Embrace Adventure: How Play Keeps Anger at Bay and Transforms Your Walks and Travels – Escape Boredom Here!
International Family Day is celebrated every year on 15 May
International Family Day was created by the UN General Assembly in 1994. Families form an essential community that helps share values from one generation to the next. In strong families, adults can nurture each other through selfless love and teamwork, helping children develop into sociable and imaginative individuals.
What are some great ways to enjoy family outings? One idea is to plan trips together with the kids—along with Which Way from Boredom for extra fun. Start travel journals to document your adventures with photos, notes, and drawings. Involve your kids in using both traditional and digital maps to guide your journey. Make sure to appreciate everything around you, and most importantly, enjoy not just the final destination, but every moment of the journey as well.
City Bingo
City Bingo involves finding details from images that we prepare beforehand. Each participant needs about 3 to 5 images—everyone can have the same or different images. This game requires just a little prep before you set off; all you need to do is cut out images from brochures or postcards and distribute them when you arrive in the city. While exploring, everyone looks for details matching their pictures. You can give a reward for each detail found, and the main prize goes to whoever locates all their images first (if everyone has the same, then the winner is the one with the most).
Possible finds include parts of statues, house signs, or eye-catching window decorations. By choosing the right images, the family will explore the most interesting sights of the visited city while having a blast. This game is also fantastic for younger children, who tend to have a surprising eye for detail and often end up winning. A variation is to find locations based on historical photos from your family’s album (like from your parents’ younger days). Once you’ve found the spot, you can snap a current photo for the next generation to enjoy. This game is best suited for visits to so-called ancient towns and areas like the Old and New Town in Prague, the historical center of Brno, Olomouc, Kutná Hora, Kroměříž, Telč, Český Krumlov, Litomyšl, Mikulov, Kuks, or even Nové Město nad Metují.
Games for More Than Just Long Car Rides…
On lengthy trips, passengers can keep entertained in various fun ways. For example, make (or buy) a capsuleer for kids sitting in the back seat, which attaches to the back of the front seat. Before setting off, hide small toys in this pocket for children to find and enjoy throughout the journey (consider items like puzzles, tiny games, adhesive books, magnets, etc.). Older kids can use a road atlas to track the journey and even help navigate the driver.
Which direction to go?
If you have plenty of time and are open to where you wander in the city, let chance guide you. In a non-transparent bag or box, have 3 cards with the directions “right,” “left,” and “straight,” with one word on each card. At each intersection, one of the children draws the next direction (make sure to return the card for future use). This game thrives in the beautiful streets of historic towns.
It’s possible to end up in unexpected places or to take a few turns in circles, but the game is genuinely enjoyable and ideal for moments when you just want to stroll without a specific goal. Young kids usually find this game a lot of fun. The game can conclude with a practice in orientation—having someone figure out how to get back home, to the car, or to the station. Try this game in places like Prague’s Nový Svět, from the station toward the center of Pardubice, Karlovy Vary, Hradec Králové, České Budějovice, Příbram, Františkovy Lázně, Nymburk, Jindřichův Hradec, Břeclav, Česká Třebová, or Zlín.
You can have similar fun while traveling through the countryside by searching for various colors. Bring colorful leaves along and allow the children to venture out into nature to discover leaves, stones, etc., and arrange them on the colored leaves. In autumn, they can collect different colored leaves for even more fun.
The Irresistible Appeal of the Encyclopedia
If you have family adventures focused on exploring nature, you probably take along a plant or animal atlas or some natural science encyclopedias, or perhaps even use mobile apps. These resources can help you identify unfamiliar flora and fauna, and they are also great for passing the time while you’re waiting for a train, in a queue, or during other downtime. One game is to have a randomly chosen person look in the encyclopedia to find a name that most fits them. Names like the Black-chested Chat, the Littlest Drobněnka, Little Destice, the Hairy-footed Chat, or the Lesser Shrike have their unique charm. To shake things up a bit, you could allow others to look for new names and family members as well. Some might think this game isn’t very educational, perhaps viewing it as just for laughs at the expense of unsuspecting strangers, but it truly encourages creative thinking within the family. This game is perfect for easing long waits, taking a break from more serious activities, and instantly lifting everyone’s mood.
