A family vacation is a wonderful opportunity for us to spend quality time together, have loads of fun and relax. When we travel with kids, things can be rewarding, but a bit more challenging. Even a superman can get exhausted if he manages children throughout the vacation. Here is a little help for you to keep your children engaged during the journey.  Whatever is the mode of your travel, be it bus, car, plane or train, these games will surely entertain your kids. Even while taking a stroll, some of these games can be played.

Word-building

It is one of the best ways to teach new words to kids. First choose a topic. Say ‘Animals’, then first participant should tell the name of an animal; next participant should name another animal starting with the last letter of the previous one. Example: Person A says ‘Tiger’, Person B should say some other animal starting with letter R, like ‘Rabbit’. Like this continue till you exhaust almost all known animals.

Forming sentences

This is funny as well as imaginative. First participant says a ‘word’; second one says another word, and so on. Last member of the group must tell a sentence using all the words.

Example: In a group of six, five people say these words: ‘bat’, ‘cat’, ‘green’, ’beauty’ and ’chocolate’. Sentence could be “While eating a chocolate, a beautiful cat pulled me so I hit it with a bat”. It will be more hilarious if several disconnected and random words are given.

Guess what it is  

A leader will describe an object with three phrases. Children should find out what it is by asking minimum number of questions.

Example: Leader says “I am black and white, small in size, but can burn the world.” Kids can ask “Do we have it in home?” or “Do we get in shop?”

Answer can be revealed after quite a few guesses. In this example answer is Matchstick.

Test your memory

An adult among the group should display around 30 objects. (Simple ones like pen, lighter, wallet, coins etc.) within two minutes. Kids must recall them after 5 minutes and write them on a paper. This game increases their observation skill.

Unscramble States and Capitals

Though it requires a bit of preparation, it is a good way to teach geography to children. Prepare cards with scrambled states of a continent on one side and scrambled capital cities on the other side of a table. Challenge the kids to unscramble every place within a stipulated time.

List what you need

If you are going for a special trip like trekking, camping, exhibition, etc., you can give an imaginary situation to kids and ask them how they will come out of it. Also ask them to make a list of essential items. This teaches them survival skills.

Example: Give this scenario. You are on a trekking trail and suddenly you got lost. What objects will help you to come out of such tricky situation. Guide children by questions like “Do you need a compass?” or “Should you carry a torch light?”

Fun with license plates

Ask children to note down license plates of at least 20 cars and write them. The task is to make meaningful words out of those letters.

Name the Holiday Beat

This is a great game for families to play together. Using the CD player in the car and some music CDs, play 2 seconds of the first line of a song (holiday beat) and press the PAUSE button. Challenge the players to sing the rest of the first line. Award bonus points if the players can name the movie from which the holiday beat was taken and identify the singer.

travel games for kids while travelling on car,plane,train and bus

So, next time you travel, try some of the games mentioned above and have maximum fun.