10 Educational Games to Play in the Car During Long Trips Home! (For Elementary School Students)
Have you ever struggled with your child getting bored during long trips home or while traveling?
“I feel a bit guilty about letting them just watch videos or play games the whole time...”
“Is there a way for us to have fun together in the car or on the train?”
Many parents feel this way.
In fact, the travel time that tends to be boring can be turned into the perfect educational time to rapidly boost your child's thinking and vocabulary skills.
This time, we will introduce 10 educational games for elementary school students that you can play immediately without any tools and that adults can genuinely enjoy too.
10 Educational Games You Can Play Right Away While Traveling!
1. License Plate Math (Arithmetic Skills)
A game where you use the numbers on the license plates of cars passing by or driving in front of you to make '10' by adding or subtracting.
Educational Benefit: Naturally develops mental arithmetic and puzzle-solving thinking skills.
Advanced Version: Once you get used to it, it becomes even more exciting if you allow multiplication and division.
2. Kanji Hunting on Signs (Vocabulary & Concentration)
Look for kanji you learned at school or characters containing specific radicals (like the tree radical, water radical, etc.) on signs and billboards visible outside the window.
Educational Benefit: Sharpens concentration and increases interest in kanji.
Tip: Acknowledge your child's hard work in searching, and keep them engaged without getting bored by turning it into a game, saying, 'Let's try to find that radical next!'
3. Fixed-Length Shiritori (Memory Skills)
A version of the word chain game 'Shiritori' where you pre-set the number of characters, such as 'only 3 characters' or 'only 4 characters'.
Educational Benefit: Exercises vocabulary and memory to the fullest as you search for words in your head.
Advanced Version: Adding rules like 'only food names' or 'gradually increasing the number of characters' makes it a challenging brain teaser even for adults.
4. Who Am I? Game (Logical Thinking Skills)
This is a game where the questioner decides on a 'certain object' in their mind, and the others try to guess it by asking questions.
The guesser repeats questions that can be answered with 'yes' or 'no' such as 'Is it a living thing?' or 'Is it inside a house?'
Educational benefit: Develops logical thinking skills by organizing information and asking precise questions.
Tip: At first, it goes more smoothly if parents lead by suggesting questions that can significantly narrow down the scope, such as 'Can you eat it?'
5. Opposite Word Game (Quick Thinking)
A game where you quickly and rhythmically answer with the 'opposite word (antonym)' of the word the questioner says. (e.g., 'Big' -> 'Small', 'Up' -> 'Down', 'Right' -> 'Left', etc.)
Educational benefit: Expands the network of words and trains the brain's quick-thinking ability.
Advanced version: Once you get used to it, expanding to conceptual opposites like 'Future' -> 'Past', or slightly more difficult words expressing emotions or states like 'Happy' -> 'Sad', will further deepen vocabulary skills.
6. Car Window Scenery Bingo (Observational Skills)
Before departing, create a card with a 3x3 grid (9 squares total) filled with things you might see from the car window. Mark them off when you spot them during the trip and aim for a bingo.
Educational benefit: Cultivates the ability to carefully observe outside the window and the concentration to maintain excitement.
Tip: The key is to change the prompts according to the mode of transport, such as expressways, local roads, or the Shinkansen.
7. No Katakana Talk (Expressive Skills)
A rule where you must have a conversation without using any katakana (loanwords) at all.
For example, you must rephrase 'smartphone' as 'a small phone you can carry around,' or 'TV' as 'a screen that shows images.'
Educational benefit: Because you have to try to explain things using other words, your Japanese expressive skills will become richer.
Tip: If you set a time limit, such as 'until we reach the next service area' or 'just for 10 minutes,' you can enjoy the game with a moderate sense of tension without losing focus.
8. Intro Quiz (Auditory and Memory Skills)
A game where parents and children hum the beginning of songs they both know, like 'hum-hum-hum♪,' and try to guess the song title.
Educational benefit: Stimulates memory and hearing. Taking turns asking questions also deepens family communication.
Advanced version: Instead of just singing, try arranging it into a 'rhythm quiz' where you guess the song title just by clapping the rhythm; it increases the difficulty and makes it even more exciting.
⑨ How do you say this in English? (English proficiency)
Point at things you see out the window or items inside the car and take turns asking, 'How do you say this in English?' Start with familiar words like 'What's traffic light?' or 'What's clock?'
Educational benefit: It becomes practice for fun output of the English learned at school or in lessons.
Tip: Even if there is a word you don't know, connecting it to the fun of looking it up by saying, 'Let's look it up together on your smartphone!' will foster independent learning motivation.
⑩ Continuing the Story (Imagination)
One person starts a story with 'Once upon a time...', and the next person thinks of the continuation one sentence at a time, connecting them together.
Educational benefit: You can richly foster imagination and sentence structure skills while laughing out loud at the unexpected developments.
Advanced version: If you add constraints on keywords along the way, such as 'You must include the condition that an alien appears,' the development becomes more dramatic and further stimulates the brain.
To turn daily 'efforts' into confidence
Seeing your child not give in to boredom during a long trip, working hard at educational games, or making new discoveries is a happy thing for parents as well.
There is an app that allows you to support such 'small growth' and 'daily small efforts' of your child without missing them.
Habit-forming app for children 'CheerMe'
'CheerMe' is an app that allows parents to easily record and support the efforts their children make in their daily lives and studies.
Completely free & ad-free so you can use it with peace of mind
Share your child's 'I did it!' and 'I worked hard!' on a timeline
Stamps from parents lead to the child's next 'motivation'
Why not turn learning during travel time and small daily efforts into energy for future growth?
If you are a parent who is interested, please check it out.
▼Click here to download CheerMe and for more details