Photo credit: Edwin Dalorzo

It’s the time of year when we’re all going on long car trips with the kids and trying to find ways to keep the little ones entertained. Long car rides can be stressful, but – with a few simple in-car play ideas – they don’t have to be.

This guide comes from the guys at miDrive, and should help you get on the road with minimal stress this summer. You’ll never have to hear, “are we nearly there yet!?”, ever again!

Free Fun

Good old-fashioned free fun is still just as effective as ever when it comes to entertaining the kids in the car. Why not create your own game, and get the kids to come up with their own ideas too. You can be as creative as you like, and it won’t cost you a penny! Put a twist on classics like I-Spy or the alphabet game. This encourages the kids to get creative, and you’ll be surprised at how much fun they’ll have with it, especially when they’ve made up the rules!

Crafty Games

If your kids love crafts, traveling doesn’t have to be a time to put the pens and pencils away. You can buy a Snack and Play Travel Car Tray online from Amazon, and other stores, which allow them to get creative in the back seat, but are also 100% safe to use, with no rigid edges. Whether they’re using an activity book or simply need a sheet of paper and pencil to keep them busy, it’s the comfiest way for them to get crafty in the car.

They can also use their travel tray to eat their backseat snacks on, and – best of all – it’s wipe clean!

Storytellers

Kids’ stories are often the best and most imaginative. Why not encourage them to think of their own stories, either together or separately, to share with you? This one is perfect if they’re traveling with a friend or sibling as they can collaborate on the tale. Get one of them to write one part of the story, fold it over, then the other can write the next part, and so on. They’ll get more imaginative than we could ever dream of being, and you’ll end up with some really wacky stories in the end.

Number Crunchers

None of us like Maths, but fortunately for us parents, numbers have been made fun through games and apps. Whether it’s a game in an activity book, a challenge on their games console, or an app on your iPhone, the car is a great place to get them to brush up on their arithmetic. Disguise Maths as a game, and they’ll have fun whilst learning too. Win-win!

Musical Road Trip

Music can be a source of disagreement in the car, but if you’re careful, you can use it as a way to have fun, too. Get each passenger to choose 5 songs each and take it in turns to play them. Play a game of guess the artist, and whoever gets it right, gets to choose the next song. We can’t promise you won’t have to listen to a lot of Disney classics, but at least there’ll be no squabbling over song choices.

Stretch Those Little Legs

Don’t have so much fun in the car that you forget to get out and stretch your legs! It’s important to have regular rest breaks so the kids get a chance to run around and burn up some of that excess energy. This will keep them from getting restless and grumpy in the back, which will make your journey much easier too!