Car games

[menthe_reglisse]

I am making lists of (hopefully) fun games to play in the car with kids on long journeys. So I thought I would share what I've got so far, in case it is of use to other people,with or without kids (and cars, although it depends how self-conscious you are about giggling on trains). Some of them also sound fun for grown-ups - although obviously I've picked ones that are likely to work best with a 5 year old and a nearly 8 year-old. LB doesn't like competitive games and reads and writes much more slowly than PB, so I've tried to avoid things that feature either of those, which rules out all those numberplate games.

I'm not listing obvious ones like I Spy, Animal-Vegetable-Mineral(-Fungi, as we call it, due to PB insisting that fungi are not vegetables) and Who Am I?

• The Star Wars game. I think LB invented or adapted this - you think of two characters from Star Wars and then you have to decide which would win if they fought each other. I prefer the variant where one or both characters doesn't have to be from Star Wars, so you get Han Solo versus Teddy Robinson or Robin Hood versus King Arthur. I also try to make this game not about fighting but about something else (best cook or like-to-have-to-tea), but LB usually isn't having any.
• The Vicar’s Cat ('is an Atrocious cat, her name is Arabella and she likes to eat Asparagus' and so on through the alphabet) Although actually we may want to avoid this game just now, I realise.
• My Grandmother went to Paris (sure you all know this, we just don't tend to play it)
• I’m so hungry I could eat a (A-Z and optionally cumulative, like My Grandmother)
• Colours - spot and draw 10 things that colour
• Bingo with preprepared things (restaurant chains, road signs, vehicles). Or draw each other bingo cards on the hoof.
• Silly answer (think of silly phrase, person who’s It has to answer all qs with silly pharse as answer and not laugh)
• Imitate people we all know (can include characters from books and films), others have to guess who.
• Tell group stories, each teller stops at a really exciting point
• A-Z spotting things beginning with each letter. Or letters of own name.
• Unfortunately… But fortunately. Player one creates sad vignette, Player two turns it okay again (or you could play it the other way round), Player one turns that sad again, Player two recovers it and so one until you've had enough of that scenario. The kids and I tried that out this evening and it was great - funny and creative and very revealing about the kids' world views - a lot of disasters were fixed by mummy or daddy fixing it or buying a new one.
• Player one says three words. Player two creates most interesting sentence they can, starting with first word and ending with third.
• Zombie survival - given 5 named things, how would they protect you?
• If you were an X (car, colour, vegetable) what kind of an X would you be, and why?

Things to talk about:
(With thanks to Minds In Bloom, who also sell 130 more, that I haven't seen. I've tweaked slightly)

• How would life be different if there were no electricity? List three different ways.
• Explain a flower to someone who has never seen or heard of one before.
• Write a story about the zoo without using the names of any animals.
• Pretend that you get to make one rule that everyone in the world must follow. What rule do you make? Why?
• What kind of soup would you eat for dessert? Write a recipe for dessert soup.
• You can have any three things that you want. In return you must give away three things that are about the same size as the things you get. What do you get and what do you give away?
• What are some ways you could celebrate "Backwards Day?"
• Are you more like a square or a circle? Why?
• How would the game of football be different if the ball was shaped like a cube?
• What are three ways the world would be different if people did not need to sleep? What would you do with the extra time?
• What would happen if all the balls in the world suddenly became alive?
• Which do you think is more important: motorized vehicles like cars and  airplanes or computers? Why?
• If you could choose one thing that costs money and make it free for everyone forever, what thing would you choose? Why?
• If you could live in a tree house, would you? What are three advantages and three disadvantages to living in a tree house?
• If people could not see colours, how would traffic lights work? Design a traffic system that does not rely on colours.
• What are the ten most important jobs in the world? Do you want to do any of these jobs when you are an adult?
• Pretend that parents have to take a test before they can have children. Write six questions that would be on the parenting test.
• If you could invent a new subject that would be taught to all children in school, what would the subject be? Why do you think children need to learn about your subject?
• If you could talk to trees, what do you think they might say? Create a conversation between you and a tree.
• Are you more like a river, a lake, an ocean, or a waterfall? Why?

Anyone else know any other good car games?