Long Car Trip - Boredom Solved! #2

Thought I’d share another long car trip boredom buster. This one is good numeracy development for your little ones too.  

You play by adding the respective number of ‘runs’ depending on which cars go past.

-         White cars = 1 run

-         Blue cars = 4 runs

-         Green cars = 6 runs

-         Red cars = wicket. Play passes to the next person.  

You keep cycling through players, adding the white, blue and green cars to that player’s total. When they get out (a red car) they remember their score, and then add onto this next time their turn comes around.  

In our family, the game is over when you get to the next town. Specifically, the moment you get past the ‘Welcome to ********’ sign. (We’re a little bit pedantic in my family.) This gives a good ending point to each game, usually about 20 to 30 minutes long depending on where you’re driving! If you don’t do this, you might find that everyone wants to stop playing, except the person who’s winning! When you get to the next town, you can either have a break or start again fresh. If you find you want a longer time, designate a finishing town before you start. For instance, the person who has the most runs when we get to Dubbo wins.  

We also have the ‘orange car rule’. A mean, nasty rule which can change the tone of a car trip drastically – for better or worse, so use with caution

-         orange car = revert entire score to zero.

I will leave it to your judgement as to whether you use this rule or not – don’t say you haven’t been warned!  

Car cricket is one of those games where every family seems to have its own rules. This is the way we play – how do you play in your family?