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What educational things do you do in the car?


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We live a long way from anywhere and are routinely in the car for 1 hour plus to get where we need to be. We have been doing loads of audio books and general discussion along with the random math or spelling question thought up by DD but i am looking for some fresh ideas.

 

Any suggestions???

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We live a long way from anywhere and are routinely in the car for 1 hour plus to get where we need to be. We have been doing loads of audio books and general discussion along with the random math or spelling question thought up by DD but i am looking for some fresh ideas.

 

Any suggestions???

 

Foreign language dialogues or music appreciation cd's?? Bible cd's where the Scriptures are read word for word?

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We live a long way from anywhere and are routinely in the car for 1 hour plus to get where we need to be. We have been doing loads of audio books and general discussion along with the random math or spelling question thought up by DD but i am looking for some fresh ideas.

 

Any suggestions???

 

Memorize the Presidents! We did Yo! Millard Fillmore! on a long driving vacation one year.

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Hi~

Have you seen this book?

Carschooling: Over 350 Entertaining Games & Activities to Turn Travel Time into Learning Time by Diane Flynn Keith (Paperback - Sep 24, 2002)

I don't know how to post a link, but Amazon has it. I have never seen it, but it is on my wishlist. If you get it, let us know what you think.

Sheri

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We play the "Three Car Game" that my 3 year old made up when she couldn't keep up with my older son and I (playing an alphabet game). One person selects three types of cars, and the others have to find them. First to find all three cars, wins, and gets to select the next three cars. Not always cars; yesterday we had to find one brown horse, one church, and one pink car. (We live in the semi-rural, Bible-belt, Mary Kay country so it was easy enough to do LOL.)

 

Another variation we do for my younger daughter is alliteration. My older son and I will go through the alphabet doing random patterns (e.g., Adjective/First Name/Occupation, so: Annoying Annie the Accountant) while my daughter will give us anything that is an alliteration for the letter we are on (e.g., alligator apples).

 

My kids also draw in the car. A lot. Sometimes for fun I'll have them both start with a clean piece of paper. I'll call out random things I want them to incorporate into their pictures ("a triangle" then "something with wheels" then "anything in nature that is red" or "anything edible"). After awhile, we'll stop and compare how different their pictures are. Another version of this is where I call out explicit directions for what I want their pictures to look like: In the top right corner, draw a blue line that is 2" long. In the bottom right corner, draw a trapezoid that is larger than a cockroach. And so on. It's still interesting to see how differently the pictures turn out, despite identical and explicit instructions. This one is easier to do with my older kid and his cousins; my daughter gets bored and distracted and tends to hone in on one item (cockroach, blue line) and run with it for her entire picture LOL.

 

We don't do a lot of audio books, but we LOVE music CDs. Both of my kids have learned an insane amount of information from music CDs, especially School House Rock and all of the sister versions. I don't always like to sacrifice my own radio time for this ::grin:: so we usually do it just one-way.

 

My kids don't get car sick, so they read on road trips. But I guess that's kind of the same as audio books ...

 

ETA: My son was really into compasses for awhile, and liked to keep a running dialogue of what direction we were going in every. time. we made even a SLIGHT change to our direction. But he learned how to read a compass, how to navigate, and what every direction on was. Now he's like his dad, and can give directions by direction (turn south on Rural Rd) to any one who needs them (and can understand them; I can't, I need landmarks LOL). It turned in to a discussion on the sun, knowing how to find East, and we ended up making a sun dial. On a related note, I let the kids use my GPS in the back seat. They program it to where we're going, and will be my "co-pilots" and navigate us according to the instructions offered. In hindsight, I'd only recommend this for trips where you already know how to get there ::grin:: But to me, this is a life skill worth knowing - and they think it's just fun.

Edited by eternalknot
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Listen to audio books.....i.e. literature/language arts. So many of the great classics are available on CDs from the library....and a lot is available for download and burning to disk from librivox.com and other websites where they are free of cost (except CDs to burn to) and copyright free.

 

This was especially great when the kids were younger and most of our reading was read-alouds......my voice can only handle so much reading, and I figured it didn't matter WHO read to them, right. And of course I was always still there to pause and discuss. Now that they're older and can read on their own, we don't do as many mom read alouds, but we do a lot of audio books so that we're all listening together and still have time to stop and discuss.

 

Anything that you want to memorize can also be worked on in the car...poetry, math facts, songs, state capitals, presidents, whatever. Make a game out of it and the kids won't groan as much about it, though.

 

I have one child who simply MUST have her hands doing something or she just starts breaking down......so she is never without some kind of pencil/paper or handiwork (crochet, knitting, embroidery, quilting, you name it). Now the advantage to this is that all of us have lovely hand embroidered clothing! Just be sure that this child has a clip on lamp.

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Also throw in the Veritas Press history memorization song and they will know all their history dates without trying. :) I have found that all the literature we have listened to has really been a blessing. They appreciate well written books, naturally discuss the plot, characters etc.

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I can't remember if you're a Christian, but we love the http://www.songsforsaplings.com/ (Questions and Answers) It's a sort of catechism and it's wonderful. You can see the words on the site; even my husband and I go around singing the songs... http://www.exodusbooks.com/category.aspx?id=7054 (small Homeschool bookstore) http://www.familychristian.com/shop/product.asp?prodID=19099 (review and interview) The cds are pretty much whole chapters of Psalms and such....

Also, magnetic boards with magnets to place. Car bingo...(you can make your own to match your children's skills)

Carrie:-)

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Make up your own stories. One person starts with the first line, and everyone takes turns adding 1 sentence to the story. Or work on memory and alphabetical order. You start with "I'm going on a picnic and I'm taking an apple. The next individual needs to recite your story and add a b item. This keeps going until someone forgets.

 

Another game we used to love was Mad Libs, but that may still be a year or two away unless you have another adult with you.

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We love love SOTW on cd. As others have posted I get literature audio books. We also have a math song cd. I've been thinking about getting the cd to go along with FLL for the grammar chants.

 

I haven't tried having my kids read books or handwork because I get crazy car sick if I do, and I'm afraid they will too.

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Besides audio books...

 

I always have us listen to music from the time period we're studying (we've been doing US history, I guess for ancients this would be a bit tougher... ;))

 

Science songs! Tickle Toon Typhoon, Lyrical Life Sicience, those free Science Songs online, Astro Capella.

 

Skip Counting CDs

 

Songs in foreign languages

 

Next year when we do ancients, I would like to get SOTW on CD...

 

We recently listened to a Teaching Company lecture on tape - got it out of the library. My 10yos and 8yo all enjoyed it.

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