For Younger Kids
Animal Guessing
Adapt Michelangelo from above for smaller people. One person thinks of an animal and the others take turns guessing what it is by asking yes/no questions, e.g., Do you have hooves? Do you live in the jungle?
Name That Tune
My kids both play Suzuki violin, so we started using the CD that they listen to every day in order to play Name That Tune. We’ve since expanded it to other favorite CDs, such as the Beatles, or to humming Christmas carols.
I Have a Cat
There are many variations on this alphabet game—including “I’m going to the grocery store to buy …”—but this is among the cutest I’ve heard. The first player begins with a name that starts with an “A” and a kind of food beginning with the same letter, attributing both to his cat. For example, “I have a cat named Arnold who likes to eat asparagus.” The next player adds a “B” name and a “B” food for her cat.
Storytelling
This isn’t a game per se, but a great activity that my kids really enjoy and that can easily be adapted to different interests or situations. It’s simply a group story, in which one person begins the story, often with a limit of two sentences. (One doesn’t feel like quite enough, and three can be too much, especially for younger players.) Then the next person adds to it. We’ve done stories that related to the place where we’re going, or that have to include a pre-determined set of people or things, e.g., the woman we talked to at the beach yesterday, a whale, and the semi-truck that just pulled past.
It’s worth it to get a few good car games under the belt while traveling, as it makes the time go by faster and offers a brief respite from the Are we there yet? For a while, at least.
