When your Game Boy batteries have gone kaput and you’re starting to feel nauseous from reading in the car, it’s time to entertain the family with some car games. Try these with your family next time you find yourself trapped on four wheels for hours at a time. Turn bickering into bantering, boredom into fun!

ABC

The alphabet game is simple. The object is to see who can complete the alphabet first by finding the letters (in order) on billboards, license plates and road signs. Once someone calls a letter, nobody else in the car can use that particular sign’s letter. The person who reaches Z first wins. A variation (especially with young kids) is to make finding the alphabet a group effort, in which case there would be no winner or loser.

Twenty Questions

One person in the car thinks of a person, place or thing commonly known to everyone playing. The others get to ask twenty yes or no questions to try to figure out who, what or where the thing is. Whoever guesses correctly wins and gets to be the "thinker" in the next round.

I’m Packing My Suitcase

Test your memory with this add-on game. The first person says, "I’m packing my suitcase, and I’m taking..." and then the person names one thing they’ll pack. The second person repeats it, and adds another thing to pack. It goes on, with each person repeating all of the items packed, in order. When someone forgets an item, they are out. The person with the best memory wins. A variation would be to name specific items for a certain vacation, such as a camping vacation might include things like a tent or sleeping bag. A Hawaii vacation might include suntan lotion and a big hat.

Name That Tune

One person hums a tune, and the others have to guess what the tune is. It’s fun to do this one with theme songs to TV shows or holiday songs. Another variation is that people in the car can say, "I can name that tune in 8 notes!" Even another variation is to try clapping out the song with no tune - it’s quite hard to figure out that way.