Are we there yet!? Maths games for family trip

Just twenty minutes into a 4 hour car trip and a voice pipes up from the back seat: “Are we nearly there yet? I’m booooored.”

Although it may be tempting to reach for the iPad, why not give these maths games a go. Encourage everyone in the car to get involved for some fun competition.

Number plate games

Odd or even

“Odd or even” is good both for practicing recognition of numbers and for counting. The game is to predict whether the passengers will spot more even numbers or odd numbers on number plates before a time of your choosing.

One player counts the odd number plates; the other the even. As a car goes by, someone — either one of the players or a neutral — should call out the number on its plate; the player who just ‘scored’ then calls out their new total.

Odd or even can be played to a time limit or until someone reaches a given score, depending on what the players prefer!

Reach 100

It’s not very practical to play cards in the car (especially if you’re driving). However, you can play a variation of blackjack without having to worry about shuffling and dealing, while still getting the mathematical benefits! Each player’s goal is to get their total to 100 — or as close to it as they can.

Each player starts from zero, and take turns to ‘add a card’. When a vehicle passes, add up the digits on its number plate and adds the total to the running total: if they have 47 and a car with the number ‘194’ on its plate passes, they would add 1+9+4=14 to their score and say “61”. They can then choose to ‘stick’ and make that their final score, or twist and add the next number plate to their total. If they go over 100, though, bad luck! They score nothing.

Whoever ‘sticks’ closest to 100, wins the round. It is traditional for the loser to request “best of 3”, then 5, then 7…

*There’s nothing special about 100 — if you want to pick a higher or lower target, feel free!

Times table practice

If times tables is an area you're keen to work on, use number plates for practice. When a car passes, call out the digits on the number plate; the players race to multiply.

If the number on a passing number plate is 352, the first person to work out 3 × 5 × 2 and say “30” gets a point; set a winning target depending on how long the journey is and how busy the roads are.

*For younger or more tired children, you can try adding the digits rather than multiplying.

Spotting games

If the kids can keep their eyes peeled, there are plenty of other ways to use the features they can see out of the window as a source of maths practice games. (Spotting games are also useful on journeys where you may not see so many number plates.)

Spot the shape

“Spot the shape” combines shape knowledge, observation and a little bit of creativity! The game is to be the first to spot a named shape: for example, if the shape is ‘circle’, someone might point out the wheel of a truck; if it’s ‘triangle’, a road sign might fit the bill.

Travel cricket

For slightly older children, travel cricket is a great way to keep them from entertained for a while.

Agree on what the bowling team needs to spot to take a wicket (something fairly unusual, like a vehicle with a flashing light on top), and what the bowling player needs to score a run (something common, like a red car), a four (something less common, perhaps a car with German number plates) and a six (something quite unusual, such as a car with a bike on its roof). Naturally, pick things appropriate to your journey!

One player ‘bats’ and counts up the runs; the other ‘bowls’ and counts up the wickets. When the wickets reach ten, the players switch roles; if the player batting second beats the first player’s score before ten wickets are down, they win; if the ten wickets are taken first, they lose!

Games you can play in the dark

Fizz Buzz

Fizz Buzz is a cross between a counting game and a times table game, and it has the merit of being collaborative rather than competitive. Here’s how it works:

You agree on two numbers to be called ‘fizz’ and ‘buzz’. Traditionally, ‘fizz’ is 3 and ‘buzz’ is 5, but it’s ok to change them — especially if there are three or five players playing.
The first player starts by saying ‘1’. The second says, you’ve guessed it, ‘2’. The next says ‘fizz’, because the number they would normally have said (‘3’) is a multiple of 3 — and has a 3 in it!
It carries on: 4, buzz (5 is a multiple of 5), fizz, 7, 8, fizz, buzz, 11, fizz, fizz (13 has a three in it), 14, fizz buzz (15 is a multiple of 3 and 5), and so on.
If anyone says a number when they should have fizzed or buzzed, you have to start again from zero. How high can you get?

Number Guess Who?

The board game Guess Who might not be really practical for the car, however you can do something similar in your heads using numbers instead of faces.

The hider picks a number — let’s say between 1 and 50, but you can choose different limits. The guesser asks yes/no questions, such as: is it odd? does it have a 7 in it? is it a prime number? — and the hider answers truthfully. Once the guesser has successfully guessed, the roles switch and the game goes on as long as there’s interest in it.

Are we nearly there yet?

There are dozens of ways to ask questions about the journey itself to add some mathematical interest to the never-ending boredom of travel.

Get the children to estimate things and see, later on, how close they were.

How many kilometres do they think are still to go?
How long will that take?
What time will that be?
How much petrol will it take to fill the car up? How much will that cost?

Happy travels!

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