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How do you make a road trip fun for kids?
Well, besides packing all. the. things., you’ve gotta stock up on car activities for kids. From activity books to fun questions, we’ve got options for preschoolers, grade schoolers, tweens, and even multi-generational road trips.
This isn’t a random round-up. We’ve purchased and loved using every one of these products, and we hope you love them too!
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Car Activities for Preschoolers
Preschoolers and road trips. Do they mix? They do for us! Many car activities for kids may focus on grade schoolers and tweens, but let’s not forget our preschoolers!
Best Busytown Games & Activity Book
This preschool activity book, Best Busytown Games & Activity Book, kept our then 3-year-old occupied on the entire flight to Hawaii and then for days after that!
Big Busy Sticker & Activity Book
Stickers, stickers, and more stickers! Like over 900 stickers! If you have a preschooler who loves stickers, this Big Busy Sticker & Activity Book is perfect for them!
Preschool Sticker Activity Book
The Preschool Sticker Activity Book is great for your preschoolers ages 3-5.
Travel Activities for Kids
What are some fun things to do in the car? From a road trip activity book to road trip games, there are so many options for things to do on long car rides with kids. Check out these kids road trip activities for your next vacation.
The Best Ever Backseat Games
“All you need is a great imagination and a good sense of humor.” – The Best Ever Backseat Games can be played in the car or on a plane or train. The book indicates how many people can play each game: one or more, two people only, or two or more people.
Rubber Neckers
“Everyone’s Favorite Travel Game” – Rubberneckers combines many beloved road trip games into one package. Travelers rack up points by locating objects on their cards. Expect to be entertained for hours!
Scavenger Hunt for Kids
This travel card game (Scavenger Hunt for Kids) is easy enough for young kids but fun enough for the whole family!
Travel Activity Book (7-9 Year Olds)
Way more than just coloring pages, this Travel Activity Book (7-9 Year Olds) has mazes, riddles, puzzles, brain teasers, and more!
Adventures Around the Globe
Who says your road trip has to be in the U.S.? Even if it is, this Adventures Around the Globe activity book can let your kids dream about all the places you can visit around the world!
Kids Travel Journal
This Kids Travel Journal has cute fill-in pages of maps, packing list items, itinerary snippets, daily check-ins, and food ratings! It’s great for younger kids.
Vacation Activity Journal
The Vacation Activity Journal is geared toward older kids, with fewer prompts and less space for coloring. It does have a check-off page for playing the license plate game.
Travel Journal for Kids
Depending on how long your trip is, this Travel Journal for Kids can be used for multiple vacations. The format (prompts, etc.) is the same throughout the book, but you will be able to use it for quite a while.
Road Trip Activities for Tweens
Looking for things to do on a road trip for tweens? Look no further.
Star Wars Mad Libs
Whether or not Star Wars is your jam, Mad Libs are always funny. With these Star Wars Mad Libs, you’ll be mad libbing about Jedi, Chewie, Luke, and Han.
Travel Activity Book (9-11 Year Olds)
Similar to the travel activity book for 7-9 year olds, this Travel Activity Book (9-11 Year Olds) kicks it up a notch for the tween(s) in your family.
National Geographic Kids Ultimate U.S. Road Trip Atlas
As its name indicates, this National Geographic Kids Ultimate U.S. Road Trip Atlas is full of maps. These maps, however, are easy-to-read road maps of each U.S. state, with fun-filled information about each state right alongside. There’s also a newer edition of the book now available.
Road Trip Games for Families
Last year, Cam and I took an “epic road trip” with our immediate families and our parents…10 in all…6 adults, 4 kids. Multi-gen road trip! We had an ambitious itinerary, heading from SoCal to Durango, Colorado, and back, in a little over a week. To up the ante, we rented a large van and rode together. Yep, 10 of us and all our corresponding stuff were in this one vehicle.
In this case, car activities for kids often translates into car activities for the whole family! To help pass the time, especially on our solid driving days, we stocked up on road trip games. Here are our best picks for a multi-generational road trip!
Grandparent Talk
Since this was a multi-gen road trip (3 generations), we found Grandparent Talk. – “Connecting Generations with Conversation! A Fun Way to Interact with Your Grandkids!” – There are 100 questions in the deck, held together by a ring clip. Questions such as “Are we related to anyone famous?” and “What is your favorite family tradition?” allow grandkids to get to know their grandparents in a fun way.
Table Topics To Go: Road Trip
Table Topics To Go: Road Trip is another great conversation starter deck (like Grandparent Talk). “What was your all-time favorite vacation?” Take some time to put down the electronics, and get to know your family a little better.
Homeschool Families
Audio Books
Listening to audio books is a fantastic way to pass the time on a road trip, while getting some school done at the same time. Amazon’s Audible subscription has thousands of titles to choose from. Listen and watch the scenery roll by!
Read Aloud Books
If reading in the car doesn’t bother you, there are sooooo many great books to read aloud to your family. We will never forget driving into Seattle while finishing Detectives in Togas.
Voice Amplifier
I do a lot of reading aloud on our road trips. As such, I do a lot of losing my voice. Enter the voice amplifier. Check out my voice amplifier highlights to see what I mean!
Enjoy Your Road Trip!
We hope you enjoy choosing from these car activities for kids options for your next road trip!
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What are some non-e-device ways you’ve found to pass the time on a road trip with kids? Please share in the comments below!
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