New Road Trip Activities / eBooks - ES Kids

[Anonymous]

Looking for some ideas to refresh our backseat box of activities for our lower/mid elementary school aged kids. Similar requests for ideas I've seen posted on DCUM tend to be geared for younger kids, maybe this thread can help other people hitting the road this summer with older kids, who haven't hit the tweens. It may also help people taking to the air too -- most of our roadtrip activities have worked well on planes, too.

Here's our situation:

Our big trip usually includes at least two 8+ hour segments with me and my two kids. They're old enough to pack their own "things to do" in the car, and they actually have plenty of go-to's they put in rotation already (e.g., the magnetic logic games by SmartGames, Mindware Color Counts/Perplexers), but I like to bring at least one new thing mix things up a bit. The younger one just got a Rubiks cube that he's put aside for the trip. Someone also recently recommended Last Mouse Lost that may fit the bill of what I'm seeking, but still looking for other ideas.

Both kids can both be pretty ferocious readers at times, so book ideas are welcome. Any audio book suggestions that are palatable for both kids and adults are preferable. We've done Flat Stanley, Magic Tree House level stuff, but they're beyond that now. They like fantasy (e.g., Harry Potter) and well, I can't think of anything specific they don't like, right now. Non-fiction is fine too. Something like the Who Was / What Was book series would be great. Selfishly I'd love to listen to David McCoullough's The Wright Brothers. They watched the Imitation Game and the older one in particular loved it. (Yes, I know it was rated PG-13. It happens.)

App suggestions are a non-starter as they don't have Kindles or iPads, and they're pretty cool with that. (They caught me off guard recently when they told me how much they like taking in the scenery, not just "doing" things. They also said they like spending time at quiet parks listening to nature. Apparently, they love to do things with their friends, but also ike to spend time away from the chaos. It was pretty awesome to hear since road trips, museums, parks have become our thing. I'm trying to savor this attitude for as long as I can. I know it won't last much longer. TICK, TICK, TICK.) I tend to use my phone for navigation, but downloadable podcasts are OK in addition to CDs. Streaming an audio hasn't always worked in some areas.

For rest stops we have the usual fare of light games (e.g., standard cards, UNO, No Thanks, Sushi Go, Zombie Dice and a recent acquisition, Coloretto). Weather permitting we like to stretch out a bit and play with a frisbee / ball and gloves / hackey sack or go geocaching.

TIA!

[Anonymous]

Audio books have been a favorite of my kids who are now 13 and 10.
All of the Roal dahl books
Incredible Journey
The Doll People
Mrs. Piggle Wiggle's Magic
Paddington
The Miraculous Journey of Edward Tulane
Shiloh
Charlotte's Web
Peter Pan
Mary Poppins
To name a few are great for the car and don't chase the mother to want to poke her ear drums out.

Note books and colored pencils
Playing hangman
mad Libs

[Anonymous]

OP here -- Thanks for the titles -- I see some that I and/or kids haven't read yet. Also, thumbs up on the notebook, pencils, and of course mad libs. We got mad libs Jr. last year which was great because it gives sample lists to choose words for the various parts of speech. The kids have now "graduated" to regular mad libs now, and they still get a kick out of them just like I remember from my childhood. They also keep lap desks permanently in the car -- which has been great too.