ARE WE NEARLY THERE YET?

Try one of these games to keep children busy during long car journeys...

You score five points for a yellow car, 10 points for a Mini and 25 points for a yellow Mini (the elusive Mini Cheddar). The golden rule is you can only have one unconfirmed sighting per child each game, otherwise people will be “finding” yellow Minis down every sidestreet. First to 100 wins the game.

Everyone picks a car colour. Taking it in turns they have to spot seven cars of that colour followed by a black car to win a “frame”. If another player sees a white car then they have the “cue ball” and the game reverts to them.

A game where you spot colours on any object, including animals, plants and people. You start with red and when that colour has been exhausted you can switch to the other colours of the rainbow until you have worked your way through.

MAKE INVISIBLE INK

Mission: Perfect for a rainy day, create invisible messages and reveal how to make them visible again. You will need: White paper, a thin paintbrush, lemon juice plus a couple of tablespoons of water and a heat source such as a hair dryer or iron (with adult supervision). Alternatively you will need a white crayon and paint.

Take your paper and paint a message in lemon juice. Let the paper dry. When the paper is completely dry write a decoy message over the top in pencil in order to make your secret message harder to spot. To reveal the hidden message gently heat the paper using a hair dryer or iron.

If you are trying the wax crayon method write your message in white crayon. The children can paint over the whole page to reveal the message. Coloured pencils or felt tips can also be used.

Extracted by MERNIE GILMORE from Commando Dad Mission Adventure: Get Active With Your Kids by Neil Sinclair (Vie Books, £9.99). To order a copy call the Express Bookshop on 01872 562 310 or visit expressbookshop.co.uk