All aboard! Let’s make transport just as fun as where you’re going!

Travelling can be the best part of an adventure! Our activity #28 Wheels on the Bus is all about you and your children playing during what some children could find boring, especially if it’s a longer journey. 

Using public transport can be a great experience for your child to speak with members of the public like bus drivers and train conductors. They learn that they can travel far and wide with their trusted grown up by their side. 

Taking the bus, train, car or simply walking, travelling to your destination doesn’t have to be as stressful for your family. 

There are many ways to make longer journeys more playful for children, especially when taking public transport. 

Need some inspiration? Here are some exciting ways to make travelling fun for your family: 

1. Encourage your child to role play and pretend to be a bus driver or a train conductor. Your child will love “steering” and your child could press the button to let the bus driver know you are getting off at the next stop. 

2. Sing songs, share rhymes or make jokes. It is the perfect opportunity to sing, “The wheels on the bus!” 

3. Try counting lots of different things you see outside of the vehicle such as different colours of cars (how many red cars can you see, shout banana car if you spot a yellow car), trees, animals and the inside (bus seats, the number of people getting on/off and the number of windows on a vehicle). 

4. Whilst waiting for public transport you can try one of our #46 Wonderful Waiting Games by playing some simple quick games such as squares, noughts and crosses, or for younger children peek-a-boo or round and round the garden. We all know and love it - a game of ‘I Spy’.  

5. Make a story, each person can say a word or line and carry it on, this is a great way for children to develop their language and communication skills. Eg - You might say “Today we are going to..” and let your child say the next word, then you could say “When we get there, we are…” So each time your child can choose a new word. 

6. When using public transport, switch up the places you would sit normally, go to the back seat of the bus or go on the top floor of the bus to give a different view. 

7. Try out a new transport method to get to your next destination, for example in Leeds there is a water taxi you can hop on or you could plan ahead and walk to the next bus stop, get on the bus, then get a train for the rest of the journey. 

8. Collect paper tickets and create a scrap book to save the memory of your trip. You can build a collection of places you’ve travelled to with your child for them to look back on when they’re older. 

9. You could try the alphabet game if you have older children. If it’s your first time playing this game with your child start with a theme you know your child knows, eg. animals, foods, colours. You can play this by each person giving the next letter of the alphabet (First person a, second person b) or go round the family for each letter (everyone gives an answer for a…) Use a different theme each time you play like names,, famous people, stories…

10. Before going travelling make a map with your children and pin point places where you want to visit next. Maps are a great way to make travelling exciting for children - take a look at metro or underground maps and see if your child can point to where they’re going.

11. Try this game when it is raining, the rainier the better! Have your own raindrop race. Look at the window and each pick a raindrop to follow, whichever reaches the bottom of the window first wins! 

12. Mix-up drawing! Pass a piece of paper around your family, each person takes turns folding the piece of paper and drawing a body part until the feet have been drawn.  fold a piece of paper and draw a head, fold it over and draw a body, fold it over again until the last person has drawn the feet and you’ve created a whole person!

13. If you have your own car, keep an activity basket in the car, near your children’s feet or on a seat so that they can engage in play that isn’t on a screen on longer car journeys. Fill the basket with books, drawing paper and pens, fidget toys, toy figures etc. 

Journeys can be the best bit! We hope these ideas have given you some fun ideas to try when travelling. Keep an eye out for more blogs and in the meantime take a look at our 50 activities for some play ideas this Summer.