Many people will be traveling by car this holiday season. And, some of them will be traveling by car WITH KIDS this holiday season!

The following article was in a newspaper I read on the internet. I thought some of our seasoned parents could add some hints to this list to help some of our new parents who will be trying to hang onto their patience as they travel in the coming weeks. And, no! Taping their little mouths shut and tying them to the seat is not an option - sorry!

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Fun and games can make a trip less troublesome
By ELLEN TOMSON Knight Ridder Newspapers

A long car trip with children can be daunting. Some families install a television for watching videotapes or hand out headsets for listening to music or books on tape. But there are plenty of free games and activities that can draw a family together, promote learning and creative thinking and turn hours on the road into miles of fun.

"The important ingredients are simple -- anything that keeps kids occupied and content in their seat belts or car seats -- and doesn't exceed your tolerance level for messes in the car," says Debra Kratz of Mahtomedi, Minn. Kratz, a co-author of Field Guide to Parenting with Shelley Butler of Shoreview, Minn., is the mother of two -- a 10-year-old and a 13-year-old -- and is a veteran of numerous family road trips.

For many car games, participants and the passing roadside scene are all that is required. Here are some suggestions for games old and new:

Car bingo: One person plays the role of the caller and others are asked to write 10 two-digit numbers on a piece of paper. The caller then calls out the first two numbers of license plates of passing vehicles. The first player to cross all two-digit numbers off his or her list wins.

Name that tune: Hum the first line of a song. Keep humming until someone recognizes the song and starts singing it. The person who guesses correctly by singing the words then takes a turn humming another song to be identified.

Bird-flower-tree: One person picks a letter of the alphabet. Each person in turn thinks of a bird, flower and tree beginning with that letter. No one is allowed to repeat the choices named by someone else. After each person has named a bird, flower and tree beginning with the chosen letter, the next player picks a new letter as the beginning letter for a bird, flower and tree. Play continues, with players dropping out when they cannot name one of each for a chosen letter. You can vary the game and make it easier for younger players by choosing other categories. Example: animal, fruit and color.

Snap, crackle, pop: Look for dogs, horses and tractors as you travel. When someone spots a dog first, he says, "snap" and receives one point. When someone spots a horse before anyone else, he says, "crackle" for three points. When someone is first to spot a tractor, he says "pop" for five points. The winner is the first person to score 50 points. Make the game more challenging by adding other objects and sounds for points. Examples: motorcycle ("zoom"), boat ("bubba bubba"), police car ("rrr rrr").

Auto alphabet: Be the first person to find all the letters of the alphabet on signs along the road. The game can be played by two people or in teams.

Animal counting: One player (or team) looks out one side of the car, and the other player (or team) looks out the opposite side. Animals on each side are counted. If a church is passed on one side, the number of animals on that side is doubled (because they all got married). If a cemetery is passed on a side, counting must start over again (because all the animals were buried). The first team to total 100 animals wins.

My grandmother's trunk: One player begins, "I looked in my grandmother's trunk and found a ----- (a real or imaginary object)." The next person repeats the phrase, names the item the first person found and adds another item. Play continues with each player repeating in order all the objects named before and then adding one new object. The game ends when no one can recite the correct sequence.

Geography by last letter: Start with the name of a location. The next player has to think of a name of another place that begins with the last letter of the first place name. For example, if the first person says "Texas," the next person could say "San Antonio." (For more of a challenge, limit place names to a particular continent, country or state.) If a player fails to produce a place name for a letter, that player drops out. The winner is the last player remaining in the game.

License plate game: Winner is the person who spots license plates from all 50 -- or the most -- states. A variation: For each new plate spotted, players label the corresponding state on a blank map of the United States.

Find it: Make a list with items for children to look for, such as a soda pop can, barn, bicycle, man with a beard, golf course. Have each child check off the items on his copy of the list as he spots them. Who can find all the items first?

Colors and shapes (for younger children): Hold up a sample of a color and ask your child to call out everything he sees that is that color. Do the same with shapes.

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I have two more games to add...
1) Big/Small - The driver can't play this game, but even little children pick up on it quickly. You can either say the word big or small, if you say big, you bring your hands together as if you are saying small. If you say small, you spread your hands far apart as if you are symbolizing something that is large. Take turns doing this and there is no particular order (if you said small, the next person doesn't have to say big), the object of the game is to see how fast everyone can go. If you say big (or vice versa) and have your hands spread far apart, you lose.

2) Snaps (modeled after a drinking game)- This game is a little more difficult for smaller children. Snap your fingers on your right hand, then your left, hit your right leg, then your left, snap your right hand, then left, then clap, and keep going in that order. Pick a topic like states, countries, cities, flowers, bodies of water, the names of relatives, anything there is a lot of. The object of the game is while keeping the rhythm each person takes turns saying a name (at the clap). If the topic is states, **clap** Washington, **clap** Ohio, and so on. If you miss your cue, mess up the rhythm, copy something that has already been said, or say something wrong, you are out.

Richard Boston's book "Beer and Skittles" has a British variant on the "animal counting" theme. The players on each side of the road score one point for each leg seen on (or possibly implied by) a pub sign. Thus "The Duke of Wellington" or "The Cock" will score 2, "The White Horse" or "The King and Queen" will score 4, "The Dog and Duck" will score 6, and so on. "The Fox and Hounds" is accepted as a knock-out victory.

I think this is probably an ingenious idea rather than a practical proposition: kids will soon get bored if scoring is slow, and nowadays a journey of any length will probably be largely along a featureless motorway. It might have worked in the past, when main roads actually went through towns and villages.

Animal, Mineral, Vegetable seems to be missing there.
And we do the animal game with our kids and I have to say, put on your bragproof filter here, but they are really really good at animal classifications in French and English.
We loosened up the rules a bit for the little one at first.
He gets an animal, and then we ask questions like "where does it live?" "What does it eat?"
He learned the words omnivorous, mammal, reptile.

There is another game that I learned from some TV show. I played it once with several children and it became an instant hit. It's called, "Excuse Me, What Are You Doing."
To play, a person acts out an motion, such as combing their hair. Another person then asks them, "Excuse me, what are you doing?" The person pretending to comb their hair has to say that they are doing something else, such as brushing their teeth. If they mistakenly say what they are really pretending to do, comb their hair, they are out.