My parents were very sneaky ... actually had us learning stuff! I was an adult before I caught on! We played Bizz, Buzz, Bong. Start counting... whenever you get to a # with a 6 or that is a multiple of 6, that person says bizz. Picture going around the car...Dad says 1, mom says 2, brother says 3, I say 4, Dad says 5, Mom says Bizz, brother says 7, etc. When you have bizz down, you add buzz (for 7s). Eventually you get to add 8s (bong). Trying to keep up when you are in the 60s & 70s is hilarious. Played the same game in college as a drinking game We all knew our times tables cold!!

A game I learned on a full day (1500 miles) unplanned car trip. The car was packed with people in various states of shock after 9/11 trying to get home because we'd been away at a business conference. Pick a word, like "love" and try to name as many songs as you can with that word in it. If you can't think of any more, the next person picks a word and the game goes on. It really helped pass the time.

This is a horribly intellectual game that my dad calls "Botticelli". One person thinks of a famous person and gives the initial letter of their name (B for instance). The other players have to think of people beginning with this letter and say "are you a composer?" for instance. The first player has to think of a composer beginning with B and say "No, I'm not Beethoven". If the first player can't come up with someone (other than the person they are thinking of) in the category beginning with the correct letter, then the other players have earned the right to a direct question to be answered with yes or no - eg are you female, are you alive, etc. The player asking "are you a composer/ rock star/ artist / politician" or whatever has to have someone in mind who fits the category and initial letter, and has to say who it is if the first player fails to think of a name. If they have guessed the right person, they have won. Also, the players can't just ask "are you another composer" in a later turn. They have to narrow it down e.g. "are you a French composer?" Too complicated to explain - yes probably, but I remember playing it on car journeys at about the ages of your girls!

for Ruth: I, too, learned to play Botticelli in the car at a young age, but with the exception of the family who taught it to me, I've never encountered anyone else who knew what it was. Where are you from and how long have you been playing it?

Bashful: Listening to HP on tape in no way replaces the experience of reading. But when I first started listening to the first book, I had tried to read it but couldn't get past the opening chapters. I knew I had to be missing something since all of my friends (yes, all adults) loved the HP books, so I picked up the tape to listen to in the car on business trips. Since I was a captive audience in the car, I pushed on through until the time Harry finds out he's a wizard, and from that moment I was absolutely hooked. I've since read and listened to each book multiple times. Hope this helps.

Well, ejcrowe, I learnt Botticelli from my father who is Irish (I live in the UK). I don't know where he came across it. I've just looked it up on the web, and I see a number of sites describing it and a suggestion that it was a radio programme, though like you I've never come across any other families who played it.

There is a nice description at http://setiathome.berkeley.edu/davea/games.html which includes the variations Bratislava (geographical locations) and vermicelli (food and recipes)!

I like Gail's high tech alternative to what I was going to suggest for eradicating the "are we almost there?" blues. I just xeroxed the map and gave them each a copy and a highlighter.

We used to make up a lot of map games.

MadLibs..there are countless books of them.

Thanks for explaining Boticelli. If anyone here reads Laura Lippman novels, the characters talk about playing Boticelli. I hadn't heard of the game but I played something similar one time at summer camp during a forced march with a tick check at the end ('hike in the woods').

We (parents in early 40s, 10 year old boy, 13 year old girl) take several long car trips per year, and never play games. I don't know why. We love books on tape. Some family favorites: Holes, Pride and Prejudice, The Scarlet Pimpernel, A Tale of Two Cities. We also enjoy taking turns reading aloud. The only book we've done that with so far has been A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court. Listening is a good way for kids to learn classics, because the books stay more interesting somehow. Adventure books are really good. I think the Harry Potter books would be great, especially if none of you have read them.

We enjoy "Redneck scavenger hunt" Examples: Straw against a house, motor hanging from a tree,refrigerator on front porch, dog chained to junk car, etc.

Here's another vote for books on cd or tape. We started all listening to the same book when my girls were about your girls ages by picking a book off one of their reading lists from school. It happened to be "Holes" and we were all hooked. Harry Potter is a great choice because it is long and everyone in the car will enjoy it. Also consider books by Judy Blume. Each of the girls also have their own cd player if we take a break from the book.

I highly recommend the Harry Potter books on tape. An Englishman reads them, and uses wonderfully different voices for the characters. We listened to the tapes after reading the books, and still enjoyed them!

Check out www.momsminivan.com
All sorts of games for car travel and nice map to print out as well as other printable games.