There comes a point in every family road trip—usually about 300 miles from the driveway in my experience—when everyone needs an old-fashioned backseat game to break up the monotony.

Bring bickering to a standstill for awhile as you introduce a few of these classic backseat games to your kids. 

Rhymes with orange

This is an indirect guessing game that works for all ages.  One person says, “I’m thinking of a word that rhymes with cat.”  When guessing, the other players must frame their answers as questions like this: “Is it a rodent with yellow teeth and a scaly tail?” to which the person who is it replies, “No, it’s not a rat,” and so on.

Twenty questions

Animal, vegetable, or mineral?  Before there were handheld Twenty Questions games, there was the old fashioned version.  I don’t know about you, but in my family the answer is usually “Duckbilled Platypus”.  You know, in case you ever take a road trip with us.

Punch buggy

This is a very erudite game (also called Slug Bug and Punch Bug) in which the first person to spot a Volkswagen Beetle gets to punch the other one lightly on the arm.  If your kids are already fighting, why not?  Good luck with that.

How many cows?

This game works best with just two kids when you’re driving through an agricultural area.  Kids count cows on “their” side of the car, competing to see who can count the most.  If you’re driving in an urban area, have them count red cars instead.

Fortunately, unfortunately

This brainy word game works best with older kids, but anyone can play.  The first player makes a statement such as, “Fortunately I found a million dollars lying on a street corner.”  The second person replies with, “Unfortunately, it was being guarded by a rabid reindeer.”  Then the first person says, “Fortunately, I am immune to rabies.”  And so on.

The quiet game

I’m pretty sure my mother invented this game, which is every bit as simple as it sounds.  It’s infuriating for kids.  On the one hand, they think it’s a really stupid game.  On the other hand, they really want to win.  Therein lies the beauty of the game.  Are we there yet?