Posts Tagged travel activities
ZIP-IT Travel Crossword Game, by the Makers of Bananagrams
This compact, take-anywhere crossword race that can be played by two people in a restaurant, in an airport, on a plane or in an RV — just about anywhere you have a level playing space. ZIP-IT is a game for anyone ages 7 and up, and I’ve played it several times now with my 10-year-old, but I’d certainly have a ball playing it with another adult as well. In fact, I think I’ll take on my vocabulary-savvy mom when she comes to visit over the holidays!
ZIP-IT consists of a small, rectangular cloth pouch filled with 24 letter cubes; the two zippers on the pouch double as a score card: each time a player earns a point in the game, you move the zipper down one notch to keep track of who’s earned what.
To play, each player receives 12 letter cubes, and the first person to use up his or her cubes by spelling words (with letters on any side) in a crossword fashion wins a point. First to 10 points wins the game.
What’s cool about ZIP-IT is that you can even the playing field by changing up the rules, according to players’ skill levels. When I played with my 10-year-old, we made the rule that I had to make words with at least four letters in them; she could use words as short as two letters. Similarly, you could set a rule that every seven-letter word is worth an extra point.
ZIP-IT, which retails for $14.95, comes with “Weords,” Bananagrams all-new mini-dictionary featuring “weird words that win word games” (i.e., “Q” words that do not have a “U”). I’m thinking this little guide will come in handy as I study up for our competitive family Scrabble games, too.
ZIP-IT is not found online… yet. Check the Bananagrams website for a store near you, and call to see if the local brick-and-mortar outlet is selling this new game.
Related post: Miles of Smiles, Road-Trip Games for Kids
Posted by Kara in Kids and Family on November 16th, 2010
Tell Me a Story CDs for Hours of Entertainment in the Car
Lately we’ve been borrowing family-friendly, chapters-long audiobook CDs from the library for our long family road trips. But here are some CDs I’ve kept in the car for shorter excursions, when we just need a few short stories to help us get from Point A to Point B without any backseat bickering.
The Tell Me a Story 3-Disc Set contains more than three hours worth of multicultural folktales read by enthusiastic performers. Discs include Tell Me a Story: Timeless folktales from around the world, Tell Me a Story 2: Animal Magic and Tell Me a Story 3: Women of Wonder (which features stories about courageous and clever goddesses and heroines).
Tales range from about 5 to 13 minutes long, and I found myself not knowing many of the stories (these are not your typical “Turtle and the Hare” fables). I sat quietly (just like my kids!), listening to them, eagerly anticipating the climax and conclusion and wondering what the “moral of the story” would be (many had clever characters who had lessons to teach).
Each storyteller takes on different voices — from a grumpy ogre and throaty turtle to a frightened possum and a pensive fisherman. We had fun pausing the CD after each story to talk about the different images the stories conjured up; we described what we thought each character looked like. Each legend is accompanied by instrumental music that complements the story — and stories truly originate from around the world, including Great Britain, Cambodia, Africa and America’s Wild West.
Talented Amy Friedman wrote the stories that are selected from her worldwide syndicated column, Tell Me a Story. Laura Hall wrote the original music, and many of the performers are well-known actors — Tony, Emmy, and Oscar winners among them.
Purchase the 3-disc CD set at CDBaby.com for $35. I also found discounted individual CDs on Amazon.com.
Related posts: Thinkets & Nanodots Travel Activities for Kids, Nintendo DS Games.
Posted by Kara in Travel Light on September 7th, 2010
Miles of Smiles: Book of Road-Trip Games for Kids
First published in 1992, and revised in 2002, this paperback book by seasoned travel writer Carole Terwilliger Meyers is filled with 101 car games and activities. I’m guessing this book will be good for quite a few of our family road trips, as we only made our way through about five activities on a recent three-hour stretch of driving.
Some games in Miles of Smiles are best for older kids, say 10 and up, but others — like “I Spy” and “Straight Face” (which involves saying a very silly phrase) can be played by children as young as 4. Games are indexed in the back by age recommendation, which I think is brilliant.
We entertained ourselves “Minding our P’s & Q’s” — racing to see who could spot the most P’s and Q’s on road signs and license plates in a short amount of time — and playing the old favorite “Who Am I?” — where someone thinks of a famous person to “become,” and others have to guess who it is by asking questions like, “Are you still alive?” and “Are you male or female.” (The kids threw a loop into this game by becoming cartoon characters their mom and dad had never heard of!”)
We really had a good time trying to say the tongue twisters listed in the book, like “Leon the lovable llama licked lollipops in Lima.” And trivia questions stumped even the most trivia-minded in the car (my husband). Are you familiar with the proper names for these animal groups: a covey of ants, an army of frogs and a troop of baboons?
I’m keeping my copy of Miles of Smiles in the seat pocket of our mini-van, so my children can pull the book out and play a game even on a short jaunt to Wal-Mart. I highly recommend Miles of Smiles for your next family road trip. Purchase it for $8.95 on Amazon.com.
Related stories: Three Kids’ Travel Activities, Table Topics to Go.
Posted by Kara in Kids and Family on September 3rd, 2010
Two Travel Activities for School-Age Kids: Think-ets and Nanodots
File these games under “small parts included — perhaps best not to play in a back seat or on an airplane.” (File also under funnily named games and don’t let your under-three-year-old get ahold of them, for they are choking hazards.) But they are also nifty activities to keep school-age kids occupied while waiting in an airport (fewer cushions for tiny pieces to get lost in), at a restaurant while waiting for dinner or in an RV parked at a campsite.
Think-ets Genius consists simply of a tin not bigger than a standard Altoids box filled with little trinkets (get it?), ranging from a small arrowhead and tiny tomato to a miniature shell, polar bear and airplane. The idea is to use these little items to create stories and play thinking and guessing games to help pass the time.
When I pulled this out of my bag of tricks on our road trip this summer (while at a restaurant), my family of four shared lots of giggles making up “Surprise Stories” — as suggested in the set of instructions with 10 game ideas. We started with one person saying, “Once upon a time there was a….” and passing the box to the next person, who’d choose a trinket and start the story with that item as subject material. After a sentence or two, he or she would pass the box to the next person to continue the story with another trinket. We often ended up with a polar bear on a plane, getting lost and needing the mini-compass to find his way home… regardless, it was tons of silly entertainment.
Other suggested games include more challenging spelling activities, as well as a math game that focuses solely on the included die. When you grow weary of using the same objects over and over again, you can purchase the original Think-ets ($9.99), which come in pouches and differ completely from the Think-ets Genius ($15.99) items. Peruse options at the Think-a-lot Toys online store; I’ve also found some items discounted on Amazon.com.
Nanodots are 216 mini spherical magnets that are stored in a small carry pouch. They truly are “kick-ass take-no-prisoners, juiced-up super magnets,” as the marketing materials from this irreverent company describe. Milled from the rare earth mineral Neodymium, each tiny sphere has incredibly powerful magnet attraction — so much so that you can form a necklace or bracelet with them, wear them around the house and they won’t fall off.
Nanodots come in four hues– original steel-like color, black, silver and gold. The real design fun comes when you mix and match the colors to make all sorts of different designs and little objects. Check out Dotpedia.com to see all of the wild creations Nanodots enthusiasts have made. My 10-year-old daughter sat for literally 90 minutes playing with our sample Nanodots when they arrived in the mail — she followed the included instructions to “morph” the dots into an emerald shape (having some “almost success”). She also created some fun jewelry and stuck some wacky shapes to the refrigerator — watching two strings of magnets repel each other, too, was also great fun.
A huge cautionary note: you don’t want to play with these around young children, since a warning message reads in part, “Swallowed magnets may stick together across intestines causing serious injury.” (Yes, they are that powerful.) The company contends that Nanodots are not intended for children, but I’m certain any responsible kid age 8 and up wouldn’t even think of sticking them in their mouth. (That said, I did read the warning to my kids.)
Nanodots range in price from $29.99 to $39.99, depending on the color, and can be purchased at the company’s website or Amazon.com.
Thinking ahead to holiday season, either of these items would make great stocking stuffers!
Posted by Kara in Kids and Family on August 27th, 2010
Games for Nintendo DS: Backyard Sports Sandlot Sluggers and Bakugan Battle Trainer
My 8-year-old son really, really likes playing video games on his Nintendo DS. While I limit its use when we’re traveling, I also embrace his bringing it along on car and plane trips to help keep him occupied. Yes, I always pack non-electronic activities, too, but when I just want to chill out and read a book in peace for an hour, I know the Nintendo DS can grant me that quiet time.
Me? I have only used a Nintendo DS once about two years ago, to review a grown-up game called Zenses: Ocean. I liked the brain-teasing games (accompanied by meditative music and soothing visuals), but after I fiddled around with it in order to write about it firsthand, I never played it again. I actually haven’t picked up a hand-held video game player since then.
When I was offered the chance to review two video games I thought my son would like, Backyard Sports Sandlot Sluggers and Bakugan Battle Trainers, I figured my son could help me explain how to play the games and share what he liked (and disliked) about them.
What I learned? Don’t expect an 8-year-old boy to do your work for you.
My son has played the two above games on our frequent trips and family vacations this summer. Given the shouts of “Home run!” and “Take that!” he’s emitted from the back seat of our minivan, I know he’s had fun playing them. He’ll even tell me he likes them… but getting him to articulate exactly how the games are played and why he likes them is another matter.
I watched over his shoulder as he maneuvered his quick-moving thumbs over the X, Y, A, B and arrow buttons on his Nintendo DS a bit recently, and came up with these observations:
In Backyard Sports Sandlot Sluggers, you play baseball games in various places in the neighborhood. Your fellow players are tween-age multi-ethnic cartoon characters. There are multiple game modes, including seasonal play (with or without playoffs), post-season games (with brackets and all) or a quick pick-up game. From my 8-year-old son: “I like the story mode, where you get to make a player, create a team and play other teams for points, and advance.” He also said he likes the Power-Ups, which are special moves you can temporarily activate — like the flaming bat or booger ball — that can give you a competitive edge.
Regarding Bakugan Battle Trainer for the Nintendo DS, it’s based on the very popular game (among elementary-school-age boys anyway) played with magnetized, plastic, balled-up monsters that pop open to reveal G-power when they land on a magnetized card. (Trust me, I don’t fully understand the board game either.) In original Bakugan Battle Brawlers, you get to create your own character and attributes, and then battle against other players to boost G-power and collect gate cards. With Battle Trainers, you acquire and hone the skills of up to 30 different monsters — essentially training them for better battle. From my 8-year-old son: “I like that it’s very similar to Bakugan, but it’s virtual.”
Though I’d never in a million years sit down and play these games the way my son does, I can recommend them for other kids his age. They are rated E for Everyone, and except for some mild fantasy violence in the Battle Trainer game, I think the scenarios are quite mild and, I believe, appropriate for eight-year-olds. That is, if you’re the type of parent who allows vide0-game play at all. For me, I’m happy to have my son enjoy his “electronic time” — in moderation — on vacation.
Buy Sandlot Sluggers on Amazon.com for $19.99 and Bakugan Battle Trainer on Amazon.com for $14.99.
Posted by Kara in Kids and Family on August 20th, 2010
