It’s no secret I love a good scavenger hunt. I have come up with hunts for everything my kids have been interested, nearly every walk, or nature exploring adventure we have. But recently I thought, why not make one for our town. And then, my brain went so far as to think, why not make one for road trips? Genius, I know.  It’s a great alternative to playing “Eye Spy” while driving long distances.

For our latest road trip, I figured out how many big cities we would be driving through and came up with things thought we would see in each place. We went through five major cities. So, throughout the entire trip we had to find five Cracker Barrels, six churches, four signs saying “New York” (we were headed that direction) seventeen red cars, five yellow, one purple, two rivers, and a license plate that started with the letter “A.” In addition we looked for two minivans that looked just like ours, an American flag, and various semi trucks. (We look for the trucks that say “Yellow” on them.)

Over all this was a fun activity that kept the kids looking and paying attention to our trip, instead of wondering when it would be over. We paused our game for awhile when the kids wanted to watch a movie, or eat lunch. If you know you will be passing by any particular monuments, or land marks, throw those on the list too! This can help kids practice their reading skills, and their paying attention skills. And let’s face it, most kids need help paying attention better.

-Stephanie Wright