Car games for kids to play with the family

We’ve just completed two long road trips with the kids and it’s really important to have some car games for kids. I’m talking I-spy type of games. Games where they don’t have to be hooked up to the iPad with head phone. Not that I’m judging, my son watched the I-pad for a record 9 hours in one stint last month…

The other added benefit to these games is that it keeps everyone in the car involved, including the driver, preventing him from getting too drowsy and bored.

These car games for kids aren’t exclusively for long road trips.

This post should be helpful even if you’re trying to get to the grocery store or to the other side of town! I know some kids that just hate the car so these would be a good distraction.

I’ve also included some road trip Nursery Rhymes at the bottom to spice things up.

Car games for Kids

I-spy: both varieties

I didn’t realise that I-spy actually had an age limit, it makes perfect sense once you think about it, but for it to be effective your child has to be able to spell. So don’t even attempt the first version of this game until your child is at least 4. We still have my 4 year old saying “It begins with ‘ch'” when she’s referring to trees.

I-Spy with My Little Eye (the original version)

One person silently chooses something that they can see.

It must be able to be seen by everyone else in the car. (This rule is often overlooked by our kids and then there is a fight when the object was passed 10 minutes ago never to be seen again).

They the person who spotted the item says, “I spy with my little eye something beginning with …”, naming the letter the chosen object starts with.

Examples of I-spy:

I spy with my little eye something beginning with “T” = trees.
I spy with my little eye something beginning with “L” = leaves.

Those are two of the most common in our car along with “sign”, “road” and “sky”. I’m not sure how many times we hear those every game.

More I-spy examples:

“D” = dirt
“C” = cow or clouds
“B” = branch
“G” = ground
“L” = lines and lights
“H” = houses and horses
“W” = water (covers a number of bodies of water)

I-Spy with My Little Eye (the toddler version)

I-spy, the toddlers version runs along the same lines as the original version.

However, in this version, your child or the adult looks out the window, spots something and then says the COLOUR of the object that they’ve seen. This is a much easier version of the game and can be played with kids as young as 3.

I-spy examples for the toddler version:

I spy with my little eye something that is “blue” = sky.
I spy with my little eye something that is “green” = could be either leaves or grass.

More examples of the toddler version of I-spy

any colour could be the car in front of you
red, green or orange for a traffic light
white = clouds
brown = tree or dirt
black = roads
grey = lamp post.

I spy has to be the most commonly played car games for kids around the world. Given that it can get boring by the time you have to get back into the car to return where you came from, here are some other games.

Opposites

This game is great for younger kids, 6 and under. My kids love playing this and I don’t think it’s a bad thing.

All you have to do is ask them to name the opposite of one thing. And, what’s even better is once you’ve done all the ones you can think of, you then go back to the beginning and name the opposite of what you said before.

Examples of the opposites car game for kids:

Up and Down
Right and Wrong
Clean and Dirty
Fat and Thin
In and Out
Wet and Dry
Big and Small
Near and Far
Short and Tall
High and Low
Inside and Outside
Night and Day
Near and Far

Mix and Match

This is a new game I’ve just introduced to the children. They are still trying to get the hang of it but my 6 year old is able to guess lots of them. Even the 4 year old is able to guess some of them.

I think once we’ve been through most of the ones I can think up and we go through them all again they’ll be able to get them right.

This game simply involves listing one half of a “matching pair”. A matching pair is two items that are commonly listed together.

So what you would say is “what two things go together: salt and ____?”

Examples of Matching Pairs:

(I think these are largely cultural so what may be a pair for me, may not be for you but for you there are completely different pairs of things that are linked.)

Shoes and Socks
Salt and Sugar
Black and White
Swings and Slides
Tea and coffee
Pins and Needles
Hands and Feet
Sea and Sand
Eggs and Bacon
Moon and stars
Dogs and Cats
Song and Dance
Bread and Butter
Bat and ball
Herbs and Spices

We’ve gone for at least 30 minutes playing this game but I can’t think of the usual suspects now.

Complete the Idiom

This isn’t a game I’ve played with my kids, yet. We are due on a long road-trip in 6 months time and this is when I’m going to get it going.

It won’t be too difficult because I’m going to use things I say all the time as a basis for the game. Try not to laugh through the examples of what I will try first.

All you have to start the idiom and ask them to complete it, for example:

“Skating on ____________?”

The answer is “Thin Ice”. And I say this to them all the time so I think they’ll get it.

Examples of Idioms to Try:

A bull in a china shop.
It’s raining cats and dogs.
Get out of hand.
Pull yourself together.
Hang in there.
Slow and steady wins the race.
Better late than never (I’m probably not going to teach them this one).
Break a leg.
Get your act together.
Cutting corners.
It’s not rocket science.
Miss the boat.
Pull your leg.
On the ball.
That’s the last straw.
Under the weather.
We’ll cross that bridge when we get to it.
Hit the sack.

I can just hear them giggling while I explain some of these to them. And I really can’t wait to hear what they come up with.

Road Trip Nursery Rhymes

I can’t think of anything worse than listening to some Rhyme from the back of the car that goes on and on without any variation. Like that song about 99 bottles on the wall and “if one of those bottles was to fall there would only be 98 bottles on the wall...” If I heard that on repeat, I would very likely lose my cool!

So while these aren’t car games for kids, they are potentially a part of a very long road-trip.