How to Make Summer Road Travel FUN (and Keep Those Brains Working!)

Disclosure / Disclaimer: I received these ebooks, free of charge,from MoonDance Press Creative Team and Quatro Books, via Edelweiss, for blog review purposes. No other compensation, monetary or in kind, has been received or implied for this post. Nor was I told how to post about them, all opinions are my own. 

Today I have 2 fun books, perfect for use on road trips.

Both require kids working their brains, both left and right parts of their brains!

Not going on a road trip?

You can use them for Summer games and learning too!

Get Smarter: Super Fun Travel Activities to Baffle Your Brain

you have to have a fun puzzle book for the road, right? This new books is not only FUN, it has great brain-bending travel-related activities for kids ages 7 to 12- (thought older teens will like it too!). The book IS small, featuring only 75 engaging and entertaining puzzles, games, activities, and challenges, like crossword puzzles, word searches, optical illusion fun, paper & pencil games. But they all are the perfect cure for "Are we there yet?" Most activities need only a pencil and a brain! Hours stuck in the backseat might just pass quietly and without complaint! 

This is a fun game book, thanks to the varied activities, that aren't frequently found in these type of books. Miss Grace really liked the Word Draw, where you had to draw the object of the word, with letters OF the word. She also liked the backward and forward above. personally I really liked the amount of word games that required her to THINK, they aren't just mindless searches. Most of the games are perfect for reading out loud, and having multiple kids play as well. This is our new favorite travel puzzle book, and your kids will love it too!

and our other entry for today:

Poetry for Kids by William Shakespeare, ed by Marguerite Tassi, illus by Merce Lopez

I know EXACTLY what you're thinking- SHAKESPEARE for a road trip?

But think for a minute:

Love! Betrayal! Ambition! Tragedy! Jealousy! It's ALL here! 

With more than thirty of William Shakespeare's best-known and most-loved verses and poems, this fully illustrated book introduces children ( primarily for ages 8-12) to the Bard and his amazing work. From “Shall I compare thee to a summer’s day?” to “O, she doth teach the torches to burn bright!” and “All the world’s a stage,” the words and poetry of the greatest playwright and poet spring to life on the page. 

William Shakespeare's universal themes continue to resonate with readers of all ages more than 400 years after his death. Use that to your advantage- read out a section, ask your kids what they think it means or what TV show or movie does it remind them of? Once you start THAT game, your kids just MIGHT be shocked about how many shows have Shakespearean plots! 

Don't know much about the plays/poems yourself? No worries- brush up on the included

expert explanations, and you'll be ready to sound like you do! Plus there are definitions of important words, so your kids can help increase their vocabulary skills (content and impact too!) along the way. Just think how much FUN you'll have saying, "yeah the kids were bored, but we did some Shakespeare poetry discussion and the miles just flew by", LOL! 

Kids will enjoy reading it to themselves as well, thanks to the lovely illustrations by Lopez! 

This is a very nice starter book for those wanting to take a small look at Shakespeare's works, before kids tackle them in High School, and we highly recommend it!


Both of these books would be great for game playing in the car- make it a contest about who can answer how many right, and award some prizes, like riding in the front seat, or picking out the lunch spot, you might just be surprised how much the kids get into winning!