50 Road Trip Activities for Kids Ages 4-8
THE BEST ROAD TRIP ACTIVITIES FOR KIDS
If you’re preparing to take a family road trip you know there are a lot of logistics to figure out. One of the biggest concerns parents of young kids may have is how to keep their little ones entertained on the long drive.
Our family is starting to enter a new era of road-tripping where the oldest kids can entertain themselves for the majority of the journey. We now have 2 independent readers in the family (our 7 and 4-year-old), which helps tremendously. Now they’re ready for games, wordplay, books, and educational activities!
Between 2 of my 4 kids aging out of toddlerhood and just the sheer amount of road tripping we’ve done in the past 2 years, I feel like travel by car has gotten exponentially easier.
Our trips range from right down the road to 20 hours cross country (which we’ve done several times without stopping at a hotel).
I want to share what we’ve learned along the way about road tripping with kindergarteners and early elementary-aged kids so that I can make your family vacation just a little easier and more enjoyable. (And if you still have toddlers and preschoolers, here’s a post with 50 activities for the younger crowd).
Don’t forget to grab my Family Travel Planner so you can stop stressing about the logistics of your trip and have everything in one organized place!
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Road Trip Activities with Elementary Age Kids (4-8)
TRAVEL GAMES AND ACTIVITIES FOR KIDS ON PAPER
1. Word Search
Kids who are early readers all the way up to experienced readers love using these skills to solve a word jumble. The beauty of word searches is that they don’t require much - just a paper (or booklet) and a pencil! Here is a fun word search puzzle booklet specifically for road trips!
2. Scavenger Hunt
Print out my free scavenger hunt, and have your child circle or color the items they see as you're driving along. This game gave me a good hour of quiet time as my four-year-old hunted for the items on her list. This is a fun activity for kids of all ages. Even grown-ups can get involved!
3. Crossword Puzzle
Solving the clues to fill in the boxes of a crossword puzzle gives kids a sense of accomplishment, works on spelling and comprehension, and best of all, keeps them busy for long stretches of time! Check out this book of crossword puzzles for kids designed to improve their vocabulary! I also have a road trip themed crossword puzzle included in my Road Trip Activity Book for older kids!
4. Journaling
A great way to get kids involved with the road trip process is by having them journal their experience. You can get them a plain old notebook, order a special journal designed specifically for travel, or just print out some pages where they can write their thoughts (my Road Trip Activity Book has journal pages included!).
Give them prompts or just let them write their thoughts. You’d be surprised by how creative and descriptive kids can be! I also think teaching children to write their travel experience is a great way to teach them to stop and observe the world around them.
5. Drawing
Whether you just hand them a blank piece of paper and a clipboard, or you have a fun step-by-step drawing instruction book for kids (my son loves this one and my daughter is really into this one), kids love creating their own pictures.
6. Road Trip Bingo
Instead of having someone call out the letters and numbers for this bingo game, kids simply have to look out the window to fill in their bingo squares! Each picture on the bingo card is something they might see outside as you drive along.
Each card is different, so kids can try different cards and play multiple times. I would suggest grabbing a few of these dry erase pocket sleeves and dry erase pens so kids can cross out the squares they find, then erase them when it’s time to start a new game. That way you can reuse the cards you printed over and over.
7. Coloring Books
Any old coloring book will do, but our family’s favorite by far for road trips (and plane rides) are Crayola Color Wonder. The markers that come with the coloring books only work on the special paper so you know kids won’t make a mess and ruin your car!
Related: How To Make Road Trip Binders for Your Kids
8. License Plate Game
This is a classic! Do you remember playing the license plate game as a kid? You simply search for license plates from all 50 states and check them off as you see them. This game can last the entire road trip!
9. Alphabet Game
Look out the window at billboards, signs, and license plates to find all 26 letters of the alphabet. The challenge is to find them in order!
10. Textured Rubbing Plates
I remember playing with textured rubbing plates as a kid! Each plate has a different design that you can mix and match with other plates. Then you take a crayon without its wrapper and rub the side of the crayon on a paper over the top of the textured plates to reveal the design! Afterward, kids can color in the designs with more crayons or colored pencils.
We got our kids this one and this one for road trips and they love it!
11. “Draw a Monster” Activity
This is a game I used to play with my Spanish students (way back when I was a high school Spanish teacher) to practice shapes, colors, anatomy, and size vocabulary.
Basically you describe a monster step-by-step and let kids use their imaginations to draw the monster you’re describing. For example: “This monster has a head shaped like a square. He has one large round eye in the middle of his head. His mouth is a straight line with 3 triangle-shaped teeth poking out…” and so on until you’ve described a monster.
After you’re done, reveal the monster you were describing (a picture on your phone, one you drew yourself - whatever!) and compare it to the kids’ drawings.
If you don’t have the mental energy to do this (road trips are exhausting), I’ve included one in my kids’ road trip packet with step-by-step instructions, and the picture of the monster included at the end!
12. Mad Libs
This is such a fun game for kids because they can be as silly as they want! The only catch is that they have to understand what type of word is being asked of them (nouns, verbs, adjectives, or you can make it vaguer for younger kids like a person, job, action word, describing word).
Here’s a great Mad Libs book for kids, and there’s also a Mad Libs story in the Road Trip Activity Book.
13. Tic Tac Toe
Don’t forget about this classic game! I love how simple it is. All you need are a piece of paper and a pencil. Kids can easily draw out their own grids.
TRAVEL ACTIVITIES BOOKS AND TOYS FOR KIDS
14. Sticker Books
What kid doesn’t love stickers? On road trips, we love these reusable Melissa and Doug sticker books because they can't get stickers all over the car seats and windows. If your kids are old enough to know not to put stickers on any surface but paper, try this funny one, or this nature-inspired one!
15. Sticker Puzzles
Along the same lines, sticker puzzles are the newest craze in our household. It’s a perfect way to challenge kids on the road and I love that there’s a concrete end result.
16. Tangram Travel Book
(From the description): “The tangram is a dissection puzzle consisting of seven flat shapes, called tans, which are put together to form shapes. The objective of the puzzle is to form a specific shape (given only an outline or silhouette) using all seven pieces, which may not overlap.”
My 4-year-old got a Magnetic Tangram Puzzle Book that’s perfect for travel. He’s been loving the challenge of assembling the puzzles and shapes in the book.
17. Maps and Atlases
We decorate our home with maps because I love showing kids where we’ve been, where we want to go, and teaching them about other countries, states, and cultures.
That can transition to your road trip! Get the kids involved by giving them a map of the United States or just a map of your journey so they can follow along.
This U.S. Road Trip Atlas for Kids gives tons of trivia, fun facts, and activities for kids.
18. Magnets
Magnet tins are a great way to give your kids a fun activity they can take anywhere - including the car. Magnet tins come in all kinds of varieties, so whatever your child is interested in, you can find a magnet tin for that. They have magnet puzzles and play scenes.
19. Magnatiles & Magformers
This is a family-favorite at home, but you can take some on the road, too! Put a small number of magnetic tiles in a tin or bucket and use this idea booklet to build different shapes.
20. Their Own Magazine
Most adults love magazines for travel, so why not get your kids their very own magazine subscription? National Geographic Kids magazine is perfect for a road trip because it will spark their interest in animals, geography, other cultures, and the world around them.
With fun facts, games and activities for kids to play, and beautiful pictures, this awesome magazine for kids will keep your kids engaged AND inspire them to come up with travel destinations to add to their bucket list.
Check current price for a subscription here.
21. Books
If your kids don’t get carsick from reading in the car, encourage some quiet reading time during the trip. As an adult, I love reading through an entire fiction book in one road trip, and love teaching my kids to do the same!
Lately, they’ve been into comic books and graphic novels. We stock up from the library or Amazon before a road trip so they have tons of fresh reading material! Here are a few books suggestions kids might love:
Fly Guy (for early readers)
Elephant and Piggie (fun books for early readers)
Narwahl and Jelly (silly and adorable graphic novel for young readers)
Phoebe and Her Unicorn (funny and fantastical, this series is great for first and second graders!)
Magic Treehouse (these are chapter books, not graphic novels. I love the adventure component of these books, especially for a road trip).
Any Roald Dahl books (for more advanced readers)
22. Joke Book
Parents, I’m sorry to suggest this, because you’ll probably have to endure endless terrible kid jokes, but the truth is that kids LOVE joke books, and it will keep them busy for a while. Bonus points if you have multiple kids so they can tell the jokes to each other instead of you.
23. Glow Sticks
If you’re going to be driving at night, glow sticks will provide lots of glow-in-the-dark fun! Kids can make bracelets, necklaces, crowns, or just sticks.
24. Dry Erase Boards and Markers
Mini dry-erase boards are great alternatives to tons of loose-leaf paper, and you can use them over and over again for drawing, writing, hangman, tic tac toe, and more. These ones are great because they’re magnetic and can be used for magnet toys, too!
25. Select Toys from home
Maybe this is obvious, but I love letting my kids pick a few favorite toys from. home and packing them in their backpacks all by themselves.
My boys love playing with toy cars and their Toy Story figurines, while my daughter loves to bring a few Barbies and her American Girl doll.
26. Washi Tape
I have tons of brightly-colored and patterned Washi tape that I let my kids use to decorate their pictures on road trips. They might also love this Melissa and Doug Tape Activity Book to give them some direction.
27. BrainQuest
Nothing like good old trivia to get the brain fired up on a long trip! Brain Quest cards are so fun for kids, and they come in all different levels and age groups. This Brain Quest for the Car is a fun road trip option with questions all about America!
28. Spot It!
Have your kids played Spot It? It’s such a fun and portable little game for all ages. Each kid gets a stack of cards, and they turn one over at the same time. Each card has several pictures or symbols on them. They have to compare the two cards and find the one picture that appears on both cards. Whoever finds the match first gets to keep the cards.
29. Magnetic Infinity Puzzle Cube
These magnetic blocks come in a cube that you can take apart and put back together in different shapes. It comes with 54 cards to make all kinds of various structures.
30. Window Clings
Window clings are such a fun way for kids to use their imagination in the car. There are farm animals, vehicles, princesses, and more! Take them off and restick them to the window as many times as you want!
31. Bop It!
We got our 4-year-old the Bop It! game for Christmas, and ever since then we’ve been having family Bop It! tournaments. It’s a relatively small toy, and you can even adjust the volume so it’s not too annoying for the driver.
ROAD TRIP ACTIVITIES WITH ELECTRONICS
32. Audiobooks
If kids are still very early readers or they get carsick or just need a break from looking at the page, try audiobooks! Borrow CDs from the library, use an Audible subscription, or see if your online library options (Overdrive, Libby, or Hoopla) have good kids’ audiobooks.
33. Camera
Does your child have a camera? It could be the one already included on their Kindle, or an inexpensive digital camera for kids like this one (great for 4-5 year-olds) or this one (great for 6-8 year-olds).
Give them a photo scavenger hunt of things to take pictures of during your trip, or let them record the journey however they want through pictures and videos.
34. Podcasts
There are lots of great podcasts for kids out there! Why not download a few to your child’s tablet or play some over the speakers while you drive? There are imaginative stories, science podcasts, history podcasts, and more! Sh! Don’t let your child know they’re learning!
35. Music
Seems like an obvious distraction on a road trip, but it’s one I often forget about until things look dire. Everyone is tired of being cooped up and starting to snap at each other when I realize that a bit of music will help calm everyone down.
Put together a kid-friendly road trip playlist or borrow some audio CDs from the library to keep spirits high.
36. Kindle (or another tablet)
Not all technology is bad! I would be remiss not to mention the Kindle FIre Kids Edition. They’re relatively inexpensive compared with other tablets, and it was the best investment our family ever made.
You can download the Kindle Freetime Unlimited App (which you get free for a year after purchasing the tablet). The Freetime App is amazing because it only allows age-appropriate books, games, and videos according to the age limits you set as a parent, AND kids cannot exit the app.
I’ve honestly been amazed at the things my kids have learned from the games and videos on their Kindles and the insightful follow-up questions they’ve asked.
37. Timers
Giving your kids access to a timer of some sort will be a fun way to help them pass the time. Our daughter got a “smartwatch” for her 7th birthday, and she has loved the freedom to set timers herself.
For example, if she’s asking me when quiet time is done or when lunch is, I can give her a set amount of time which she plugs into her watch. This way she doesn’t have to keep asking me how much longer is left!
It doesn’t have to be a fancy watch, though. You can give your kids an egg timer, too! You could come up with loose “schedules” for them, and they can control the timer. Try something like 20 minutes of reading time, 30 minutes of play, then you can go on your Kindles for 30 minutes.
38. Voice Recorder
Kids love listening to their own voices! A simple voice recorder, whether that’s on a tablet, a kids’ smartwatch, or its own device, can provide tons of backseat entertainment! My kids love making up songs or dialogues, recording themselves, and listening to it over and over.
39. Movies
Not all screen time needs to be educational. Let kids zone out and enjoy a favorite tv show or movie! You can download movies or shows on Netflix or Disney+ on kids’ tablets, or get a portable DVD player if your car doesn’t already come equipped with one.
VERBAL ROAD TRIP ACTIVITIES
40. 20 Questions
I taught my daughter how to play this game when we were waiting at the airport, but it would be just as fun in the car with the whole family! The original game has players come up with an animal, vegetable, or mineral, but I think for kids it would be easier to do categories like person, place, thing, or animal. Whoever is “it'“ thinks of something in one of these categories and tells the group which category it fits into.
Players take turns asking yes or no questions to try to figure out the mystery object. It might take some explaining and examples to help younger kids understand what a yes or no question is.
The group gets 20 questions to try to figure out what the word is. Guesses can count as one of the 20 questions (example: “Is it a horse?”).
41. ABC Picnic Game
This is a good game to practice the alphabet AND memory skills! One person says what they are bringing to the picnic starting with the letter A. The following person brings something starting with the letter B, but they have to repeat the first item. This goes all the way to letter Z, listing all 26 items in order.
Example for someone on the letter G: “I’m going on a picnic and I’m bringing apples, bananas, candy, drums, elephants, fries, and gum.”
42. Word Games
At dinner, in the car, or when we’re waiting in line for something, my husband and I like to challenge our kids with word games. It could be coming up with synonyms, naming as many words as we can think of that start with a certain letter, or come up with rhyming words.
43. Story Telling
Share the story of how Mom and Dad met. Tell them about your study abroad adventure in college (the PG version). Share a funny story about when you got in trouble as a kid. Kids LOVE hearing bits and pieces of their parents' lives.
Then let your kids tell their own stories (the time they scored a goal in soccer, the time they learned to ride a bike, their first day of preschool, etc). Warning: if your kids are anything like my daughter, these stories will last for approximately 47 minutes each.
44. Limericks
Limericks are such fun poems to teach kids! Give them a few examples first, then teach them the structure and see if you can come up with one as a family.
A limerick has 5 lines. Lines 1, 2, and 5 must rhyme. They each have 8 syllables.
Lines 3 and 4 rhyme and have 5 syllables.
A great and familiar example of a limerick is “Hickory Dickory Dock.”
If your kids are on the younger side, you can help them by getting them to pick the rhyming words or creating the limerick yourself but filling in the blank!
45. “Name 3 Things”
Come up with a list of categories, then see if the kids can name 3 (or 4 or 5, etc) things in each category! For example: types of cereal, presidents, shapes, types of road signs, kinds of vehicles, etc.
To make it more challenging, make it a version of Scattergories. Pick a letter and challenge them to come up with 1 or 2 words that start with that letter for each category.
46. Memorization
While your kids are a captive audience in the car, challenge them to memorize something if they complain that they’re bored. You could learn the 50 states (try the song 50 Nifty United States), the presidents in order, Scripture verses, times tables, poems, or vocabulary words in other languages.
It’s helpful to put whatever you’re trying to memorize to music. (I learned the 50 Nifty United States song in 4th grade and have known the states in alphabetical order ever since. It’s definitely come in very handy!) Breaking up information into smaller bits helps them memorize lots of information. (For example, memorize 5 presidents at a time).
47. Punch Buggy Game
We all remember the Punch Buggy game - and we probably wince a little bit thinking of an older sibling pounding on us every time they saw a Volkswagon Beetle.
Honestly, I don’t want to deal with my kids whining because of a game that sanctions punching one another, so I would introduce a variation of this game. It could be a certain kind of car or a certain color of the car. You could have the kids shout a funny phrase, do the crazy shakes (like from Team Umizoomi), or clap 3 times.
You could also keep a running score. Whoever shouts the phrase first gets a point. Whoever has the most points at the end of the trip gets a prize!
48. Conversation Starters
Travel offers plenty of opportunities to get to know your kids on a deeper level. Long road trips offer the chance to initiate a conversation with your little ones. I’ve listed 100 conversation starters your kids will love in this blog post. You can print them out as a list, or print them out as cards so everyone can take turns picking a card and prompting a conversation.
OTHER ROAD TRIP TIME-FILLERS
49. Sleep
We like to leave right before bedtime and drive through the night if we have an especially long trip ahead of us, like our drives from Florida to Wisconsin. It’s nice to have a large chunk of the trip when the kids are sleeping.
I also love to institute nap time if we’re driving all day. The big kids might not necessarily fall asleep, but I make sure they’re all comfy with pillows and blankets and designate this time as “quiet time” so the younger ones can sleep.
50. Pick ANY Candy
When you know you have a rest stop coming up, tell the kids they can each pick ANY candy they want at the gas station or grocery store.
To a kid, this seems like the ultimate luxury. They’ll spend the next 10 minutes (at least) debating the merits of one candy vs another.
(I’m also not above a bribe. “If you guys are quiet for the next 20 minutes you can each pick out any candy you want.”)
51. Snack Time
I’m diligent about packing a variety of healthy snacks for a road trip. We, of course, have treats, too, but I try to make sure the majority of the snacks have a bit of nutritional value so we’re not all feeling like garbage after hours of being sedentary and consuming nothing but sugar.
Having designated snack times for the kids helps take up some time and gives the kids something to look forward to.
PREPARING FOR YOUR ROAD TRIP
Grab your Road Trip Activity Book for toddlers and little kids
Check out my whole list of toddler-friendly activities on Amazon
What did I miss? What games or activities do you do on road trips with your little kids?
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Emily Krause is a Florida-based travel blogger who writes about exploring the world with kids. On A Mom Explores you’ll find best family travel destinations, Disney World tips, and how to make travel with babies and toddlers a little easier.
Emily believes that exploring starts in our own backyards, and adventure can happen anywhere with the right mindset.
