And Miles to Go Before You Sleep...

Some good news and some bad news.

First the bad news.  If you are taking a road trip, your kids are going to fight.

Now the good news.  Your kids are going to develop amazing eyesight.  Specifically, eyesight to see otherwise-imaginary lines of demarcation between their seats and their sibling's seats; lines that, when crossed, will provide the encroached-upon child with full and legal justification to simultaneously alert the police and either shove or punch their sibling.

Can this outbreak of hostilities be stopped?  Not if you actually plan on taking your roadtrip.  However, you can at least try to distract your children with other activities as you trek across the wide open expanses of our beautiful country.  Here are two of our favorites:

1) The license plate game - No sense beating around the bush - this is our all-time, go-to activity in the car.  We usually print out maps for our kids and have them color in the states as they locate the corresponding license plate.  When our kids were younger, we printed out maps with the names of the states included.  As they learned the map, we printed out blank maps or postal code maps.

We have also developed various rules for the game.  The most basic rule is that a state does not count if you are currently driving through it, and then we usually require that we be 10 minutes outside the border of a state before it can be counted.  As many trucks are incorporated in four states (Maine, Tennessee, Oklahoma, and Oregon), we require that those states be found on cars to make the game more interesting.  Small prizes, say a special snack or whatever qualifies as a privilege in your family, for anyone who finds the really hard states - Alaska, Hawaii, Wyoming, and Idaho (and possibly the Dakotas and Montana).  Of course, what counts as hard also varies by where you are.

One set of rules we have discussed but have not fully implemented is a point system.  Points are given based on how many states away from home the license plate is found.  Thus, a New Jersey plate in Pennsylvania would be worth only one point, but if that same plate turns up in California, you could be looking at a 10-point bonanza.  Number of states is determined by the most direct route.

2) Riff -Off - This one needs older kids, and it needs a family that has listened to a lot of music.  If you fit those categories, this is awesome.

My wife and I used to play a simple song game - we would pick a category (colors, nature, cities, etc.) and take turns signing a few lines from a song that either fit the category as a whole or at least contained the requisite words.  Bonus points if the name of the group fit as well (e.g."The Boy from New York City" by Manhattan Transfer).  Riff-Off takes this to a new level of expertise.

Inspired by the movie "Pitch Perfect", in a Riff-Off one person starts a song, and then someone else has to jump in and "steal" the song by picking up on a word in the original song and finding that word in a completely different song.  Words such as the, and, and so on do not count.  As I noted, this requires a good knowledge of music and some quick thinking.  We also allow any song to be included - the latest song from Taylor Swift and the theme song from Sesame Street are both fair game.  When everyone is really rolling, this game is fun, challenging, and is an awesome bonding experience.

In my next post - screen time in the car.  Until then, happy travels!