June 2018

SUMMER
Traveling with
the kids this
summer?
by Cynthia MacGregor
Traveling with children can be a logistical nightmare. Whether
you’re flying, driving, taking the train, or a bus, you have
to pack a bag equipped for all conceivable contingencies
while you’re in transit. In addition, you have to keep the
kids entertained while they’re away from their entertainment
modules. Yes, the older ones can read Kindles and those of
all ages can play hand-held games or listen to music on their
electronic tablets, but there’s a limit to how long these devices
can hold their interest.
The internet is full of articles suggesting how to handle little
ones’ popping ears on airplanes, what to pack for a kid who’s
really more bored than hungry but wants a snack, and other
such demands that are likely to occur when the family is in
transit. But how do you keep the kids entertained when there’s
no TV or computer in sight? There doesn’t seem to be a
plethora of articles on that subject. If your bored kids are fighting
in the back seat of the car, kicking the back of the airplane seat
in front of them, or otherwise turning the journey into a misery,
old-fashioned games — the kind that don’t require electronics
— may be your salvation. Let’s consider just two.
Progressive stories
One person starts by telling the beginning of a story — any
story about any character in any situation. For example: “Once
upon a time there was a boy named Matt who was always
getting into adventures. One day he set out on his bike to go to
the store to buy a comic book, but when he turned the corner
at the end of his block he saw a big green box in the middle of
the sidewalk. He got off his bike and opened the box, and to his
amazement he saw...”
The best place to break off, you see, is a cliffhanger. It can be
one sentence or several paragraphs into the narrative, but at
some point the first storyteller stops and turns the story over to
the next person. This person, in turn, has to pick up the story,
but she or he is under no constraints not to add plot twists
and changes. So, the story that started taking place in your
hometown might move its location, with Matt hopping a rocket
to the moon, or going off on an adventure that takes him to
Antarctica or the jungles of Brazil.
If the story gets too wild to sort out, or the kids lose interest, just
stop it and start another. There’s no formal end to a progressive
story, such as after so many minutes or so many turns per
participant. It’s over when some storyteller knits up the loose
ends and brings the story to a satisfactory ending ... or when
the car pulls up at Grandma’s house, and the kids say, “Are we
there already?”
Geography
You don’t need a jet plane to travel from Germany to Yugoslavia
to Austria to Australia — just the game of Geography. In
Geography, a game for two or more players, the object is very
simple: provide a place name beginning with the letter that
ended the place name given by the player who preceded you.
The place name can be a continent, country, state, city, county,
or any legitimate geographical location.
For example, the first player leads off by saying Germany. Since
Germany ends with a Y, the next player must provide a place
name that begins with that letter. If he or she says Yugoslavia,
then the next player has to name a place beginning with the
letter A. The game continues this way until a player can’t think
of a place name beginning with the requisite letter, or repeats
one that’s been used already. That’s when he or she is out of
the game. The last player left in the game is the winner.
Bon voyage!
P
70
JUNE 2018