Learning in the Car
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No Guilt Required
Do you find your family to be in the car more often than you care to admit? Whether you’re on the way to co-op, ballet, music lessons, ball practice, chess club or doctor’s appointments, all this car time can make a mom feel quite guilty about the seemingly wasted minutes or hours.
Did you know this car time doesn’t have to be “down” time? It most certainly can be down time if you like, but there are lots of wonderful school or enrichment activities that can keep your children educationally engaged, too. Below is a nice list of ideas for you.
Learning in the Car
Bible Memory Work
Recite Bible verses
Recite the books of the Bible
Skills
Math drills – any number of mental math drills
Spelling drills
Sign reading
Vocabulary words
Drills of important dates to remember
Drills of important people or events and their significance
Narration
Poetry recitation
Buy skill workbooks from the dollar store
Buy fun books of mazes, crosswords, word finds, etc.
Run off a blank US map and ask kids to color in each state when they see a license plate from that state
Games
Play ABC I Spy – either with objects or words on signs
Name things you see outside that were mentioned in the Bible
Buy little travel games and keep in a plastic tote
“Bugs and Cruisers” – Assign point values to certain types of cars and have the kids keep a point tally as you drive. Example: VW Bugs and PT Cruisers are each worth 1 point. Hummers might be worth 10 points. Jeeps might be worth 5 points. You get to make up the rules and values according to your child’s abilities.
Play color or shape I Spy
Storytelling
Storytelling where one person stops a story at the climax and another person continues the story
Grammar guess – Mom says a sentence and asks child to repeat a part of speech.Example:Mom says, “Name the prepositional phrase, ‘Look for the ball under the bush.’ ” The child then repeats the prepositional phrase.
Hum or whistle tunes and see who is the first to guess correctly
Play 20 questions
Play an oral ABC Scattergories – Think of a topic and the first person names something that fits in the topic starting with “a”, the next person thinks of a “b” word, and so on
Play word memory – The first person says a word that fits in a certain topic.The next person says that word and adds another word.The third person says the first two words and adds another word.You keep going until someone messes up. Example: Topic=animals, first persons says ‘dog’, second person says ‘dog, cat’, third person says ‘dog, cat, frog’
Educational CD Ideas
Adventures in Odyssey
Jonathan Park Adventures
Foreign languages
Bible verse CD’s
Bible song CD’s
Any “living” book on CD
CD of music or stories that go along with a unit you’re studying
Story of the World CD’s
Any historical fiction book on CD
Lyrical Life Science CD’s
Other Ideas
Keep a lap desk or clip board in your car, along with a supply of pencils, crayons, etc. and bring the school books along on a trip
On a familiar drive, ask your child to create a travel brochure of the sights you see
Stop at a rest stop or hotel in an unfamiliar area and pick up a few brochures. Let your child be the “tour guide” of attractions in the area as you drive.You never know when an unexpected field trip might turn up.
Listen to a preacher on the radio and discuss the sermon
Turn up the music and practice singing harmonies
For more ideas, you might enjoy:
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