What it is: A car game, perfect for killing time on long (or short) rides.

Best for: A carful of players, from 2 up to 8 or however many fit in your car or van (or bus!)

What you need: A car trip!

How to play: This game is a variation on the alphabet game you play in the car, the one where you look out the window and try to find words that start with each letter of the alphabet, in order. Well, on a recent car trip when our family hit some traffic through a sparsely populated area and were crawling along and needed a way to entertain ourselves, we decided that, instead of looking for signs with words on them, we would just look for objects that start with each letter of the alphabet instead.

So instead of looking for a sign with a word that starts with a letter A, you just look for any object that starts with the letter A, like an arrow, or asphalt. Then move on to B, then C, and see if you can get to Z before the trip is over.

I think the game is best played cooperatively as a group. It’s fun because it’s a little more creative than the other variation. For example, you see a hamburger wrapper lying by the side of the road. It could be paper (P), maybe a wrapper (W), or even litter (L). Use your vocabulary and think creatively and see how far you can get!

It also moves faster than the other version. My daughter and I keep trying to get through the whole alphabet during the trip to pick up the older kids from school, and we’ve almost done it! One of our trickiest letters is I (it was easiest at Christmas time when there were lots of yards decorated with inflatables). (I’m sure letters like U or Q would be even trickier, but we usually don’t make it that far )

Rules: The rules we’ve played by are that the items must be outside the car, and they must be nouns that you can see (so “air” doesn’t count). We also don’t count adjectives (so “blue mailbox” wouldn’t fly for the letter B). But pictures of items do count (so a billboard with a penguin on it counts for P). But feel free to add or adapt your own rules!

Variations: Besides the normal alphabet game, another car I-spy game is the license plate search. Or, if physical objects are too hard, you can always play with brainstorming items in your head, too!

What it is: A simple and kind of silly talking game

Best for: A small group, and kids older than about 5

What you need: Just your brains!

How to play: 

Leg of spider,
Tail of rat,
Turn your dog
Into a hat!

In this game, players take turns making up silly spells. The spells follow this format:

[Ingredient 1],
[Ingredient 2],
Turn your _____
Into [something silly that rhymes with ingredient 2]

The ingredients often, but not always, take the form:

[Body part] of [animal or plant]

So, some examples of spells…

Thorn of rose,
Foot of frog,
Turn your grandmother
Into a dog!

Tail of unicorn,
Eye of newt,
Turn your homework
Into a boot.

Grease of bacon,
Horn of goat,
Turn your bed
Into a boat!

There are two ways you can take turns. One player can make up a whole spell and then play passes to the next player. Or, what I personally think is more fun, four players make up a spell together. Player 1 says the first line, player 2 says the second line, and so on. Player 4 should be someone old enough to rhyme.

It can be a great game for kids to teach rhyming skills and encourage creativity.

So how about it? What spells can you guys come up with? Post in a comment below!

Disclaimer if magic runs in your family: The Game Gal is not responsible for any friends, family members, and/or pets being turned into items including but not limited to monsters, animals, and/or household objects.

What it is: A talking guessing game perfect for young children

Best for: A small group of children plus some adults

What you need: Nothing!

How to play: Players take turns naming three things in a category. The rest of the players then guess the category.

For example, Matt says “Tyrannosaurus, Brontosaurus, Procompsognathus.” It’s pretty each to guess that the category is dinosaurs (this is why it’s a good game for small kids).

(Yes, I know, you’re like, “A good game for small kids? What small kid is going to know Procompsognathus?” But I just saw Jurassic World so I had dinosaurs on my mind, plus I wanted to draw a compy. Cute, right?)

Here’s some more examples, ranging from easy to more difficult:

• Katerina, Prince Wednesday, Daniel (characters from Daniel Tiger)
• Daisy, rose, violet (flowers)
• Chocolate chip, oatmeal raisin, snickerdoodle (types of cookies)
• Shoes, candy wrappers, rocks from the playground (things found in the backseat of our family van)

You can adjust the limit to 5 things instead of 3, or you can let the item-namer come up with an unlimited number of additional items, until the category is guessed.

If you want ideas of items in categories, check out the post three deep – that’s essentially all it is, groups of 3 items sorted into categories. You’ll have to figure out the category on your own, though

What it is: A mash-up movie guessing game that takes some creativity

Best for: Teens to adults

What you need: 

• You might find the IMDb or a list of movie titles helpful

How to play: Can you name this movie?

A snobbish phonetics professor agrees to a wager that he can take a flower girl’s innocent pet cocker spaniel and make her presentable in high society before a streetwise downtown mutt falls in love with her first.

Sound a little wacky? Well, it’s not a real movie. It’s a mash-up! A made-up summary of a combination of two movie titles that share a word…

My Fair Lady and the Tramp!

The summary combines parts of the movie My Fair Lady (1964), a movie about a phonetics professor passing off a flower girl in high society, with Lady and the Tramp (1955), a movie about an innocent pet cocker spaniel falling in love with a streetwise downtown mutt.

That’s the game! Take turns with your friends coming up with summaries of mashed-up movies and see if you can guess. See how wacky they get. Do you want some more examples?

A high school student time travels to a long time ago in a galaxy far, far away, where rebels are battling against a mean bully and his fleet of star ships, so they must stop the Empire from preventing his parents from meeting and falling in love.

A father and daughter attempt to defend their flock of orphaned Canada Geese from idiotic burglars during the holidays.

The Soviet Union’s best submarine captain in their newest sub violates orders and heads for the U.S., while a coal miner’s son with an interest in rocketry attempts to track down the sub and find out if the captain is trying to defect or start a war.

And then, finally, one from my brother-in-law that’s a bit of a stretch and might be a little tricky…

“Crouch, I say, crouch! Now you—hide!”

Guess all four movie titles in this post and I’ll give you a free escape room kit from my site!

Or do you have a movie title or summary to share? Post it in the comments! Maybe you can come up with a summary for one of these wacky combinations:

• The Corpse Bride of Frankenstein
• Black Beauty and the Beast
• October Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow
• The Great Escape to Witch Mountain
• A Little Princess Bride
• We’re Back to the Future
• It’s a Wonderful Life is Beautiful
• Treasure Planet of the Apes
• Star Wars of the Worlds
• Shark Tale of Two Cities
• Finding Neverland Before Time
• She’s the Man for All Seasons
• The Swan Princess Bride
• Forever Young Frankenstein
• Mighty Joe Young Indiana Jones
• Jungle 2 Jungle Book
• Bill and Ted’s Bogus Journey to the Center of the Earth

One last bonus, here’s a printable list of more mashed-up movie summaries with answers. You can give the list to a group and see who can get the most right. It would be a great movie night activity!

What it is: An easy, fast game that everyone probably already knows. But I like to be comprehensive, so here we go with some rock-paper-scissors instructions. Rock-paper-scissors is a quick win-loose game that is often used to determine who will go first or who will win some other small privilege.

Best for: Two players. But you could have a giant rock-paper-scissors tournament with tons of people!

What you need: Nothing! Well, technically speaking, each player needs to use their two hands.

How to play: In rock-paper-scissors, two players will each randomly choose one of three hand signs: rock (made by making a fist), paper (made by laying your hand flat), or scissors (made by holding out two fingers to look like scissors). Both players show their signs at the same time to see who will win. Here are the rules that determine which sign beats another:

• Rock wins over scissors (because rock smashes scissors)
• Scissors wins over paper (because scissors cut paper)
• Paper wins over rock (because paper covers rock)

(If that last one doesn’t make a whole lot of sense to you…you’re not alone.)

If both players show the same sign, it’s a tie. And that’s basically the whole game! It’s often played in a best-two-out-of-three format as a quick contest to decide who gets to go first or something like that.

To make sure things are clear, here’s a short video on the game:

It’s essentially just a game of chance. But if you’re young, rock-paper-scissors is a legitimately exciting game that can provide hours of fun…or, if not hours, at least minutes.

I did find this video that gives some interesting insight and tips at winning rock-paper-scissors. Who knew there could be that much strategy involved in a game of chance?

Variations: I’ve never played it, but there’s a variation invented by Sam Kass and Karen Bryla that includes five options instead of three: Rock-Paper-Scissors-Spock-Lizard. And I guess you could include the rock-scissors-dynamite variation.

What it is: A cooperative talking game where players try to say the same word at the same time.

Best for: Two players. I’ve seen it done with three, which is more difficult but could be doable.

What you need: You don’t need anything to play, other than your brains.

How to play: This is a simple game that can provide hours of fun. It’s kind of addicting, almost, once you get started.

After I learned the game, I found out it’s from the band OK Go (you know, the ones with all the awesome music videos?). (This one isn’t really official, but I think it’s my favorite…except a lot of them are kind of my favorite.) OK Go actually has a video that explains the game really well, as well as an app that lets you play even when you’re not with friends. Go check them out! So though I know this post won’t be as entertaining as OK Go’s video, I’ll go ahead and explain how to play here, too.

You start by having two people each say a word at the same time. Any word. It will be a random pair, and that’s okay.

Let’s say Adam and Liz are playing. These are the two words they say:

• Adam: See saw
• Liz: Trip

To make sure they say their words at the same, one or both of them can snap their fingers three times. After the third snap, or on an optional fourth snap, they each say their word.

After that first round, Adam and Liz go again. But this time they’re going to try to say the same word. They do this by trying to find a word that connects the first two words, or something they have in common. You could also think of it as finding the intersection between the two words. So the second round might look like this, with the players’ thought process included:

• Adam: Playground (because this is where you’d trip over a see saw)
• Liz: Fall (because if you tripped over a see saw, you would fall)

Everyone thinks a little bit differently, so it might take a while for Adam and Elizabeth to finally say the right word.

• Adam: Push (because if you fall at a playground, someone might have pushed you)
• Liz: Merry-go-round (the most likely place to fall at a playground)

It’s good for them to take time between rounds to think and come up with the right word. Otherwise, if it’s just about speed, it could get difficult.

• Adam: Exercise (because pushing a merry-go-round is essentially exercise)
• Liz: Spin (because when you push a merry-go-round, it spins)

But it can be a little bit about speed. They don’t want to sit around waiting forever.

• Adam: Treadmill (a form of exercising that involves spinning equipment)
• Liz: Dancing (because this is a way you can spin and exercise at the same time)

Finally, though, they’ll end up on the same word.

• Adam: OK Go! (because they have the best treadmill dance music video of all time)
• Liz: OK Go! (because they have the best treadmill dance music video of all time)

It’s a very rewarding feeling.

This game could be over quickly, in three or even two rounds. Or it could drag on for a while. It’s fun to see the way someone else thinks, and to laugh (or get frustrated) when you think an opposite way. It can also lead to some funny moments, too. Once my husband and I were playing and, I can’t remember what the preceding pair was, but we said Luke Skywalker and Mark Hamill at the same time. (We weren’t sure if that should count as a win.) Another time my sister and I had the words love and brown to work with, and we both came up with chocolate.

I like this game because it’s cooperative instead of competitive. It’s a great time-killer and fun to play. So thank you, OK Go!

What it is: An imagining game where players talk out loud, describing a dream cabin or house.

Best for: A small group of players. It’s ideal for playing on long car rides.

What you need: Nothing. It’s just a talking game.

How to play: My husband introduced me to this game. He said he and his family played in on car rides often. (He’s the oldest of six boys, and they took a lot of road trips.) The game starts with everyone agreeing to build an imaginary cabin. Then each player takes a turn and adds a feature to the cabin. My husband said these usually included things like these:

• Rooms full of bunk beds
• Soda machines around the house
• A movie theater in the basement with an all-you-can-eat popcorn machine
• Observatories
• Underground pools
• Slides or firemen poles leading to lower levels
• A big beautiful bay window right outside the dining area (This was the type of addition my mother-in-law would make, as opposed to the brothers, if you can’t guess.)

Kind of along the same lines as the dream homes my sisters and I would draw as kids. The features can include things inside the cabin, the structure of the cabin, and the surrounding landscape.

My husband did say that sometimes the game tended to break down, as arguments might erupt about placement or functionality of features (e.g., “You can’t put a giant trampoline that catapults into the lake! I already added the boat dock there!”). My husband said this often led to an alternate version of the game where, instead of everyone building onto one collective cabin, each person has their own. Players then still take turns adding on features, but this time to their own personal cabin. Maybe everyone can still be neighbors, at least.

Variations: Instead of a cabin, you can build anything in your mind: Dream home, hotel, mansion, space station, house boat, luxury train, submersible ship, AirBnB house, underwater home, castle, amusement park, a lunar base, tree house, campsite, beach house, airplane, cruise ship…your imagination’s the limit!

My sisters and I also did a similar activity growing up where we would draw our dream houses. I think it’s kind of neat that when my husband was ten years old growing up in Colorado, describing the indoor slides his dream cabin would have, I was ten years old in Texas, decorating my dream house with indoor slides, too.

What it is: A version of the six degrees of Kevin Bacon game – you’re basically trying to find links between actors via the movies they star in.

Best for: A small group, maybe up to six players. Two players work fine, too. You could even play by yourself.

What you need: Just your brains! If you want/need to cheat, IMDb would be a good resource.

How to play: My siblings and I would play this game on car trips or to kill time. We would start with someone naming an actor or actress. For example, Kate might name Anne Hathaway.

The next player, Michelle, would name another actor that Anne Hathaway appeared in a movie with. For example, Anne Hathaway appeared in Ella Enchanted with Cary Elwes. The next player might say that Cary Elwes appeared in The Princess Bride with Billy Crystal. It can be entertaining to simply name actors and movies and come up with a big long chain. This is also how you could play competitively. If someone on their turn can’t think of an actor and/or movie that hasn’t already been said, they’re eliminated from the game. The last player left wins.

In our version of the game, though, we played cooperatively. Our goal as a group was to get back to where we started (so in this game, Anne Hathaway). The whole loop might look like this:

• Anne Hathaway appeared in Ella Enchanted with Cary Elwes.
• Cary Elwes appeared in The Princess Bride with Billy Crystal.
• Billy Crystal was in in Monsters, Inc. with John Goodman.
• John Goodman appeared in The Borrowers with…with that boy who helped the Borrowers…what was his name? [Quick IMDB check] Bradley Pierce.
• Bradley Pierce appeared in Jumangi with Robin Williams.
• Robin Williams appeared in Night at the Museum with Dick Van Dyke.
• Dick Van Dyke appeared in Mary Poppins with Julie Andrews.
• Julie Andrews appeared in The Princess Diaries with…Anne Hathaway!

It can take a while, but that’s all part of the fun. We really didn’t play that seriously. Half the time we didn’t even know the actors’ names: it was “that guy from ___, the villain, you know?” And our loops probably could have been done more efficiently, but we didn’t care if it took a while. (Also, side note, it can take a while/be harder if you’re keeping your blog family-friendly by trying to name only PG or G movies.)

There are some rules you might want to consider. Can you mention a movie or actor if they’ve been said before? (We said no.) Does voice talent in animated movies count? (We said yes.) Does it count if you don’t know the name of the actor? (We said yes, because we weren’t huge movie buffs.) Do multiple movies in a series (for example, Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone and Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets) count as the same movie? Do cameos count? Do TV shows count? If so, do guest stars count? Things like that.

Hope it can be an entertaining game for your and your family or friends!

What it is: A really simple game kids can play in a car. It’s not so much a game as an…activity to pass the time? Or a way to tease/persecute the person sitting in the middle of the backseat.

Best for: Three or four children, however many are sitting in the backseat of a car.

What you need:

• A car with a backseat and a road to drive on. The road also needs curves – sharp turns on residential streets are best. Highway driving, not so much.

How to play: In this game, players basically use the momentum of the car to squish each other.

It’s simple. When the car makes a left turn, everyone in the backseat leans as hard as they can to the right. When the car makes a right turn, everyone leans as hard as they can to the left. In theory I guess the passengers are just responding to the natural forces of momentum, but it’s more about exaggerating and slamming into each other as hard as you can.

This game is the least fun for the person in the middle. The people on the edges get smashed against the windows, true. But half the time they get to be the ones doing the smashing. That poor middle-seater? They just get smashed and smushed each and every turn the car makes. Same applies to the smallest person playing. I was younger and smaller than my cousins who taught me how to play. Guess who was smushed the most? Luckily, I’m the oldest of my siblings, so when it came time to teach my younger sisters how to play, I experienced sweet recompense.

The thing is, even when you’re getting squished, it’s kind of a fun game. And luckily the game never lasts longer than a car ride, so if you’re in the middle, the next time you get in, you can hustle for a window seat.

Good luck, and I hope you don’t get squished too bad.

What it is: A variation of twenty questions. It’s a little more complicated than twenty questions and involves more thought for both the guesser and the one answering the questions. So if you like twenty questions but it’s getting a little old, this’ll probably be the perfect game for you to try.

Best for: Two players.

What you need: Nothing! Those games are the best.

How to play: Just like twenty questions, this game starts with one player (we’ll call him Josh) thinking of an item to guess. Unlike twenty questions, it’s best if this item is pretty specific. So some good examples might be things like this:

• Your iPhone
• A garbage sack
• The shirt I’m wearing
• A Garmin GPS

Some not-so-good examples:

• Clouds
• Rocks
• A house

Does that make sense?

So, let’s say Josh is playing and he’s thinking of an item, and he comes up with his iPhone. Then the person he’s playing with, Paige, gets to start guessing, with the goal, of course, of guessing that the item is Josh’s iPhone.

In twenty questions, Paige would ask yes or no questions and try to deduce what the item would be from the provided clues. In breakfast combo, Paige just goes ahead and starts guessing things. They can start out random. It’s also good if these guesses are more specific rather than broad. So…

Paige: Is it a fireplace?

Because this is the first guess, this is what Josh says:

Josh: It’s more like a fireplace than anything you’ve guessed so far.

Then Paige gets to guess something else.

Paige: Is it a turtle?

Now Josh needs to decide if the item, his iPhone, is more similar to a turtle or a fireplace. Say he decides it’s more like a fireplace.

Josh: It’s more like a fireplace than a turtle, but, like a turtle…

And then Josh would fill in a clue, something that his iPhone and a turtle have in common. It could be anything he comes up with, like:

Josh: It’s more like a fireplace than a turtle, but, like a turtle, I’ve seen it.

So then Paige gets to guess something else.

Paige: Is it a campfire?

Josh answers the same way he did before.

Josh: It’s more like a fireplace than a campfire, but, like a campfire, it needs to be started.

Paige guesses again:

Paige: Is it a Sega Genesis game system?

In this case, Josh would probably decide that his iPhone is more like a Sega Genesis than anything else that Paige has guessed. So he says:

Josh: It’s more like a Sega Genesis than anything you’ve guessed so far.

(Here you can add a slight variation. Josh can either say the above sentence and leave it at that, or he could provide a reason, e.g., “It’s more like a Sega Genesis than anything you’ve guessed so far because it’s manmade.” The second option makes it easier for the guesser.)

Play goes on like that, with Paige guessing specific objects and Josh responding. If the item Paige just guessed is closest to the item Josh has in mind, Josh says, “It’s more like [current guess] than anything you’ve said so far.” If the item Paige just guessed isn’t as close to the item as something else she’s previously said, Josh says, “It’s more like [previous guess] than [current guess], but, like [current guess], [something current guess and item have in common].

As you might guess, it’s often just as challenging for Josh to come up with answers as it is for Paige to guess. It’s fun because it does provide some new variety to the classic game of twenty questions. It’s a great game to play in the car (which is where Paige and Josh play it most).

Variations: As stated, breakfast combo is a variation of twenty questions. It’s also very similar to no, because. For another, more creative/silly variation of 20 questions, try poodle!

What it is: This or that is a simple talking game where players choose which of two items they prefer.

Best for: A small group, maybe even two players only.

What you need: You don’t need anything! You can use a pre-made list of items, like the one I provide below, but it’s not necessary.

How to play: Basically players take turns asking and answering questions in the form of “this or that?” Examples:

• Mountains or beach?
• Sandals or tennis shoes?
• Cats or dogs?
• Digital watch or analog?

Players ask these short questions, and then indicate their preference. It’s easy, simple, and a great way for players to get to know each other. It’s fun to compare likes and dislikes, too. “What?? Cats? Ew! I’m totally a dog person.”

Variations: This game is kind of similar to would you rather, but instead of choosing between two usually undesirable things, this game is more about choosing between two good things.

Printables: And here’s the free printable! It’s a list of “this or that” scenarios to get you started. You don’t need a list like this to play, though; half the fun is players thinking up their own questions.

This or That

Fun fact: Way back when my husband and I were freshmen in college, we played an extensive round of this game on our second date. What a great way for us to get to know each other! So not only am I promising you a great game here with This or That, I’m promising you relationship success, as well!*

*Kidding. Please don’t hate me if this game hasn’t led you to marriage or a significant other.

Best for: Any number of players. It’s a great two-player game.

What you need: Nothing! Aren’t those games the best? It can be nice if you have a pre-made list of “would you rather” scenarios. Guess what? I made one! You can download it for free below.

How to play: Basically players take turns asking each other questions starting with “Would you rather…” and ending with two different scenarios. Like, “Would you rather have to wear ski goggles for the rest of your life…

…or have to wear a Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle mask?”

(p.s. is Donatello your favorite?)

As demonstrated, the questions are usually a little wacky/silly/absurd. (In some variations, they’re also gross/weird, but I don’t like those questions as much.)

Some other examples of would you rather questions:

• Would you rather live to be 90 with great health or live an extra ten years past 90 with not-so-great health?
• Would you rather live off of bread only or live off of anything but carbs?
• Would you rather be respected but feared or laughed at and loved?

The questions can be thoughtful, silly, or completely hypothetical. It’s fun for players to think up their own questions, too.

Once someone asks a question, everyone else must answer the question. Then another player gets to ask a question.

Another variation for a large group is to have one player draw a question (like from the list I made below) and answer it alone. Then another player draws another question and answers it for themselves, and so on. This could work well if you have so many people, it’s hard to have everyone answer each question.

Printables: Here’s the list of Would you rather questions I came up with. It’s two pages long, so not a ton, but definitely enough to get you started or get you thinking of ideas. Once you get playing with a good group, the ideas usually start coming to players. It’s a fun talking game to play.

Would you rather

What it is: A very flexible game with lots of adaptations.

Best for: A group of about 4 to 10.

What you need: You’ll need a list of categories (I’ve provided one below) and possibly a timer and pens and paper.

How to play: Basically the challenge is to try and think of as many items in a category as you can. An example category would be fast food.

And items in the category? Chicken nuggets, tacos, hamburgers, hot dogs, French fries, McDonald’s apple pies, chicken sandwiches, and on and on. How many things can you think of?

Variations: There are many different ways you could set up your game. Here’s a few to get you started.

Like the game Scattergories (commission link), you can name as many items in a category that start with the same letter. Choose a letter from the alphabet, draw a category, set a timer, and go! For example, if the category were male names and the letter were C, you could write any of these:

• Carson
• Caleb
• Cole
• Christian
• Connor
• Carter
• Cameron

You can play on teams, individually, or as a whole group. At the end of the game, everyone takes turns reading all their answers aloud, where questionable answers can be submitted to the group to see if they’ll be allowed or not. (For example: “Camille? That’s a girl’s name!” “But I totally knew a guy named Camille once!” “OK, fine, we’ll allow it.”) If you’re playing against each other, the person who writes down the most names wins. (One variation is to have everyone cross off any name that someone else wrote down, too. That way the person with the most unique answers wins.)

You could also play the above version, but without the restriction of a letter of the alphabet. Any boy name, for example, would work for the above example. Then follow the same rules for the rest of the game.

Another variation which works really well for car rides or killing time can be played one word at a time. In this variation, you pick a category and then take turns saying something from that category, one player at a time. The first person who can’t think of a word that hasn’t already been said is out of the game, and you start a new round with a new category. (The game first letter, last letter is an even more challenging variation of this.)

You could of course use your list of categories to play the pool game categories or a similar game.

What other rules or variations can you come up with?

Printables: Here’s the list of categories! It’s a few pages long, so hopefully it gives you lots of categories to choose from for all of your game-playing needs.

Categories

What it is: A road trip game, one of those seek-and-find games that gives you something to do on long car trips.

Best for: A long car trip across state borders, for however many players you want (even one).

What you need: A list of all 50 states, or a piece of paper or some way to write the states you find down. I have a free printable below.

How to play: The game is pretty simple: as you’re on your road trip, look out the window at the cars you see. Find the state name on each license plate, and try to spot a license plate from every state. You can cross states off of a list you already have, write them down, or just keep a list in your memory. You can play competitively, with each person in the car playing against everyone else. The player with the most states crossed off at the end of the trip wins. You could create teams. Or you could play cooperatively as a whole car or bus together.

It’s a pretty ambitious goal, I’ll admit. (My list includes Alaska and Hawaii, so I think you really might have to do some traveling to cross every state off.) I think it would be cool to save this list for multiple car trips, especially if you have several coming up. At the start of the summer, for example, you could print off the list and plan to take it on every car trip you take that year. You could even do it over a lifetime. See how long it takes you to cross off every state!

Printables: Here’s a printable I made that lists each of the 50 U.S. states. You can use it when you’re playing the license plate search game to cross off the states you find.

Variations: If you’re looking for other road trip I-spy games, try the alphabet game or its object-only variation.

What it is: A really easy, adaptable game for all sorts of circumstances. Mostly it’s fun to ask get to know you questions (especially quirky or unusual ones) to family and friends.

Best for: 6 to 9 players.

What you need: Mostly just questions to ask! I’ve provided a free printable list of some below. You could also think of your own. Or I know there’s many commercial sets of conversation-starter type questions you can buy. Optional: Paper and pens.

How to play: The ways to play with get-to-know-you questions are endless. The easiest way is to just take turns asking questions to each other and answering them. You can all sit in a circle and take turns picking a question, reading it aloud, and then each giving an answer in turn. You could also take turns asking specific questions to specific people only. I’ve even used questions like this as journal-writing prompts for myself when I didn’t know what else to write about. If you have a creative set of questions, the good uses for them go on and on.

One of the favorite ways I like to play this game with my friends and family is to answer questions and then guess who gave which answer. This can be done a few different ways. One way that works well with a big group (like from 20 to 30) is to use paper and pens and have everyone write down his or her answer to a question. Then gather up the questions, have someone read them out loud, and together as a group discuss who you think gave which answer (this can be done informally, hopefully with a good amount of laughter). With a big group like this, the best way to do it is to ask several questions at a time, maybe 5 to 10. You could even just hand out a survey with the questions already written down. Then have each player fill out the survey, gather them up, read all the answers out loud, and guess together as a group who filled out that survey. You could even eliminate the guessing part and just read aloud the answers for fun. This could be a great icebreaker game.

Another way to play that’s better with a smaller group (perhaps about 8 people) is to take turns and keep score. It might look like this: Adam is playing with his family. He picks a question, he asks it aloud, everyone write down his or her answer, and then Adam’s brother Stuart collects the cards and reads them to Adam out loud. After Adam has heard all the answers, he has to correctly match each answer with each player. He gets a point for each one he matches correctly. Whoever gets the most points after everyone gets a turn wins. We played this way with my husband’s family last Christmas, and it was sooo fun. We all laughed harder than we had in months! It’s a good way to get more competitive and encourage creativity (since you’re trying to avoid making it obvious which answers are yours). You could even do more than one question at a time.

Variations: What other ways do you like to play with get-to-know-you questions? They’re great discussion starters or time fillers. My husband and I love to ask them to each other in car trips or on out-for-ice-cream dates.

Printables: If you want to print out some questions you can use, I’ve made some free printables for you! Just cut along the lines and you’ll have strips of questions you can fold up and put in a bowl or have people draw. You could also just read them aloud or use the list for ideas. The second list has some simpler questions that might be better suited for young children. So enjoy!

Get to know you questions

Simple get to know you questions

HEY! Wait! I just had an idea! Does anyone want to play? What if I pick a few questions now and we all answer them? Everyone loves to answer fun questions about themselves, right? Well, let’s play! Join in with a comment if you like with the answers to the questions below! I’d love to hear your answers.

1. If money didn’t matter, what food or snack would you buy at the movie theater? Those nachos with the fake cheese! Mmm, fake cheese…usually so gross, but somehow when it’s at a movie theater or baseball game on nachos, so good. A close runner-up to the nachos is good old-fashioned movie popcorn.
2. If you had a month of free time to learn a new hobby, what would it be? Dancing! I’ve always wished I could dance.
3. What’s your favorite way to eat a potato? Twice-baked all the way!

What it is: A simple, flexible time-killing activity for anyone who loves music and guessing games.

Best for: 2 to 8 players.

What you need: Nothing!

How to play: This is just a simple guessing game involving singing, but singing a song only one word at a time. One person, like Lucy, starts out by thinking up a song. Then Lucy starts singing the song out loud, but only the first word.

So let’s say Lucy chooses the song “Take Me Out to the Ballgame.” She would start singing the first note: “Take…” Then there are several different ways you can play. You can have other players guess what song Lucy is singing by adding what they think is the next word. Ryan, for example, might think Lucy is singing “Take on Me” (he’s an eighties fan). So Ryan would start singing “on…” Lucy could either shake her head no and let other players continue to guess, or, for a more fluid game, the song could change and now all the other players have to guess what Ryan is singing. The song might change several times as players take turns adding notes and words to what they think the song is. You can have play go in a circle, or just have players sing out in any order when they think they know the next word.

Variations: Another similar game you can play is when one person says a word (like take, for example), and the next player has to think of a song with that word in it. You can play with song titles or song lyrics in general. We played this a lot as just kind of a time-killer, not keeping score or having much structure, but just shouting out words and singing songs as they occurred to us.

Some more similar games are Name that tune and What’s the name of that song?

So if you like music and have friends who know a lot of songs, they can be some fun games to play to pass the time or try to stump each other.

Best for: As little as 2 or as many as a carful of people.

What you need: A journey in a car. A long road trip on roads you don’t drive every day works best. Then just a car and people to play! Optional: Paper and pen, or a way to keep score. (It was paper and pen when I grew up, but today it would totally be my iPhone.)

How to play: This game involves spotting and guessing the numbers on those road signs that say how many miles to a certain city, the green ones, you know? Like this:

The point of the game is to correctly guess the next mile number for a certain city, usually your destination.

So say your car is taking a trip to Dallas. Once you’ve seen one sign that says how many miles are left to Dallas (like Dallas: 215), everyone would take a guess as to the number that will be on the next sign that says how many miles to Dallas. Logically, this could be any number lower than 215. You can use your experience or knowledge or just luck to try to figure out exactly how many miles away the next sign will be placed. But I can tell you from playing this game as a kid, it’s not always what you think! It’s not like there’s always a pattern or a rule, especially as cities and landscapes vary (and this all just makes the game more fun).

So everyone puts in a guess for the number on the next mile sign – you can write them down or just have everyone remember. Let’s say a hypothetical car of people make these guesses:

• Jamie – 200
• Louis – 154
• Ann – 194
• Jeff – 172

Then everyone can go about other activities, but make sure at least one person is keeping a lookout for the next sign. Once it’s spotted (Dallas: 160), figure out who won that round. For us, the winner was simply the person who had the closest guess, whether it’s lower or higher. In the above example, this would mean Louis wins. I know a lot of times people play number guessing games like this and make a rule that the winner is the closest number that didn’t go under or something like that, but we liked to keep it simple. You can certainly play with rules as complicated as you like.

So Louis would win that round. You can keep a running score pad of who wins each round, or just play for fun and not keep score. But that round would be followed by another, and another, until you reach your destination. Even when you’re driving in the middle of nowhere, you can still play. The signs just might be really far apart, but that’s okay. Closer to cities, the signs might be only a couple of miles apart, and it’s always fun when that throws everyone for a loop. You can guess but you never know for sure, which is why it’s fun. The game is a good way, too, of tracking the distance until you reach your destination, maybe cutting down on the “Are we there yet?” questions.

Another thing: Our family road trips were often so long that we couldn’t play with our final destination right away. So we’d choose bigger cities on the way to play with until we were close enough to use the final destination. (For example, Dallas, then Oklahoma City, then Wichita…) Just make sure everyone agrees on the next city as you guess.

Rules: One rule we had was that everyone had to put in their guess for the next sign before too much time passed. For example, after passing a Dallas: 215 sign and then gathering up the next round of guesses, there were always some of us who liked to delay as long as possible, realizing that the more miles we drove, the better idea we’d have of the next number on the sign. But this was considered cheating, so guesses for the next sign had to be in before a specified time (like a minute). Otherwise your guess is invalid. However, if you wanted to do away with this rule, you definitely could: Then each person can kind of gamble as to how long they want to wait to guess. Wait too long and you might risk passing a sign without guessing at all. But wait long enough and you could have a big advantage over the other players. Come to think of it, I think we played that way sometimes, too. Either way is fun.

Also, when making guesses, no duplicate numbers: if you want to guess 160 but someone already guessed it, too bad. You have to choose a different number. (It was legal to guess just one number lower or higher, which was often a good strategy.) Guesses are first-come, first-serve, which was why we always said our guesses out loud at least, even if we didn’t write them on paper.

Variations: If you’re hardcore, you could keep score by not just writing down the winner of each round, but the number of miles by which each guess was off. Then at the end you total up each person’s miles, and the person with the lowest score wins. For example, take the above list of guesses again:

• Jamie – 200
• Louis – 154
• Ann – 194
• Jeff – 172

If the right answer was 160, that means each person would be assigned a number of how far they missed the mark:

• Jamie – 40 (200 minus 160)
• Louis – 6 (160 minus 154)
• Ann – 34
• Jeff – 12

Those numbers would be the scores you write down for each player for that round. To be honest, that’s way too much math for my taste ;-), but if you like a more competitive game and your addition and subtraction, it might be a fun way to play.

However you play, happy road tripping!

Best for: One person or a smaller group, maybe during a time when you need to be quiet.

What you need: Everyone needs paper and a pen or pencil. Optional: colored pencils, crayons, markers, or other supplies for making your dream house pretty.

How to play: Really, it’s a simple activity. You just draw your dream house! And when you’re a kid (or an adult), you can let your imagination run wild, which is where the fun comes in. I thought the best way to show this activity would be an example, so imagine how happy I was when, during the move my family recently completed, I was going through a box of old memories and found this:

I wish I had dated it! My best guess is that I drew it when I was 7 or 8? But this is exactly what I’m talking about! Usually my sisters and I drew kind of a floor plan layout like this, and of course our houses were always ginormous and held all sorts of cool extras. Which seemed to mostly be themed rooms: a party room, a toy room, a ferris wheel room, a rock climbing room, a pet room, a maze room, a museum room, a candy room, of course…oh, and a manatee room. (My sisters and I were in love with manatees. We thought they were the coolest things ever.) There also has to be a mini airport, of course, and indoor swimming pool. Anyway, I’m so glad I found this priceless drawing. Maybe I can convince my husband to build this floor plan for us one day.

And as a bonus, here’s another, more recent example. I think I drew this shortly after my husband and I were married; I was babysitting some younger cousins and wanted to show them one of my favorite drawing activities. So, since I was older this one is of course more realistic…(uh, kind of…)

Notice I kept the indoor swimming pool (this time with a dolphin) and now have a private helicopter pad instead of a mini airport. And complete with home theater, exercise room, large kitchen, hot tob, play room, and star-gazing deck, this dream home is perfect. Oh, and slides to reach the lower levels. Who hasn’t wanted a house with slides at one point?

Anyway, this second drawing shows another way you can draw your dream home: as a cut-away side view instead of a bird’s-eye view. And you can use words to label rooms (like in the first drawing), or you can just draw (like in the second). Either way, whatever you want to draw, go for it! Draw your dream home. Adding as many details as possible is always fun.

Variations: We often played this with sidewalk chalk, too, except it was more of a “draw your dream room.” Each of us would take one large square of the driveway (the squares formed by the seams in the concrete) and pretend it was our room, drawing in beds, dressers, rugs, and usually bean bag chairs and lava lamps (things we always wanted but never had), all from a bird’s-eye view. Then you can play house in your new room. My husband also played a similar game in talking version called build a cabin in your mind.

Best for: Smaller groups, maybe 3 to 6 people.

What you need: Nothing! But a word list might be helpful.

How to play: This game is really simple, and you could make up more complicated rules if you wanted to. But basically someone says a word, any word, and another player has to respond immediately with the very first word that pops into his or her head (no thinking allowed). So a sample game between Mack and Jane might go like this:

MACK: Apples.

JANE: Caramel.

MACK: Christmas.

JANE: Lights.

M: Spider.

J: Eww.

M: Groundhog.

J: Bill Murray.

M: Slow.

J: Snail.

It’s supposed to be very fast, with only a fraction of a second between Mack’s prompt and Jane’s response. It’s best if Mack responds quickly, too; that gets Jane in the habit of responding quickly. The fun of the game comes in learning possibly interesting things about your friends or family (“Crush.” “Andrew–I mean,…uh…” “What?!”), or in laughing at the interesting, creative, or (il)logical associations our minds come up with. Your game might be interrupted with questions, explanations, or laughter, and that’s all part of the fun.

To help in thinking up quick prompts, feel free to use my online word generator.

Best for: Group of 3 to 8ish.

What you need: Nothing!

How to play: Have all your players sit in a circle, or establish a clear playing order. Then proceed to tell a story, with each person saying one sentence at a time. Here’s the catch: each sentence must start with either “fortunately” or “unfortunately,” always alternating. So here’s how a sample game might go. The first player, Rachel, starts out the story by saying a simple statement of fact, like

One day I got a new puppy.

(The story can be in first person, but it doesn’t have to be.) The next player, Brad, would then add a sentence onto the story, but he has to start the sentence with “unfortunately,” like

Unfortunately, he ran away.

Then it’s Katie’s turn, but she has to start a sentence with “fortunately:”

Fortunately, he came back the next day with a 100 dollar bill.

The next player would say an “unfortunately” sentence, like “Unfortunately, the 100 dollar bill was a counterfeit and the cops nabbed me for it when I tried to use it to buy a pet canary.” As you can imagine, the game usually gets pretty silly pretty fast. And the stories tend to drag on without any clear ending, so just break it up when you want to start a new one. It’s a lot of fun, though, and good for car rides or killing time. Write your stories down or just tell them out loud; either way, have fun!

Variations: As said, this game is pretty similar to tell a story.

Example: If you want an example game, maybe you could watch the TV show I Shouldn’t Be Alive; sometimes I think those episodes tend to play out like a version of this game. (The man was starving in the jungle…fortunately, he found some berries…unfortunately, they were poisionous. But fortunately, he hunted a rabbit to eat…but unfortunately, he had no fire to cook it…)

Okay, for real, here’s a sample game from me and my husband. Oh, which reminds me of something else: if you’re playing with only two people (or any even number), it means the same people will always be saying “unfortunately” or “fortunately” sentences. Which could be boring or could be fun. But you could just switch it up halfway through if you want. For now, you can guess who had the “fortunately” sentences in this example, me or my husband:

One day a man was flying on an airplane. Unfortunately, the airplane was out of peanuts. Fortunately, the man was allergic to peanuts and so he was happy about that. Unfortunately, the man was also allergic to chocolate chip cookies, and the airplane wasn’t out of those. Fortunately, the man was the pilot, and so he wasn’t offered any of the cookies. Unfortunately, the pilot was so distracted by the conversation about the cookies he was allergic to that he didn’t see the huge thundercloud. Fortunately, the plane’s autopilot took control and did a barrel roll around the thundercloud. Unfortunately…

Well, you get the idea.

What it is: A talking, guessing game, similar to green glass doors, but players think of their own rules rather than following the secret green glass door rule.

Best for: 2 to 8 players.

What you need: Nothing!

How to play: Similar to green glass doors, players try to discover what can be taken on a hypothetical picnic. One player starts by thinking of a rule for things that can go on the picnic; the other players try to guess the rule.

Say Julie and Todd are playing. Julie starts by thinking of a rule of things that can and can’t go on the picnic. The rule can be as complex or as simple as she likes. It can have to do with any attribute (color, shape, size, even the number of letters used to spell the name of the object). Here are some example rules Julie could choose:

• Only yellow things can go on the picnic (bananas, the sun, dandelions, etc.).
• Only things you can eat can go on the picnic (apples, oranges, pancakes).
• Only things bigger than a person can go on the picnic (elephants, houses, the moon).
• Only things that are spelled with five letters can go on the picnic (apple, grass, honey).

The rules could be even more complicated and relate to the person trying to go on the picnic, like these rules:

• I can only bring items on the picnic that start with the same letter as my first name (so Julie could bring jam to the picnic, but Todd couldn’t, though he could bring a truck).
• I can only bring items on the picnic that start with the same letter as the first name of the person sitting to my right (yeah, that one can get really complicated to figure out).

The player thinking of the rule can use his or her imagination and come up with something as complicated or as sneaky as they want; the point of the game is to keep the other players from guessing the rule.

Let’s say Julie picks the rule that only yellow things can go on the picnic. Once she has the rule, she starts the game by declaring something she’s bringing on the picnic. For example, she’d say:

“I’m going on a picnic and I’m bringing bananas, and I can go.”

Then it’s Todd’s turn to guess something that he can bring on the picnic. He might say, “I’m going on a picnic and I’m bringing apples?” Then Julie would shake her head sadly and say, “You can’t go.”

Play would continue, with Julie and Todd taking turns. Julie would usually say things that she could bring to the picnic, but she could give Todd some examples of things she can’t bring, too. Todd keeps guessing until he’s figured out the rule. Then it can be Todd’s turn to think of a new rule for Julie to guess.

It’s a great, entertaining game for long car trips or killing time. Since the rule changes with each round, it doesn’t get boring easily. And the level of difficulty can be easily adapted—just choose easier rules for younger kids and harder rules for older kids.

Variations: This game is a more adaptable variation of green glass doors.

What it is: A casual, often unorganized talking and guessing game.

Best for: 2 players or however many more you want.

What you need: Nothing!

How to play: The basic game is simple: players take turns quoting movies while other players try to guess which movie is being quoted. Example: Cody might say, “That wimpy deer?!” Everyone else would guess, “The Sandlot!”

So the details of how you play are up to you. You can be strict and say that only the person who guessed the movie correctly gets to say the next movie line. You could even keep score. Or, you could just play casually and have players quote movies as they think of them. It’s a great time killer game.

Variations: A fun (and natural) variation for a larger group of players would be for someone to quote a movie, and then if another player guesses the movie, instead of just saying the title, they could name another quote from the same movie to help the remaining players guess. So, if Cody said “That wimpy deer!?” and Gabby figured out the movie, she might add “You’re killing me, Smalls!” (This can actually be a pretty fun game all on its own.)

You could also require players to, instead of naming the movie, name the quote that directly follows the first quote. (Like, “You can’t run from me!” followed by, “Oh, wait, you can. You keep surprising me!”)

If you have an iPod or computer and someone with an impressive music library, you could also play name that movie with soundtracks or movie scores. Just have one person play snippets of different songs and see who can name the movie the fastest. Our kids love this variation!

Oh, and bonus if anyone can name the three movies quoted in the post’s pictures!

What it is: More of an activity or chant than a game with a winner and loser, but a perfect activity to occupy long car trips.

Best for: Smaller group of 3 to 6 players.

What you need: Just people to play!

How to play: Players take turns going through the alphabet and saying the following sentence:

My name is ___, my husband’s/wife’s name is ___, we live in ___, and we sell ___.

The first two blanks are always filled by names, the third blank by a place, and the fourth blank by anything you could sell (which often leads to silly results).

So, the first player would start with A and say something like this:

My name is Abigail, my husband’s name is Adam, we live in Amsterdam, and we sell apples.

Then the next player would take the next letter, B, and say something like this:

My name is Bridget, my husband’s name is Brandon, we live in Bermuda, and we sell bouncey balls.

Players just take turns, going in a circle, until you go through the whole alphabet. I suppose you could play this game competitively: If a player takes longer than three seconds to fill a blank, they’re out. But me and my sisters always just played for fun and helped each other think of words when we got stuck. It’s a nice, calm activity, if you want one of those. And it can help younger kids with their phonics skills, too.

Variations: Hmm, I can’t think of any variations. Anyone have any to share?

What it is: A guessing game for two or more players.

Best for: 2 players or however many more you want.

What you need: Just your brains.

How to play: One player (let’s call her Tasha) first gets to think of a noun (a person, place, or thing). Once Tasha has a noun picked out, the other players then get to guess by asking questions that can be answered with a yes or a no. If you’re playing by the strict rules, players only get to ask 20 questions, and if they haven’t guessed by then, Tasha wins. If someone does guess what the object is, that person gets to think of the next thing to guess.

So here’s how a sample game might go: Tasha picks the noun “fire hydrant.” Say she’s playing with one person, her friend Leroy. The game might go like this:

Leroy: “Is it a person?”

Tasha: “No.”

Leroy: “Is it a thing?”

Tasha: “Yes.”

“Is it alive?”

“No.”

“Could I hold it in my hand?”

“No.”

“Is it made of metal?”

“Yes.” …

And the game would go on like that until Leroy uses up his 20 questions or until he guesses what the object is. It’s a great game for filling up long hours on car rides or for playing on walks. And you can go by the 20-question limit if you want, but I never really have. We just ask and guess until someone guesses right, then it’s their turn. And if you’re playing with little kids or just playing for fun, you could allow hints, too, especially if it’s taking a long time to guess something.

We also usually play with concrete nouns, things that you could see, touch, or feel. If you want to allow or disallow abstract nouns (like honor, love, capitalism…), you should probably specify beforehand, either way.

Some of the hardest-to-guess objects I’ve played with are confetti, trash bags, stop signs, and…oh, fire hydrant.

Variations: No, because and breakfast combo are some more difficult variations on this classic game. And poodle is a slightly sillier one

What it is: A talking, thinking game for anywhere from two to a busload of players. This is also one of those games where you need someone who knows the “secret” and other players who are clueless.

Best for: 2 players or however many more you want.

What you need: Nothing! Well, just people to play, at least one who knows the “secret” and at least one who doesn’t.

How to play: The object of the game is for players to discover what can be taken through a hypothetical set of green glass doors. Players who know the secret give other players hints (or further confuse them) by saying “I’m going through the green glass doors and I’m bringing ___, but not ___,” filling in the blanks with an object than can go through the green glass doors and an object that can’t, respectively.

So players who know the secret might say things like this:

I’m going through the green glass doors and I’m bringing a poodle, but not a dog.

I’m going through the green glass doors and I’m bringing the moon, but not the sun.

I’m going through the green glass doors and I’m bringing a puddle, but not water.

I’m going through the green glass doors and I’m bringing boots, but not sandals.

I’m going through the green glass doors and I’m bringing Harry Potter, but not Ron Weasley.

Have you figured it out yet?

Players who don’t know the secret to the game can then try their own sentences, maybe something like, “I’m going through the green glass doors, and I’m bringing a lamp shade, but not a light bulb?” To which the in-the-know players would respond with, “Nope, you can’t go through the green glass doors” while shaking their heads sympathetically. The game can continue indefinitely, and pause and resume as needed, until all players know the secret. It’s perfect for filling long hours during car trips.

So do you know the secret yet? Do you know what can be taken through the green glass doors? (I’ll give you one hint: the fact that you’re reading this post and not playing this game out loud should be a huge help to you.) Oooh, I know! How about, if you still don’t know the secret, leave a comment in the form of “I’m going through the green glass doors and I’m taking ___ but not ___,” and I’ll respond with a yes or a no! And, if you already know the secret, you can post mysterious, enigmatic sentences to confuse all the clueless people! It’ll be like a massive online, ongoing version of green glass doors! Awesome!

Or…since you’re probably reading this blog to figure out how to play, and if you really really really want to know and have no will power at all, or any desire to experience that awesome “a-ha!” moment when you figure out the secret yourself, click here to find out.

Variations: My mom and sister play the same game but call it Fanny Dooley, where Fanny Dooley a made-up lady and phrases take the form of “Fanny Dooley has ___ but not ___.” I’ve also heard the game called “deep but not profound” (which I think is clever, funny, and awesome).

Also, for a very similar game with more flexible rules, check out going on a picnic.

Best for: 2 players or however many more you can fit in a car.

What you need: A car trip and someone to play. And you probably need the car trip to be at least partly through a populated area with road signs.

How to play: The came is pretty simple: players look out the car windows at passing road signs and try to spot a word that starts with the letter A. Then, once that has been found, a word that starts with the letter B, then C, and so on all the way until Z, when the game ends. My siblings and I played this game all the time on our family road trips. Sometimes we would have a game that would last hours and hours: we would start as we were leaving our city, dwindle as we drove through fields and mountains, and pick up again where we left off when we reached a populated area again. Some letters (like Q, X, and Z) get pretty tricky. I remember waiting for miles and miles to catch a glimpse of a Dairy Queen. For this reason, my sisters and I vowed that if we ever owned a restaurant, we’d name it something like this:

Rule Variations: You should probably set your rules before you begin, because (as I’ve experienced), many disputations can arise. For instance, does a letter have to come at the beginning of a word? Or is it okay if just appears anywhere in the word? Either way, do license plates count? (This was our most common source of disputation.) Do you always have to find letters in order? Pick your rules, stick to them, and have fun!

Variations: You can play with everyone working together on one team, individually, or as two teams (maybe one team looking out the left windows and one looking out the right). And I’ve also played (in sparsely populated areas) where you have to just find an object that starts with each letter, not the actual word. If you want to take out the I-spy element and make it more about thinking, play by thinking of objects instead of spying them. Another road trip I-spy game is the license plate search. Any one else have any rules or variations to share?

What it is: An easy talking game for anywhere from two to lots of players, perfect for car trips, bus rides, or walks.

Best for: 2 players or however many more you want.

What you need: Just people to talk.

How to play: It’s a pretty simple game. First, players pick a category—let’s say food. One player starts by naming any food, say, a strawberry.

The next player has to name a food that starts with the last letter of the previously named food: so, in this case, Y. Yam, for example, would be a good choice.

Then the next player has to name a food that starts with M. And that’s the game! Keep naming food until you can’t name any more. Then choose a new category and go again!

Variations: You can have players go in order, and the first player to not think of a word (at all or within a certain time limit) or say a repeat word is out. Play until you have one winner. Or, if you’re looking for a less restrictive game, don’t set a playing order and have players call out words whenever they have a good one. Play until no one can think of another word. If you’re competitive, you could even keep points—whoever has called out the most words by the end wins. Can you think of any other ways to play?

Printables: Here’s the list of categories if you need help brainstorming some!

Categories

Best for: Group of 2 to 9 players.

What you need: Just people to play.

How to play: First, have everyone sit in a circle, or establish a clear playing order so everyone knows when it’s their turn. Then you can start. The point of the activity is just to tell a story, one word at a time. Each player gets to say one word. So this is how a sample start to a game might go:

I’ve played where ending punctuation marks count as words, too; otherwise, sentences tend to drag on without any clear end. You can tell your story on paper or out loud or both, and it usually ends up pretty silly or ridiculous. But that’s the fun part.

Variations: To avoid the story breaking down into a totally unrelated mess of words that lacks any continuity whatsoever (which is often what happens when I play with my siblings), you could choose a topic or narrow the scope before hand. Or, just say anything goes. You could also play by having each player say a whole sentence at a time, rather than a single word. Also, the game fortunately, unfortunately is very similar, just with a little more direction.

What it is: A simple, easy game that can be played with two or lots of people.

Best for: 2 players or however many more you want.

What you need: Just people who know and like music. Optional: something that plays music (piano, guitar, iPod speakers, you know).

How to play: The basic game is simple. Someone picks a song and starts humming or singing it. Then the other players try to guess which song it is. Or, instead of singing or humming, you can play songs on the piano, one note at a time, or from a CD in the car, or with an iPod, or anything that makes music. You could take turns singing or playing songs, or have one designated song-player. You could choose a theme (oldies, Disney, movie scores, 90s pop) or leave it open. And I suppose you could keep score, but you don’t have to at all.

Variations: If you’re into music but not singing, you could play name that tune by reciting lyrics instead of humming or singing. For some similar games, also check out Sing a song and What’s the name of that song?

What it is: A talking game for two or more players.

Best for: 2 up to about 8 players.

What you need: Just two or more players.

How to play: The point of the game is to hold a conversation using only questions. Players take turns asking questions to each other, and the first person to say a statement is out. The questions don’t have to make sense or logically respond to one another; the trick is just to get another player to fall into the habit of automatically answering a question. So a sample game between Ian and Lilly might go something like this:

IAN: Why is the sky blue?

LILLY: What are you doing?

IAN: Where are you going?

LILLY: What time is it?

IAN: Where is my hairbrush?

LILLY: Where do you think it is?

IAN: I don’t know….dang it!

LILLY: Haha! I win!

(Ian just said a statement, so he loses.)

With more than two players, you can take turns asking questions in a circle, or players can ask questions specifically to other players, in any order.

This is a great game to play while killing time in the car, on a bus, waiting in line…you get the idea. So go ask some questions!