Mummy I am bored

Little children get bored quickly, and no sooner have you started a long car journey than they are asking when you are going to arrive. Take their minds off traveling by playing a few games.

At home, toddlers will play happily together on their own, make up games and have lots of fun, but it's different when they are traveling in a car with adults. They are bound to look to you to tell them what to do, and they will want you to join in their games. If you are prepared to do this, your enthusiasm will soon infect them and you will probably find that they are prepared to play for a while without you.

The games that children love have not changed for generations, so if you are at a loss, just think back to the things that amused you when you were young and you will have a fund to draw on. Who can hold their breath the longest; who can pull the funniest face; how long two of you can look into each other's eyes without bursting out laughing; these are all classic examples of children's favorites.

Take with you in the car some of the children's smaller toys, and some coloring books, crayons, pencils, rubbers and ball-point pens. These can be packed into a child-size suitcase which they will love to take charge of and carry them selves.

In addition to the toys the children have asked you to bring, prepare a "magic bag" full of surprises for them. You can keep this out of sight until the monotony of the journey begins to tell. Fill the "magic bag" before you leaves with little goodies: plasticine, fruit, playing cards, marbles and so on. Blindfold the children when you give them the bag, and make each one in turn take out an item and guess what it is.

Who is to start?
Sometimes there is an argument over who should have the first turn. These simple games could decide for you...

One of the players hides a small object (a match or coin would do) behind his back in one of his fists. He then shows both clenched fists to his opponent who has to guess the hand holding the object in order to win.

"Scissors, stone, paper" is a game that only two can play... both of you simultaneously clenches your right fists and moves them up and down slowly three times. As your hands come down for the third and last time, you must make the symbol for one of three objects — scissors, by spreading your first and middle fingers in a cutting motion; stone, by shaking your closed hand; paper, by showing the back of your hand flat. The strongest sign wins this round, the process of elimination being as follows: scissors cut paper to win; paper wraps up stone to win, and stone blunts scissors to win. If both players form the same symbol, nobody scores. The first to win three rounds is the victor.

This guessing game is an international favorite. In this country it is usually called "Spoof." You can play with more than two players. Each contestant needs three matches, and three scraps of paper as score markers. At the start of each round, every player conceals three, two, one or no matches in his hand which he presents to the rest of the players as a closed fist. Now, in turn, players must guess at how many matches altogether are concealed in all the closed fists. No two people can have the same guess, so if someone has already said the total you were going to hazard, you will have to settle for another figure. Whoever has guessed correctly notches up one score marker in the game — winner is the first player to score three times.

Making rhymes
A player thinks of a word which the other players have to guess. He or she gives them clues to work on, in the form of words that rhyme with the one they are trying to guess. Eg if the word was ask, clues could be task, mask, flask and so on. Whoever guesses correctly sets the next teaser.

Tongue-twisters
Everybody knows what a tongue-twister is ... "round the rugged rocks the ragged rascal ran," or "Peter Piper picked a peck of pickled pepper," or "a noisy noise annoys an oyster." Try making up some new tongue twisters; the child who can say them fastest is the champion.

Word compositions (a)
A player says a word which is made up of two parts, eg starfish. The next person in line has to say a two-part word that uses the last part of the previous word, eg fish, as the first part of his word, which might be fish eye. So the game goes on until one of the players can't come up with a word that fits and is out. This is how starfish might progress: starfish, fish eye, eye witness, witness-box, box kite, etc.

Word compositions (b)
This is rather like the game we have just described, but the difference is that the last syllable must be used as the first syllable of the new word. Eg: picnic, nicotine, teenager, gerbil, and so on.

Double meanings
A player thinks of a word which has two meanings, eg box (which could mean to fight, or refer to a container). He gives a clue which refers to both meanings, eg: "My word is used in sport, my word can be found in every house"; from this clue, the others have to guess his word. The first to guess correctly sets the next word.

ABC stories
Each player in turn makes up a sentence or short story with as many words as possible that begin with the same letter of the alphabet, eg "bouncing badgers bolted bashfully beyond black barns breaking brown bricks boldly". First player uses letter A, second, letter B, and so on, although some letters of the alphabet such as "Q" or "Z" are obviously not suitable and should be ruled out by agreement between all the players before the game begins. The winner is the one who makes up the longest sentence (incidentally, you cannot use the same word twice).

Secret languages
It's very easy to invent a language of your own which only people to whom you have given the key will be able to understand. For instance, if you were to put a consonant like the letter 'p' after each vowel in a word and then repeat the vowel you would get something like this: Wepe capan tapalk wipithopouput opothepers upundeper-stapandiping, which means.

We can talk without others understanding!" Or, you can try this simple form of "Chinese"–"The Chinaman cannot plonounce the 'r' but can lite it velly well," when you substitute "1" for all the "r"s. Another funny substitution is "n" for all the "1"s. If as a family you like singing, try a version of your favorite song, exchanging certain letters for others — you won't be able to sing for long because you'll be laughing too much!

Guessing words
A player sets a word for his opponent to guess simply from knowing the first letter of the mystery word and how many other letters follow it. Eg, the word might be "nineteen", the clue would be "it begins with 'n' and has seven other letters". If the player who is guessing gets stuck, he can be told the next letter, but since his score depends on a point for each letter he got right (ie, if he had guessed "nineteen" straight away he would have won eight points), it is in his own interest to try hard before asking for another letter to be revealed!

Making faces
One person pulls faces with the object of making another person laugh ... you'd be surprised how often the one pulling faces is the first to giggle and therefore the loser.

Alphabetical quiz
This is a good exercise for people who like to have something to think about. A player names a subject, eg towns. Now each person in turn has to think of a town name beginning with the next letter of the alphabet. The sequence might be: Aberdeen, Birmingham, Cardiff, Deal, Edinburgh, Frinton, etc. Each person scores a point for every name he or she can produce within 10 seconds. After that, the next player takes his turn. The winner is the highest scorer by the end of the alphabet.

"Who am I?"
Is there someone in history whom you have always wanted to be? Now is your chance. Draw lots for who should begin; the first person in the limelight chooses his or her historic role. He or she writes this on a piece of paper which is hidden until the round is over. Now everybody else's fun begins as they bombard him or her with leading questions, the answers to which should give clues as to his or her historical identity. The first person to guess earns the right to be the actor next time round.

"What's my line?"
This is simply a variation of "Who am I?", but to add a bit of extra fun, you could make the actor give a practical demonstration of what he or she does at work.

"What is it?"
Another guessing game along the lines of the previous two. This time, agree between yourselves before the game begins on certain categories, eg animal, vegetable, mineral, human, etc. Draw lots for who begins, then he or she announces which category you will be tackling, and writes down a word on a piece of paper. Each member of the group playing is allowed to ask five questions to try to find out the word. If nobody guesses, the player who set the first word sets a new one.

Funny phrases
Just as car number plates have figures, they have letters, too, and these can form the basis of a very funny game. One person — perhaps the driver — can be the judge. Everyone else has to make up a funny or familiar phrase from words that begin with the initials on the number plate of the car in front (or of a car coming in the opposite direction). For example: CCL 449C could be Cool Cats Love Christmas, or: Cherry Cake Leaves Crumbs. It's up to the judge to decide whose phrase is the most original.

Names from numbers
A variation of the previous game would be to set the passengers in the car the task of putting names to the initials on number plates. For example LGB 337L could become Lord George-Brown, London. Of course, if you can pick names like this which belong to famous people, so much the better; the umpire will probably award you the prize!