BlsdMama Posted October 8, 2015 Share Posted October 8, 2015 I spend an inordinate amount of time driving to and from places. I am SO not this person. However, until DS has his license, I need to be that person. So he has college classes in the AM, then I pick him up every day. (DH takes him in on his way to work.) So that's once into town - about 15-20 minutes away. Then he has Scouts on Monday, most often DH takes him there so that one is fine. Then on Thursdays he has Mock Trial. I take him in, DH picks him up. What do you do in the car with kids to make it fun and educational? Many of mine get carsick so reading or tablets or writing are not viable options. We often do sing alongs, memory work, or audio books but I welcome specific suggestions! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
school17777 Posted October 8, 2015 Share Posted October 8, 2015 Do you have a dvd player in the car? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
happypamama Posted October 8, 2015 Share Posted October 8, 2015 Do you have to take all of the children every time? Could your 8th grader keep most of them home? (Not sure of legalities in your state.). If so, maybe you could just being one or two and use it as some Mommy time. (I decided I was over killing our afternoon to go grocery shopping after martial arts class, so now I go in the evening, by myself or with just one child, and it's quite pleasant that way.) We do a lot of audiobooks in the car, or composer study. All the Classical Kids CD music/stories. Stuff with good voices, like Pooh. Focus on the Family radio theater dramatizations. 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JudoMom Posted October 8, 2015 Share Posted October 8, 2015 Do you have to take all of the children every time? Could your 8th grader keep most of them home? (Not sure of legalities in your state.). If so, maybe you could just being one or two and use it as some Mommy time. (I decided I was over killing our afternoon to go grocery shopping after martial arts class, so now I go in the evening, by myself or with just one child, and it's quite pleasant that way.) We do a lot of audiobooks in the car, or composer study. All the Classical Kids CD music/stories. Stuff with good voices, like Pooh. Focus on the Family radio theater dramatizations. :iagree: I wouldn't take all of them if I could avoid it at all. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wabi Sabi Posted October 8, 2015 Share Posted October 8, 2015 We do a lot of running around too. I let the kids stay home if I'm going to be right back and we listen to audiobooks when they have to come with me. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Farrar Posted October 8, 2015 Share Posted October 8, 2015 Do you have to take all of the children every time? Could your 8th grader keep most of them home? (Not sure of legalities in your state.). If so, maybe you could just being one or two and use it as some Mommy time. (I decided I was over killing our afternoon to go grocery shopping after martial arts class, so now I go in the evening, by myself or with just one child, and it's quite pleasant that way.) :iagree: :iagree: There's no way I would take all the kids unless there was some compelling reason. Alternately, is there a public bus for your 11th grader? My kids now take the bus to (but not yet home since it's in the evening...) some of their activities, which is really nice for my driving. Most of our stuff is also 15-20 mins away. I don't consider that very far (I guess I'm used to city traffic) but it is nice to put the burden on them a little to transport themselves. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lllll Posted October 8, 2015 Share Posted October 8, 2015 nm Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mamakelly Posted October 9, 2015 Share Posted October 9, 2015 I do a ton of driving, it's really quite ridiculous. Tuesday I drove my 16-year-old to class day. I came back home picked up my eight-year-old and took him back to class day for pictures. Then I came back home picked up my 13-year-old took her to the math tutor. Then we came home from the math tutor and I stopped by gymnastics to drop off my 8 year old. I took the 13-year-old home, ran some errands, then went back to get the 8 year old from gymnastics. Then I went back to class day to pick up my 16 year old. Then I raced home, quickly made dinner and drove the 16-year-old scouts. My 16 year old is working on getting his permit. I need him to drive. I leave as many kids home as I can. When I do have to take everyone, we listen to lots of books on tape, adventures in odyssey etc... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MerryAtHope Posted October 10, 2015 Share Posted October 10, 2015 Adventures in Odyssey Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
luuknam Posted October 10, 2015 Share Posted October 10, 2015 Could you review any kind of memory work? This would require you to have the stuff memorized yourself, but things like "what's the capital of Alaska?" could be done sometimes (unfortunately, you'd still need to do this with a map around as well sometimes, but maybe there is other memory work that would work better). Also, I don't know how many miles 15-20 min is (this would be very dependent on where you live), but if there isn't a bus, could he bicycle home? Like, dad drives him + bike to college, and he bicycles back? If it's 15-20 miles that should be doable a couple of times per week, if it's 10 miles or less then it might be possible every day unless there's too much snow. Can't he schedule college classes to be 2 (or 3) days per week instead of 5 days per week next semester? I know that when I was driving 65+ miles to university (and then 65+ miles back) I scheduled my classes 1-2 days per week, not 5... colleges and universities tend to have quite a few ways to make your schedule not be 5 days per week. And, the obvious, are there *any* kids at college who live in the same direction he does that he can hitch a ride with? Like, put up a note on the bulletin board. Also, if your DH can drop him off in the morning, could he just stay at college doing his homework in the afternoon and then ride back with DH in the evening some days of the week? ETA: oops, you already mentioned memory work. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Loesje22000 Posted October 10, 2015 Share Posted October 10, 2015 We play a geography game. We pick a letter and then try to name as many places we now with that letter, while taking turns. it keeps us from sleeping Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PinkyandtheBrains. Posted October 10, 2015 Share Posted October 10, 2015 Our drive to town is 30-40 minutes, depending on where we are going. We used to listen to fun audiobooks, now we listen to great courses CDs. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hot Lava Mama Posted October 10, 2015 Share Posted October 10, 2015 We do a lot of audiobooks in the car, or composer study. I second audio books. You can check them out from the library, too. If you have kids that get car sick (as I do), you don't want to do books or anything where their attention is focused on a particular item because their body senses "movement" but their eyes don't. Audio books are good because they entertain the kids' mind but the kids can still peer out the windows. Good luck! Hot Lava Mama 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tsuga Posted October 12, 2015 Share Posted October 12, 2015 Confession: We drive more than that. I can't think and talk and drive at the same time so mostly it's Rock and roll 101 courtesy KZOK and the End. "And this is Jimi Hendrix, kids. He was from right here in Seattle but he thought it was provincial so he went to London. Do you know where London is?" "Mommy, what does 'provincial' mean?" "First tell me where you think London is. Do you remember if it's a city or a country?" 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LMD Posted October 12, 2015 Share Posted October 12, 2015 We do audio books. We've done a lot of driving recently and are nearly through all the chronicles of narnia... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gentlemommy Posted October 12, 2015 Share Posted October 12, 2015 We practice spelling words. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheAttachedMama Posted October 13, 2015 Share Posted October 13, 2015 Our "car schooling" subjects might include... 1) Classical Conversations Memory Work: We use their timeline, History sentences, and science sentences. I have them all set to music. When we factor in review time, we could easily stay busy for about an hour with this subject alone!! 2) Audiobook*- We always have a family audiobook going at any given time. After a chapter I pause it and ask each child to narrate in turn. I start with the youngest. Then the next oldest corrects or adds anything the youngest one missed, etc. 3) History- Both SOTW and CHOW are available on audiobook. These are the books we actually USE for history. So if I know we have somewhere to drive to, I save history for our car trip and get everything else done at home. I pause and they narrate. BUT, I think these are both interesting books to listen to even if you are using something else for history. 4) Bible memory verses- We use seeds family worship songs 5) Latin- We use classical academic press products which have CDs and DVDs. Memoria Press products have CDs and DVDs too. 6) Poetry- We use IEW's poetry program. It has a great CD that goes along with it. We review poetry, etc. 7) Cultural Literacy- This is sort of tied to the audiobook. But lets say you aren't in the car enough to have an audiobook going for the entire family. Perhaps there is too much time between readings. If this is the case, you could have your car schooling count as your cultural literacy subject. Listen to Aesop's Fables. Listen to Andrew Lang's fair tales. Listen to James Baldwin's 50 Famous Stories. Listen to all of those great short stories that you want your children to be familar with some day. Short stories are great if you aren't in the car everyday, but still want something entertaining. 8) Bible- I don't know if you are religious, but use all of these car trips to listen through the ENTIRE bible with your kids. That should keep you busy for a good long time. And what a great goal to accomplish! There are lots of great audio bibles available on audible.com. This one is pretty good. The key to doing all of this is to have an organized play list system going on your phone. You want to have it set up before you go so you don't have to mess around too much while driving. :) 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Julie of KY Posted October 13, 2015 Share Posted October 13, 2015 Audio books Teaching company - audio lectures YWAM biographies Adventures in Odyssey. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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