Educational Road Trip Activities

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Summer is finally here! And with it comes the time when many families choose to pack up and head out on road trips. Entertaining kids on road trips is difficult, and its tempting to simply hand them a tablet and enjoy some peace and quiet. If you’re like my family, though, you’d rather use screen time sparingly and instead have your children engage in something that’s both enjoyable and productive. I’ve compiled a list of 10 educational road trip activities to keep your kids happily learning on road trips this summer.

1. Around the World

This game will keep both you and your children entertained, as well as test your geography knowledge! The gameplay is simple: to start, have one person pick a geographic location. It can be a country, lake, mountain, anything. The next player has to pick another location that begins with the last letter of the previous location. For example, if the first player said, “Canada” the second could say, “Atlantic Ocean” and so on. To make this more difficult, you could change it to only answer bodies of water, countries on a certain continent, etc.

2. Brain Quest Trivia

Brain Quest’s trivia cards are a fantastic activity during long car rides. I always enjoyed quizzing my parents with questions as we went down the road or surprising them with something new I’d learned. Sometimes we’d even make it a competition, and whoever answered the most correctly got to choose where we ate lunch.

There are cards for preschoolers through 8th graders, they can be used for kids of all ages too!

3. License Plate Game

This is one I’m sure many of you are familiar with, but have you thought of turning it into a U.S. geography lesson? Instead of just looking for different states and making a list of ones you see, have your children color them in on a map. Moritzfinedesigns.com offers a free printable map to color as you find states on license plates. You can find it here. This is a fun way for your children to familiarize themselves with U.S. geography!

4. Rory’s Story Cubes

Rory’s Story Cubes are a hilarious and entertaining way to help your children build creative thinking and storytelling skills. It’s easy for all ages, too; just roll the dice and make up a story that incorporates all of the pictures on the dice. Your kids can tell you their story, or you can let them write it if you’re looking for a few minutes of peace and quiet 🙂

Amazon offers several different versions, so you have options to expand your collection and add variety!

5. Categories

This game is incredibly simple, but also SO versatile. The concept couldn’t be easier: First, you pick a category, and then, people in the car take turns naming things that fit in the category. If you repeat or take more than 5 seconds to answer, you’re out. The last person in the game wins.

Now, you might be wondering, “Where does learning come into this?” The educational aspect comes from the ability to choose whatever category you’d like to list items from. Presidents of the U.S. in order, states and capitals, multiples of a certain number, and elements of the periodic table are just a few that my family has used. Of course, you could play this game with non-educational categories as well:) Because of how simple it is to customize, you can easily adjust this game to whatever fits the ages and interests of your family.

6. Mad Libs

Mad Libs is a grammar game for any number of players, but more players typically make a more interesting game. Players fill in blanks in a story, each of which is labeled with the type of word required (noun, adjective, verb, etc) with random words. When they are done, one player reads the story aloud to reveal the hilarious randomness they have created. This game is fun and can help younger kids learn basic parts of speech. You can buy official Mad Libs books, find free games online (http://www.madlibs.com/), dowload the mobile app (http://www.madlibs.com/apps/), or even create your own.

7. Dry Erase Activities Books

These books are a fantastic activity to keep kids entertained and learning while they ride. There is a wide variety of subjects from printing letters to solving spy games to reviewing multiplication and division. They offer reusable, educational fun for kids of all ages.

8. Road Trip Bingo

These cards may remind many parents of road trip days from their childhoods. This set of cards features the original pictures, but there are many sets available.

A free version is also available to print from the Travel Channel: https://www.travelchannel.com/interests/road-trips/articles/road-trip-bingo . You can put the pages in sheet protectors and use erasable crayons/markers and this will help them last (hopefully) the length of your trip.

9. Podcasts/Audiobooks

Many parents enjoy podcasts for themselves, but they may not realize that there are podcasts that are created just for children. If wi-fi is going to be an issue, simply download the desired episodes before leaving home. This article provides a list of 20 children’s podcasts.

Audiobooks are another great way to get kids to use their ears and let their eyes rest from screen time. It is also a great option for those who get car-sick while reading. There are many that offer a free one month trial, as well as free (sometimes through your public library) options. This article breaks them down and can help you choose which app is best for you.

10. Umbrella Land

Umbrella Land, sometimes known as The Green Glass Door, is a guessing game for 2 or more players. One person (“It”) picks a certain criterion for what can be brought to a fictional place called Umbrella Land. This criterion can be a category of object, a size limit, or even the way a player phrases their request to bring something. Once the person who is It has chosen, the other players take turns asking if they can bring things. The It person simply answers yes or no to each question while the other players try to guess what the criterion is. The player who guesses it correctly wins.

These are just a few ideas to get you started as you prepare for a road trip this summer. Traveling with children of any age can be challenging, but having a variety of activities planned will help everyone enjoy the journey. If you have some ideas you would like to share, please leave them in the comments.