Family care games help learning, memory

CARDIFF, Wales, June 8 (UPI) -- Some parents in Britain depend on DVDs to entertain children on road trips, but an insurance Web site says car games involving families are still popular.

Gareth Kloet, head of the car insurance comparison site Confused.com, says keeping children entertained on long car journeys is always a challenge.

"Game consoles and DVD players can help time pass, but car games parents can play with their kids have a long tradition in Britain to stave off boredom on those long trips," Kloet says in a statement.

Classic games such as "I Spy" and "20 questions" are still popular, along with more educational pursuits such as encouraging children to help with map reading and getting them to spot landmarks, Kloet says.

Many of the games focus on what things children can spot while they are traveling, such as the "yellow convertible mini" game, where children have to spot a yellow car, a mini or a convertible, but get more points for spotting combinations of all three.

Games can help in learning, math and developing memory. One game awards points for different animals spotted, the alphabet game has children spot consecutive letters of the alphabet on road signs or license plates and younger children can make a simple game out of counting cars.

"I went to the shops," requires children to list products alphabetically," Kloet says.

However, perhaps most popular with parents is the "sleeping lions," game which has children try and keep quiet for as long as possible -- like snoozing cats.