Road trip learning: Fun and educational travel activities for kids to beat the “Are we there yet?” blues

Diverse family in the car, two kids waving all excited to go on a summer trip

School’s out, and everyone in the family is looking forward to hitting the road for a summer getaway, right? Until it actually happens, that is. If your kid has ever asked, “Are we there yet?” before you’ve even left the driveway…this post is for you!

Grown-ups and kids alike tend to draw a sharp line between “fun” and “educational.” Erase that line! Make your next road trip a little bit of both. Keep reading to get games, tools, and tips that change highway miles into big-time smiles and learning moments.

Turn your car into a classroom (no desk required)
two kids in a car, one working in a book the other learning on a tablet

Learning doesn’t need to stop just because you’re on the move. Kids want to see new sights, explore new places, and have new adventures. But they want it to happen right now. And minus bullet trains, flying cars, or teleportation, that’s not gonna’ happen. So help them pass the time it takes to get there wisely. Think of learning on the go as “homeschool on the road.”

Why road trips are a gold mine for learning
collage of photos of kids packing and preparing for a summer trip

Sure, traveling with kids involves planning, organization, and a little bit of heavy lifting. But road trips are terrific opportunities to teach life skills, geography, history, math, and creativity. Involving kids in the front-end process teaches valuable lessons and lightens the load. With fewer distractions and options available than at home, especially if part of the time is set as “device-free,” car time can actually help kids focus on one task, skill, or train of thought at a time.

Again, let kids know on the front end that part of the time will be screen-free and collect their thoughts on possibilities. Check out this handy Travel Checklist to help kids with planning and packing. (They’ll be relieved to see that tablet and headphones are on the list!) When kids participate in planning and prepping for trips, including how to make good use of travel time, the experience: 

o    Teaches patience and planning
o    Develops emotional self-regulation (the ability to ID and manage one’s feelings)
o    Encourages curiosity and independence
o    Provides real-world exposure to geography, maps, time zones, etc.

Read on for a few different categories of ideas on how to turn travel time into learning time.  

Screen-Free Games That Spark Learning (and Laughter) 

Anticipate groans and protests when kids are told to put away devices for a designated period of time, but that’s OK. You’ll be ready with replacement fun! The value of low-tech bonding and brain-building is huge. The Conscious Mommy website notes that screen-free road trips “…encourage family bonding, stimulate creativity and imagination, reduce eye strain, promote better sleep, and enhance observation skills and engagement with surroundings.”

Screen-free road trip ideas can take many forms. Here are a few games and activities to get kids thinking, competing, and having screen-free good times:

o    License Plate Scavenger Hunt – Reinforces geography, spelling, counting, visual discernment, and observation. The standard way to play is to tally the number of different states or the number of a specific state. But kids could also track vanity plate sayings or the highest/lowest plate number.
o    Story Round Robin – Encourages creative thinking and verbal storytelling. In this collaboration, one person starts the story, and everyone takes turns adding to it. The results can get pretty comical!
o    Road Trip Bingo – Practices object identification, pattern recognition, and patience. Create your own cards or print out one of the many available online designs featuring pictures of various objects (such as a bus, gas pump, police car, or cow). Cross out each one spotted, and the first to complete a horizontal, vertical, or diagonal row shouts, “Bingo!”
o    "Would You Rather: Travel Edition" – Boosts critical thinking and communication. So you think everyone in the car knows each other really well? Try this game to find out! Come up with your own questions or start with this list, among many available online, from The Best Ideas for Kids. The choices will get kids thinking, laughing, and learning about themselves and each other.
o    20 Questions: Famous Inventors, Animals, or Places – Great for logic and memory. In this classic game, choose a category, then pick one player (roll of dice? number guessing?) who thinks of something in that category, maybe jotting it down but hiding it. Other players can ask up to 20 yes-or-no questions to inch closer to the answer. Among fun travel games for families, this one always stays near the top of the list.

Educational Apps & Audiobooks for the Road

Swapping out some screen time for other activities is essential, but realistically, kids will eventually want to pull out their devices and/or plug into in-vehicle entertainment systems. And let’s face it, soothing silence in the backseat makes for calmer, more road-focused adults in the front seat than sibling squabbles and micro meltdowns. However, the value of screen time depends on what’s in play. Here are some options for “smart” screen time:

o    Libby or Audible(Kids) – Thousands of kid-approved audiobooks. With a library card and the Libby app access eBooks and audiobooks for kids of all ages for free. With Audible you can set up profiles and choose kid-friendly titles for your bigs and littles. 
o    Brains On! Universe – An “award-winning science podcast for kids and curious adults from American Public Media.” Emphasizing “there’s no age limit on curiosity,” episodes are for everyone!
o    Tales2Go or Pinna – Audio stories that engage young imaginations. Tales2Go is a subscription audiobook streaming service with offerings for preschoolers to preteens; Pinna, also by subscription, is a curated collection of podcasts, audiobooks, and audio games for ages 3-12.
o    Stack the States/Stack the Countries – Geography becomes a game. Available on major app stores, with “States,” kids learn capitals, state shapes, geographic locations, and more about all 50 states. With “Countries,” they learn facts about 193 countries, including flags, capitals, languages, border countries, and more. Here is a Wiki about both apps. They are fun for virtually all ages!
o    Anywhere Teacher - A fun, digital learning app from School Zone for ages 2-8, featuring over 3,000 books, games, videos, songs, flash cards, and interactive worksheets. A subscription offers free-play exploration; curriculum-based learning paths for preschool, kindergarten, and first grade;  and mini paths offering skill-focused adventures that break learning into bite-sized steps—perfect for building confidence in areas like the alphabet, counting, or math facts. All subscriptions include free digital gifts, as well as gifts delivered to your home. 

Road Trip Journaling & Map-Based Challenges

two printable pages to for kids when going on a trip, a travel checklist and a travel journal

Add hands-on activities that mix writing, reflection, and navigation practice. It helps deepen the learning and develops mindfulness and observation skills. Here are three ideas:

o    Create a Travel Journal using this free journal page. Each day, kids can draw or write about what they saw, where they visited, and what their favorite part was. At the end of the trip, compile them into a book to share with grandparents and friends.
o    Use Printed or App-Based Maps to mark each city/town passed by or through. How many miles between them?
o    Make a State Facts Challenge in which kids find one cool fact for every state they enter.

Make it personal – let your kid be the navigator, playlist DJ, or tour guide

When kids feel they are literally just along for the ride, it can create a “yeah, whatever” attitude. In turn, this can cause them to withdraw further. Giving them some control over what’s happening has significant benefits. For example, it can:

•    Encourage autonomy and creative ownership of the trip
•    Increase enthusiasm and engagement
•    Tap into real-life skills: planning, sequencing, organizing, memory, storytelling

Here are some specific ways to help kids feel like the trip is truly theirs:

o    Let your child choose a landmark or roadside attraction
o    Rotate “trip leader” roles with siblings: someone tracks mileage, someone logs food stops, etc.
o    Plan a themed music/podcast playlist by state or mood; consider half-hour-long turn-taking rotations

Let them lead the way; they might surprise you with what they choose and notice!

The best memories are the ones that teach something too
a collage of photos of families and kids on a trip and a variety of educational products that are travel friendly

Effective kid-friendly travel learning means flexible thinking about what education looks like. Whether traveling two hours away or two states away, give one or two of these ideas a try and see what happens. 

Remember: You don’t need a perfect itinerary, you just need some creativity, snacks, and a willingness to turn the backseat into the best classroom on wheels. Along the way, be sure to take Anywhere Teacher on the go, and share your favorite road trip learning hack with us on social.

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a family on a road trip driving down a road toward the mountains

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