Games for Car Rides and Kids (No Equipment Needed)

Here are some simple games to play in the car with kids on a long ride that need no equipment.

1.  Yellow Car:  Everyone looks for yellow cars.  The game scores as follows: regular yellow car – 1 point, yellow pick up truck – 5 points, yellow mustang – 5 points and yellow Hummer – automatic win!  We keep score until someone finds a yellow Hummer but you could just do it for a certain amount of time.

2.  Rainbow Car:  Work together to find cars in the color of the rainbow.  You must do it in order.  Therefore, first you look for a red car, then orange, yellow, green, blue and finally purple.

3.  Quiz Questions:  My children love this game.  Give them quiz questions based on their lives.  Some example questions are “What is Grandma’s middle name?”, “How old was Mom and Dad when they got married?”, “What day of the week were you born on?”, etc.

4.  Alphabet Game:  Collectively work together or individually and race to find words that start with all letters of the alphabet.  You really need to be driving on a highway or busy area for this game to remain exciting.  Start by finding a word with the letter ‘A’, once found move onto the letter ‘B’…  We have a few extra rules – you can not use license plates, you only have to find the letter Q or an X and if it is getting boring just look for the letters instead of words.

5.  10 Facts Each:  Go around the car and each person states 10 facts about him/herself.  For example: I ate oatmeal for breakfast.  I wore a red dress yesterday., etc.  Once everyone has stated their 10 facts try to remember all the facts and who said them.  Obviously you can not state your own facts about yourself.  See how many you can remember.

6.  First Person to Find:  This is a hit with us for short rides that get boring.  One person starts and declares an object “first person to find an American flag”.  Then the first person who finds an American flag announces the next object to find.  I always make sure everyone gets a turn.

7.  Would You Rather?:  We love to make up crazy would you rather questions to answer.  For example, would you rather be super rich but you would have to be naked for the rest of your life or poor but you had a great wardrobe?

What games do you play in the car to pass the time?