just make sure everything is kid-friendly. It is perfect for kids aged 3-10 years old.

Dot-to-Dot Games

Dot-to-dot games are very popular among children. They also make excellent road trip car activities for kids. There are lots of dot-to-dot games available. Some of the best include animal, sports and princess dot-to-dot games.

This car activity will help your child practice his or her fine motor skills. It will also keep their attention focused on the road trip. Make sure you get the right dot-to-dot game for your child’s age.

The puzzles should be easy enough for your child to finish but challenging enough to keep them interested. This is a must-have dot-to-dot game for your next road trip. It is perfect for kids aged 4-10 years old.

Road Trip Drawing Activity

Another great car activity for kids is a road trip drawing activity. You can bring along a kid’s sketch pad and some crayons or markers.

You can also just bring a normal sketch pad. If you have an old notebook lying around the house, you can turn it into a road trip drawing activity book by putting a sketch pad inside of it. This car activity will help your child practice his or her fine motor skills. It will also keep their attention focused on the road trip.

You can encourage your child to sketch anything they want to. You can also prompt them to sketch certain things, like landscapes or buildings. This is a great way to get your kids interested in sketching.

This is a must-have road trip sketch pad for your next road trip. It is perfect for kids aged 3-10 years old.

Keeping kids Of All Ages Busy On Long Trips bottom Line

Kids get bored easily. This means that they are not going to be interested in every part of your trip. In order to keep them entertained and engaged, you need to bring along activities for them to do.

That is why we have compiled this list of the best road trip car activities for kids.

From word scrambles to drawing activities, there is something for every kid. So, what are you waiting for? Get these activities into your car so that your kids can have fun on your next road trip.