The Aloha State

One of our favorite games to play on a road trip involves finding as many license plates from different states as we can during the course of our trip. Obsessively stalking the rear-end of vehicles on our 1100 mile drive to South Carolina last summer, we used sheets of paper, pencils, and a wooden clip board to cross off 43 of 50 states (Hang loose! We even spotted Hawaii somewhere near Lexington, Kentucky.). An inexpensive way to track our progress, inevitably someone melted a candy bar on our map and it fell into the sliding door jam…twice.

Since our old-school method of playing the license plate game, we discovered the State Plate app for the iPad. This looks like a fantastic download for high-tech families lucky enough to own the iPad. In the mean time, we were thrilled to discover a sturdier version of the U.S.A License Plate Game from the kid-experts at Melissa & Doug*.

West Virginia Spotted in a Parking Lot

Durable, colorful, and educational (in true Melissa & Doug form), the U.S.A. License Plate Game involves zero flying projectiles (game pieces are held together with tight bands, flipping to show a sample license plate design, the name of the state capitol, and two colors—red or blue). Used to play the traditional license plate game, track your trip itinerary, or pit family members against each other in a friendly game of trivia.

A perfect time to play the license plate game, holiday travelers were spotted from 26 different states as we spread our journey out over the long Thanksgiving weekend. Spotting Florida at a red light, Colorado on an on-ramp, and West Virginia in a parking lot, ideal places for license plate variety are rest stops, popular restaurants, and hotel parking lots. Assigning the kids with the task of flipping the game pieces and locating the states, we may have taken a ridiculous detour or two in the name of vacation-induced OCD.

U.S.A. License Plate Game

A fun Christmas gift for the road-tripper in your family, the U.S.A. License Plate Game is our de facto pick this year. No batteries required.

*We asked the folks at Melissa & Doug to take the game on the road with us this past holiday weekend. We’re not giving it back.

The Adorable Mr. Pish

Take only pictures, leave only footprints. How many times have you seen this reminder on a park sign? Here’s a 20+ year confession; the paper weight on my desk is a triangular-shaped rock I lifted from the Continental Divide the summer between third and fourth grade. I blame my parents, of course.

Documenting your vacation in the form of post cards and journaling (blogging counts) is  great for kids for a number of reasons, including (1) it keeps them writing and reading on summer vacation, (2) it gives them the “job” of historian (keeping them occupied in the car, restaurant, hotel, or campground–yes!), (3) they are collecting material for those first “What I did on Summer Vacation” projects when school is back in session.

Thanks to advances in digital film technology, it’s easy to hand the kids a camera and let the creative liberty begin. Check out this photo from the Wisconsin Deer Park. Taken by a three-year-old, is anyone craving Milk Duds right now? Hit the post office and buy a book of post card stamps. Sharpen pencils. Pack notebooks and tape (acorns and seashells can be “contained” to paper instead of the tiny car projectiles they really are). We once took home a cactus in a Wendy’s fast food cup. Embrace your inner Eagle Scout.

To get you started, check out the book “Postcards from Mr. Pish: A Cross-Country Journal,” by K.S. Brooks. Using post cards as a trip journal, Brooks took her Jack Russell Terrier, Mr. Pish, on a drive from coast-to-coast and even into Canada. As the “author,” Mr. Pish writes about what he sees, where he goes, and what he learns. Featured in photos throughout the country, my younger kids shrieked with delight at the one where Mr. Pish was pretending to drive the car. Note: this led to a discussion about why dogs are ineligible for a drivers license. Ever. Yes, folks, these kids will be running our country some day!

Deer Park as Seen by 3 Year Old

Whether it’s sending post cards, looking for license plates, collecting coins, adding to charm bracelets; really there’s no right or wrong way to document your trip. The point is to include and engage your kids (heck, even get them in on the itinerary planning) and roll with the punches. Someone will probably, inevitably, sneak home a rock or two. But, twenty years later, they’ll probably have a paper weight souvenir and some stories to tell! And you can go back and have a good laugh too.

If you happened to read the longer story about bringing low-tech fun back to the family road trip, I mentioned playing traditional board games as a way to entertain kids without plugging them in. Pressman Toy Corporation is the third largest game manufacturer in the United States and had been manufacturing fun since 1922.  Given the opportunity to review three products on a road trip, I selected ones for slightly younger kids (preschool-elementary). With games and puzzles for toddlers to adults, here’s our $0.02.

Animal MASTERMIND Towers

In this exciting new vertical version of MASTERMIND designed for kids, players secretly stack their animals into a tower. By asking yes or no questions, they skillfully try to get inside their opponent’s mind. The game can be played at three different levels. The first player to break the code of his or her opponent wins.

I love this game for several reasons. First of all, I could assemble it without coffee and second of all, the animals look ready for a good smack down. The “baaaad” sheep cracks me up every time I look at the box. Shenanigans aside, we’ve been playing the “modified” version of Animal MASTERMIND Towers between the three- and four-year-old. Simply remove one or two of the animals from the tower and you can practice the concept of “on top of” and “below” to your hearts content. Hold on to your crabby patty: this game also comes in SpongeBob Square Pants (!).

Dinosaur Train Card Games

Play the classic games of Crazy 8’s, Old Maid, and Go Fish along with Buddy and your favorite players from Dinosaur Train. These classics never grow old and now have been given a new look that every kid will love with the Dinosaur Train characters.

Ever since my grandma taught me Gin Rummy back in kindergarten, I’ve loved to play cards. Solitaire, King in the Corners, Cribbage, War, and even Euchre (it’s a Michigan thing). When you play card games with your kids, you’re interacting with them, reinforcing math skills, and developing their self esteem (teaching that winning and losing are both part of the game). I played Crazy 8′s for four straight hours through South Dakota last summer (you can use a large hard-cover book as a playing surface, but look up before you miss the Badlands). Easy to slip in a backpack or purse, you can even bring a box of cards with you into a restaurant. Number one fans of public television, the Dinosaur Train characters were a big hit.

Travel MASTERMIND

Another great option for travel are the attaché versions of Pressman classics MASTERMIND. It’s the Codemaker vs. the Codebreaker! Which opponent will solve the code in fewer turns? The Codemaker secretly places any four code pegs in the code area then conceals them with the code shield. MASTERMIND was my favorite game as a kid. I would play with my dad over and over again (eventually he stopped letting me win and the game engaged us both).

We are enjoying the travel version. A little complex for our three-year-old, he is happy to make patterns with the different colors (oh, and the game got a little hip-and-trendier in the past 20 years). Despite the handy zip-up carrying case the travel pegs are tiny little projectiles. We learned our lesson from what is now referred to as the “Lite-Brite Incident of 2008,” and are careful to only take out the pegs as we need them. So far, so good!

Would You Rather is really fun because it says “Would you rather have poison ivy in your toes or on your butt!” And some times there are other really funny questions. I think I could play it for about an hour and a half in the car. It’s probably for ages 6 to adult. — Morgan, age 9