Turn car rides into educational opportunities

Spring break is almost here.  For many kids, that means road trips to Disney World, the Grand Canyon or maybe to Grandma’s house.

Those long hours in the car might mean movie time, video game time or time playing on the phone.  But they also offer great learning opportunities.

• For preschoolers learning their letters or numbers, make a game of finding a particular letter on a billboard, license plate or directional sign.

• Say a letter sound (not a letter name) and let your child identify which letter matches that sound.

• If it’s dark, you can say two words and ask the child which word begins with a particular letter. Stick to letters the child knows so she can feel successful.

• For kids learning rhymes (sometimes called word families), suggest a word which the child can then rhyme once, twice or three times. Or go back and forth, first you, then the child, then you, then the child, until no one can think of another word.  The last one to think of a word could decide what the first word of the next round is.

• For kids learning how to put letter sounds together to form words, sound out a CVC word and ask the child to identify it.  Then let the child sound out a word and see if you can identify it.

• Another rhyming game is for the adult to say a nursery rhyme and ask the child to name the words which rhyme. (Hickory, dickory dock, the mouse climbed up the clock.)

• Sequencing is a skill kindergarteners work on. You could say three activities—not in time order—and the child could put the events in the correct order.  (Mom filled the car with gas.  Dad put the suitcases in the car.  Billy packed his suitcase.)

• Cause and effect is a skill third graders work on. You could name both a cause and an effect, and the child could identify which is which.  (Sleeping Beauty slept for 100 years.  Sleeping beauty pricked her finger.)

• Categorizing words is an elementary school-aged skill. For example, you could say blue jay, cardinal and bird.  The child needs to find out which one in the category word.

• Comparisons are another easy word game. You say that the answers are bigger than, smaller than or the same size.  Then you say, “An elephant is something than a mouse.”  The child tells the correct relationship.  You could use longer than and shorter than, heavier and lighter and older and younger.

• Working memory is a skill children need to extend. Start with two words (or numbers or letters) which the child needs to repeat.  Let the child add another word and you repeat all three words.  Then let the child repeat all three words and add a fourth.  For some children this skill is incredibly difficult, so for them you might want to cap the list at four words.  For other children, seven or ten words might be possible.

• This is a great time to review math facts. If your third grader has just learned multiplication, review the facts.

• For older children or children learning English as a second language, car time can be vocabulary review time. You give the definition and the child gives the word.  Or let your child throw out a word meaning, and you have to identify it.  Children love stumping their parents.
• Older children encounter idioms all the time, but they don’t always understand them.  Throw out an idiom–Jason is blue–and let your child explain what it means.

Of course these educational moments could also happen on your long flight to India or Taiwan.  They could just as easily happen on the way to school in the morning or on the way to soccer practice in the afternoon.  There are so many times you can exploit one-on-one education with your child.