26-03-2004, 11:39 AM
For all of you with kids, whatever the age, what do you do to keep your kids entertained on long journeys?
Tomorrow I'll be travellign 3 hours to get to the braai, and wondered if you had some tips.
I've got a book on travel games and here are a few that I liked the most... (approximate age of children in brackets)
Spotting games;
Spot the dot (3+)- Ask your child to hide his eyes while you stick a small dot somewhere nearby, such as on the car dashboard. Then tell him to open his eyes and see if he can spot the dot.
Road Signs(4+) - See how many road signs you can spot, and ask your children if they can identify what they mean. To make itmore fun, they could think of alternative meanings for the signs.
Lucky Numbers (5+) Each child chooses a number from zero to nine as a lucky number, and then has to look out for it on the number plates of parked cars, winning a point for each one.
Musical Games
Songs like;
ABC Alphabet song
One two buckle my shoe,
Ten green bottles,
Incy Wincy Spider
One man went to mow
If you're happy and you know it
Fast and slow songs - Choose a song that everyone in your family knows well, but don't let on what it is. Then sing it at top speed to see if your children can identify it. Alternatively sing as low, high or slow as you can.
Mind the gap - Pick a song that your children know the words to and sing it, leaving a pause at the end of each line so that they can fill in teh missing word. Or you could adapt this as a 'spot what's wrong in the song' game, singing, for exammple, 'Humpty Dumpty sat on a chair' or Jack and Jill went up the mountain'.
The book is called Travel Games, by Jane Kemp and Clare Walters.
Tomorrow I'll be travellign 3 hours to get to the braai, and wondered if you had some tips.
I've got a book on travel games and here are a few that I liked the most... (approximate age of children in brackets)
Spotting games;
Spot the dot (3+)- Ask your child to hide his eyes while you stick a small dot somewhere nearby, such as on the car dashboard. Then tell him to open his eyes and see if he can spot the dot.
Road Signs(4+) - See how many road signs you can spot, and ask your children if they can identify what they mean. To make itmore fun, they could think of alternative meanings for the signs.
Lucky Numbers (5+) Each child chooses a number from zero to nine as a lucky number, and then has to look out for it on the number plates of parked cars, winning a point for each one.
Musical Games
Songs like;
ABC Alphabet song
One two buckle my shoe,
Ten green bottles,
Incy Wincy Spider
One man went to mow
If you're happy and you know it
Fast and slow songs - Choose a song that everyone in your family knows well, but don't let on what it is. Then sing it at top speed to see if your children can identify it. Alternatively sing as low, high or slow as you can.
Mind the gap - Pick a song that your children know the words to and sing it, leaving a pause at the end of each line so that they can fill in teh missing word. Or you could adapt this as a 'spot what's wrong in the song' game, singing, for exammple, 'Humpty Dumpty sat on a chair' or Jack and Jill went up the mountain'.
The book is called Travel Games, by Jane Kemp and Clare Walters.
at present he is downstairs eating crisps and watching telly....so hopefully he will be okay....