“Are we nearly there yet?” You might have barely left your house, but these five simple words are a sure sign that the holidays have started. Here are some handy travel games that you can play in the car (or on the bus, train or plane!) to occupy your child on longer journeys.
If you have younger children in the car, this is a great way to occupy them. Babies and toddlers particularly enjoy singing and action rhymes and it is a great way to distract them if they're becoming disgruntled about being stuck in a car seat. Sing 'Heads, shoulders, knees and toes' to them and then mix it up to include other parts of their bodies, for example, eyes, ears, mouth and hair.
When your toddler is beginning to recognise animals, see if they can spot them while travelling. They will be thrilled to point out horses, cows and birds as you travel from point to point. You can even pack a simple animal book so that they can seek out the animals they have found for reference.
The skill of playing I spy with a leading letter takes a bit longer to master, but you could try playing ‘I spy, something that is the colour…’, then following it with green and see if they can say grass or a tree! Learning how to play ‘I spy’ takes a lot of practice, so don’t forget to switch places so they can call out the colours they want you to spy.
Using paper and a crayon, encourage your child to make marks of the things that they see while you’re travelling. You might want to help them by making a basic tally sheet for them and do this by following their interests. So, if they love cars, it could be a tally of the different cars you spot.
Take it in turns to create your own silly, hilarious tale, one sentence at a time. Go around all the family members adding a sentence as you go and layer in characters and scenarios to get the imagination running wild!