Provide road maps of the route you are traveling to older children. Kids from approximately age 8 or 9 and up can learn the fundamentals of map reading with this activity.
Make a mark to designate where you started and make another mark to designate the points where you will stop along the way until you reach your destination. Trace along your route with a marker or highlighter.
Introduce the concept of scale for map reading and talk about what actual distance an inch represents on the map.
Provide a compass for the map-readers and help them learn how to use a compass to find directions and how to relate the compass directions to the road map.
Encourage the children to use a different colored marker to trace along the travel route to show the distance traveled. Help children keep track of miles traveled and miles left to travel. You might also help children to notice highway signs, exit signs, mile markers and signs telling about hotels and gas stations. Try to connect some of these highway signs and accommodations signs to the road map so children can connect your actual location to where you are on the map.
Here is a new twist on an old game. Have kids imagine all of the rooms in your home. Encourage one player to choose a place to hide in your home. Because this is just pretend, they can choose any place and not necessarily a hiding place that is large enough to accommodate the player's size. For example, a child might choose a dresser drawer, under a couch, on a high shelf, or even between the pages of a book. Encourage a wild imagination to come up with unexpected hiding places. Other players ask the "hiding" player yes or no questions to try to determine the hiding place. Let the play continue with as many questions as desired, or limit the questions to a certain number before the player reveals his or her hiding place.
Have children count horses outside the car windows. Children on one side of the vehicle work together to count all of the horses seen on their side and children on the other side of the vehicle work together to count all of the horses seen on their side of the vehicle. Players continue to accumulate horses in their tallies until the vehicle passes a cemetery. The players on the side of the vehicle with the cemetery lose their entire horse tally and must start over from zero. The team with the most horses when you reach your destination wins.
