Car Time

This last month, we traveled quite a bit.

We don't have a dvd player in the car (gasp). I know. My children have suffered greatly.

But just in case you are like me and don't spring for the electronic gadgets that occupy your children's bored time, here are a few car games that have improved my sanity.

#1 started as "Spot the Hawk". Where we look for hawks perched along the Kansas highways. There are actually quite a few of them if the highwire lines are along the road. This game has evolved to "spot the meadowlark" or "spot the vulture" or "spot the bird and identify it". Or tree or car or farm animal....

#2 Storytime. Go around and take turns telling a story, one sentence each. You can either throw a sentence out there and see how it goes, or you can jointly come up with a character, setting, and plot and stick to it throughout the story.

#3 Cloud watching. The kids like this one- it sometimes is hazardous for mama to play.

#4 "Going to Grandma's House"- The classic car game where we take turns saying what we are taking to Grandma's house in alphabetical order, repeating each item with each turn. You can go with whatever pops into your head, or pick a theme. Animals, for instance, or even narrow it down to mamals. My personal favorite, however, is storybook characters. My two older girls helped my compile this list:

A- Alexander (and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day)
B- Bear (Bear Wants More)
C- Cat In The Hat
D- Dopey (Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs)
E-Edmond (Chronicles of Narnia)
F- Ferdnand (the Bull)
G- Godfather (The Nutcracker)
H-Henry (The Boxcar Children)
I- Ingalls (Little House on the Prarie)
J-Judy Moody
K- Karen (The Red Shoes, Anderson's Fairy Tales)
L- Lizzie Bruin (The Berenstain Bears)
M-Max (Where The Wild Things Are)
N- Nanny (Peter Pan)
O-Opal (Because of Winn Dixie)
P-Pippi Longstocking
Q- Queen Esther (the Bible)
R- Roy (Grandma's Attic)
S-Shere Khan (The Jungle Book)
T- Tracy (Hello Kitty)
U- Ugly Duckling
V- Violet (Charlie and the Chocolate Factory)
W- Wilbur (Charolette's Web)
X- ?????
Y- Yackity Yack (Sweet Pickles)
Z- Zans (One Fish, Two Fish, Red Fish, Blue Fish)