We’ve taken a number of road trips with our kids that have been full of adventure and free from whining. When they were smaller I utilised Play School CDs to sing along to, colouring books and stickers in an effort to keep them busy. They worked well. As they’re getting older I’m finding that they are transitioning to word games, i-spy and those type of activities. Whilst providing them free rein of their iPad’s would guarantee an easy trip without any talking, it wouldn’t really be a family fun trip would it? This has led me to start collating a bunch of activities that I can have at the ready for our next trip.
I’m a working mum who doesn’t have a heap of time on my hands, so I’m utilising a number of sites to pull my inspiration and resources from and listing them below to help you create your travel packs too. Today’s focus is on Counting Cows.
I’ve never played Counting Cows before. I found it via Moms Minivan and knew it was a game I could adjust to create a number of versions. The original game is easy. You simply divide the car into two teams: the left side and the right side. Work out how long the game will go for and confirm this with everyone in the car (eg. We will finish this game in 30 minutes; We will finish the game when we get to X). Every time you pass a field of cows, count all the cows. 1 point is allocated to each cow counted which is awarded to the team whose side of the car the cows were observed. Easy peasy, right? Moms Minivan has made this a little more difficult by adding various other objects/animals to find on the trip that equate to further points. Passing a cemetery wipes all points belonging to a team on that side of the road.
I could see myself keeping score to begin with, so I thought I would provide a visual support to help the kids keep track of their points throughout the trip. I headed to Activity Village who have a range of play money to print. With little effort I printed all the notes that had a face value the same as our points. I figured that I could award notes to the kids as they gained points. I could then encourage them to bank their notes for higher denominations e.g.. 5 x $1 would result in $5. I feel a little guilty that they will be learning while we play -not!
Have you played counting cows before? Did your kids like the game?
Oh! I’ve played this and I completely forgot about it! Thanks for writing it up!
I’ve never played this before, but what a fun idea! Definitely one I’ll keep in mind for my daughter on the way 🙂