Toss Ups : Fun and Educational Travel Games to Play in the Car

Toss Ups – a fun and educational travel word game

Toss Ups is a game that our family has sort of put together ourselves to help pass the time on long car trips.

We play the game by just “tossing up” questions to the kids game show style.  The first to answer the question gets the point.  There is no limit to the questions that can be asked during this game….. while our children were learning to solve simple math word problems, we would ask those questions…. for instance….

“Sam had 5 apples, and gave 3 apples to Sally.  How many apples does Sam have now?”

-OR-

“Sara works 4 hours per day for 6 days.  How many hour total does Sara work?”

As your children get older, the questions can get more and more complex.  Social studies, science, history, math, trivia… they all work.

For children of varied ages – If you are traveling with children of various ages, you might ask general questions to all of the kids but ask specific questions to specific kids. For example, you can say “this is just for Adam”.  Then ask a question that is tailored to his age. 

This game was a huge hit with our children when they were aged 3 to 5. Yet at the ages of 11 and 13, they still often say, ‘Hey Dad, throw us a toss up.’ Believe me, coming up with questions for smart middle-schoolers is tough!