When most parents think of vacation, they automatically anticipate the terrors of the drive. There may be a seemingly endless series of complaints and problems that make a six-hour drive feel more like sixty hours. With some creativity, you can even make this fun, no matter how long you are going to be on the road.

The hours spent behind the wheel can be hours of family entertainment that are almost as fun as your destination. The potential for games played, right in the vehicle, eliminate those protracted periods of bored silence. Here are some of the most fun games that parents and children can play together:

• The Road Trip Spelling Bee: You can tailor every word for the individual doing the spelling. If you aren't interested in spelling what about a singing competition?

• Five-Minute Stories: Give everyone five minutes to tell the best story they can. It can be a funny story or a scary story, depending on your family's interests. Every person can have their own respective story or, if you think it would work better, start the story with your own five minutes. Give every other person 5 minutes to add on to your story, with their own events and characters. This is especially fun if you have a video recorder and can tape everyone's story, preserving the tale your family creates.

• Alphabet Adventure: You can use everything from food to popular culture topics for this one. You start the game by declaring the topic, we'll use food in this example. The food alphabet then starts when you say, "A for Apricots." The next person will need to come up with a word for B, for example, "B for Bananas," while the next might say, "C for cantaloupe." The game continues through the alphabet. If someone loses their spot, they sit out until the next game begins.

• License Plate Acronyms: With this game, you look around at the other license plates on the cars around you and make words from the alphabetic characters. For example, if a plate in front of you has, "BRBT," along with numbers, you might say, "be right back today."

• Speedy Scavenger Game: This is all the fun of a traditional scavenger hunt, but you play it from your car seat. Make a list prior to traveling for your kids to look for and check off. You can also make a reward for the first person to find everything on the list. Some good examples of simple objects to find are, "blue car," "cellphone/mobile tower," "water tower," or, "rest stop." You can make the game complex for older kids or as basic as necessary for the younger kids. You can also make separate lists if your kids range in ages so the older ones will be challenged, while the younger kids can participate.

• Unfortunately-Fortunately: This is an older game that really allows everyone to participate in and many even get carried away with it. This is also known to urge positive thinking and coping skills. You start out with something like, "Unfortunately, there's going to be a downpour." Someone else might chime in with, "Fortunately, we have an umbrella." Then, someone else might say, "Unfortunately, there's a bee in the car." Then, the follow-up might be, "Fortunately, it just flew out the window."

Car Games for Kids are fun whenever the family goes for a long vacation trip and it's easy car games for kids.