Screen-Free Travel Games and Activities that Build Brain Skills
Summer travel can mean a lot of extra screen time for kids. While you make the choices you need to make for your family, some intentional planning may help by providing screen-free game alternatives to keep your kids busy AND their brains active during down time! Here are some of our favorite games, toys, and resources to build brain skills on the go this summer:
Screen-Free Travel Memory Game
This one is a favorite for car trips or flights! Your child can play independently or with a sibling (or parent) and exercise some memory skills while you’re traveling. Even younger kids will have fun opening the “doors” to see what’s underneath, so this is a great tool for the whole family!
Hidden Pictures or Where’s Waldo
Hidden pictures books and Where’s Waldo activities are great for building focus, visual discrimination, and other cognitive processes. There are lots of different levels of these, so you can grab some for your kids of all ages!
Word Search
Another classic, word searches are great for building spelling skills, visual processing, and focus.
DIY Challenge: Newspaper Spot-It. Grab a newspaper (or magazine) and have them go through one page circling as many occurrences of a single letter or word as they can, as fast as possible!
Rubik’s Cube
Many kids enjoy fidgeting with this classic toy, but it is a great tool to strengthen your brain, too! You can grab a 2×2 cube, the classic 3×3, or even go crazy with a larger one for a bigger challenge. It’s small, easy to bring along in the car, and great for keeping your child’s brain active.
Travel Games
There are lots of independent travel games on the market that are a great tool for car trips or boredom-busters at home. Games like Rush Hour, Kanoodle, and SmartGames XOXO strengthen problem-solving and logic skills in a way that’s fun (and easily contained for travel).
Reading or Audiobooks
Have trouble getting your kids to sit still to read or listen to books? Car trips may be a great opportunity to stretch this skill while there are fewer distractions! Whether your kids are reading independently, you or an older sibling are reading aloud, or you’re listening to an audiobook, filling travel time with rich stories and language is always a good idea.
You can also knock out some awesome summer reading goals while you’re on the go! Sign up for our 2024 Summer Reading Program here for free >>
Family Road Trip Games (No Materials Necessary)
Remember the days of playing the “alphabet game” as you traveled, hunting for those Q’s and X’s along the road? There is so much value to playing games like these!
Family road trip games are a way to connect, build skills like attention and memory, and fill time without the assistance of screens or lots of extra equipment. We have a roundup of 10 fun games HERE that are great for the whole family! >>
Looking for more ways to keep your kids’ brains sharp all summer long?
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