On The Go Chicago

I recently found this great website called MomsMinivan.com.  In addition to listing products and advice for traveling with kids, they have a list of 101 Car Travel Games.

Here are our top 5 pics for fighting boredom on the road…they are all FREE too!

1. Aluminum Foil Art – Give everyone a sheet of aluminum foil. Have them mold it into anything they want: animal shapes, Frisbees, balls, jewelry, crowns, headband, necklaces and masks. Be creative. 
2. The License Plate Game – Print a U.S. map off the computer and color in the states as you see license plates from each one.  See if you can get all 50 states between Memorial Day and Labor Day. You might even record the time and date and the state where you saw it. This can be a family project as you build your “collection” of license plates together.  Here’s a collection of printable maps you can use for this game.
3. Car Travel Bingo – Travel Bingo boards that you flip the red area when you see the picture on the board. Look for them at dollar stores or Cracker Barrel. OR, try creating your own by writing words or simple pictures of roadside items or roadsigns. They have some readymade printable car bingo games posted at the Moms Minivan Printables page.
4. Scavenger Hunt – Give each child a list of items to watch for while driving. The list can be made up ahead of time and adjusted for the scenery. Here’s a sample printable list of items to hunt for!
5. Pipe Cleaner Creatures – Use fuzzy pipe cleaners to create all kinds of creatures that kids can also use for creative play. See this article for pipe cleaner craft ideas!