Children are among the toughest to entertain during a drive. They are notorious for repeating the line, "are we there yet," over and over again. Giving each child in the car a map and some markers will occupy them during the trip and will give the parents a bit of peace during the drive.
Kids usually like to be involved with what is going on, and giving them a way to track the car's progress during the ride can teach them about maps and directions while holding their interest.
Before the trip, draw a dot on the map where the trip begins and another dot on the final destination. Throughout the trip, update the kids on where you are every few miles and help them track the route of the car on the map so they can see where they are traveling on the map. They will begin looking for signs and learning how long it takes to get from one place to another. This activity will occupy them on and off throughout the trip and will stop the incessant questioning about when you will arrive.
Children probably play the license plate game most often, but it can be fun for the entire traveling party as a way to pass the time. Print out, or simply write out, a list of all the states in alphabetical order and hand a copy to everyone who is playing. Even the driver can play, but a passenger will have to do the marking.
The object is to be the first to spot a license plate from a particular state along the highway. Once one person has spotted a plate from a state and calls it out, that person gets to mark it, and no one else can claim this state. At the end of the trip, the person with the most states is the winner.
Riding in silence will make a car ride seem longer than anything else. When a car full of family or friends sits and stares blankly out a window without speaking, a great opportunity is being wasted.
In today's society people are often so busy that there is very little time to just relax and talk about what is going on in their lives from day to day. A car ride is the perfect time to catch up and have long chats while nothing else is on the agenda.
Portable entertainment devices are certainly effective in helping pass the time. There are plenty of portable DVD players that allow passengers to watch movies during a trip. In addition, there are countless digital music players, video game machines and laptops that will allow passengers to kill time in various ways until the ride is over. While this works well, it discourages talking and other communications between those taking the trip.
