Thoroughly Modern Housewife

Yay!  If your family is like mine though, you'll probably be hitting the road, "Family Vacation" style.  

We are so lucky these days to have a DVD player in the car, its good for at least a couple of hours of quiet.  In fact, I'm not quite sure how my parents got through a long car ride without one. But, of course we still need some more ways to keep the kids entertained. 

When I was little I remember a car trip bingo game we had.  A little magnetic game board with things like cars, trucks, power lines, hotels etc...   It was really super fun for us as kids and so what would be better than making one for my own little ones. 

Want to make one yourself?  Grab a couple of magazines and look for pictures of things you can find along the way.  Kids would also have a great time helping to look through the magazine, kind of like a search and find.

Find things like animals, cars, street signs and anything else you typically see while driving.  My girls are pretty young so I just pulled a couple of big pictures, I figure a dozen would be plenty to keep them busy, but not get bored with it before they found them all.

Then lay the pictures out on a sheet of paper.  I used card stock, because they  have little travel desks they can keep it on, otherwise I might have used cardboard so it would be sturdier. 

I was going to glue them down and put it in a plastic sleeve (the kind you put in a three ring binder), but I don't plan ahead and didn't have one.  :)   So, I used packing tape.  I just covered the top with the tape, being sure to not leave any part untaped.

 Then just get some dry erase markers, and mark away. 

For one kid, its great to just see how many items they can find.  If you have two kids that would both like to play, or are super competitive like my girls are, Make two similar ones, with different pictures of the same items, and see who can find them all first.

Then just wipe it away and start again!  :)

Hope this brings you a little bit of peace during your next car trip!  I would love to hear how your keep your kids happy during a long drive!