Are we there yet? Are we there yet? In 11 days (love that new countdown over there in the right sidebar) we’ll leave for Canada. The first overnight stop will be in Portland, Oregon – a-10 hour drive from here. Does anyone know how many times a six-year old can say ‘are we there yet?‘ in a 10-hour period?
So we need some suggestions for great road games to help her keep her mind occupied. Remember, she’s not your average six-year old. She’s much more likely to play these games is she knows her ‘fans’ are suggesting the ideas and watching to see how it all turns out. In fact, we’ll write a blog post about how the games go. She’ll love that. Especially if we post something about it also at her 900 Funny Thoughts blog.
Please, add your great road games ideas as comments below! Thank you!
Slug bug is an old classic. if there are not enough bugs on the road you could make some modifications to the game. Pontiac attack, Jeep beat, you get the idea. The don’t even have to rhyme. Like, semi-truck slap. (my girls still flinch when they see a truck) On second thought Fiona may be a little more civilized than that.
Oh, I’d forgotten about that one! Of course she’ll be in the back seat while we’re in the front so I don’t think we have to worry about getting hurt. Maybe we can just keep a tally sheet or something like that. The first one to see 5 slug bugs gets to choose a special treat at the next rest stop or something like that.
We’ll also play the alphabet game, finding all the letters of the alphabet in order. First time, you can’t use license plates, second time, all you can use are license plates.
Just please, please promise you won’t succumb to the electronic babysitting monster!
Here’s what I think… LOTS of time to look out the window and make up stories. Silently. There aren’t enough hours and hours at a stretch to really work the imagination that deeply in our usual days.
Telling stories about the heroic deeds of people from history, including mythology.
Songs, of course.
Gas mileage calculation, calculations based on mileage signs, calculations of purchases….. (yes, 6 year olds can learn these calculations – and, bonus, it takes time for them to learn!)
How many people can you get to wave back to you in a 10 mile stretch? Can you beat it in the next 10 mile stretch? Does one kind of stimulus elicit more waves than another?
And, the license plate anagram exercise … LNG 341 = Lovely Night Gowns.
Great ideas Caitlyn! Fiona will love the waving game.
No, we won’t succumb to the electronic babysitting monster. We don’t have a TV in the car and she doesn’t own any electronic hand held games. Maybe a laptop with an educational online game here and there. Of course lots of books to read and music to listen to.
And Fiona loves calculations!
This is going to be so much fun!
What’s wrong with the television? I am sure you can stimulate a mind somehow with one of those. Of course, I can’t remember how because I haven’t had one for 15 years.
Dictionary stories. Bring along your Webster’s and begin telling stories from there. You open a random page and use one of the words from that page in your story. Once you have sufficiently developed your part (don’t end your part when you use the word…keep it going) you pass the dictionary to the next person for them to randomly choose a page. Or, you could stay on the same page and continue to use another word from the same page. You may want to pick up a youth dictionary.
20 questions is another game once you run out of stories. Chinese fire drill was loads of fun for me until my friends drove off without me. Cloud watching was one of my favorites too. Singing 100 bottles of beer on the wall was never one of my favorites but you could try and see how far you get. I usually lasted to about 94 and then knocked the singer out.
Oh, Michael. I wish we could bring you along. Just having you along would be entertainment enough.
Fiona does love to play the game, I forget what it’s called, where you go round and round with each person adding one word to the story and making all kinds of crazy things happen. I’m sure we’ll figure something out!
I like the dictionary word story. I might use that in the classroom. Thanks.
As for singing about bottles of beer, there was one trip where my son and I had to have a new noun for each round. 100 kettles of fish on the wall … 99 brilliant lights on the wall … 98 silly kids on the wall … 97 ridiculous dogs on the wall … 96 serious spiders on the wall … 95 knitting needles jammed in the wall … 94 fabulous books on the shelf … 93 scary rats in the walls … 92 bowls of cereal on the wall….
And, so on. Eventually, we got so silly we couldn’t breathe, driving was getting dangerous, and we ran out of ideas to top the other person’s last volley. Great, great fun.
I don’t want any of you people in the car while I’m trying to drive. Being a sensitive artistic type, all the noise and distraction would be most unwelcome.