We all know that a long car journey can be both stressful and boring, particularly with young children and particularly if you’re travelling down a long set of awkward windy roads that require your full concentration just to stop yourselves from getting lost. At times like this the voices on the radio only serve to increase your annoyance and your children have long worn out the ‘red car yellow car’ game. So what else can you do to help keep your concentration levels up and distract the kids so that you don’t end up careening off the end off a cliff?

One sentence story challenge

Start up a story and say one sentence of it. The next person has to continue the story by adding their sentence, trying to keep the story going for as long as possible. You are only allowed one sentence before you have to pass the story onto the next person, and you have to try and keep to a reasonably plotline (which can be hard for the younger passengers!)

If your kids are artsy, why not ask them to draw the main character from the story at their favourite point in the story? It will get their imagination working hard, and if they know they have to draw it beforehand they will put more effort into creating a believable story.

Alphabet Challenge

Pick a topic and challenge everyone to come up with an item from that topic that starts with each letter of the alphabet. Once you’ve completed the alphabet, move onto the next topic.

The Twenty Question Game

Again pick a topic and think of one thing in relation to that topic (i.e Robin Williams for famous film stars). Write the item or person down – ask a friend if you are the designated driver – and then give it to someone else. They cannot look at the piece of paper, but must hold it in a way so that everybody else can see it.

The aim of the game is to then guess what the item is that is on your piece of paper. You are allowed 20 questions which will help you to figure out what is on your paper, and the other players can answer yes or no to those questions. Each player asks one question, where the answer is yes or no, and then the next player asks their question. Once 20 questions is  up, you have to guess what you are. You can guess beforehand if you have a clue, but sometimes it can be quite hard!

Staying on the road for long periods of time can be hard. But if you remember to take plenty of breaks and stop as soon as you start to feel tired, you should reach your destination without a hitch!