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Road Schooling Discussion
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Lots of us spend plenty of time on the road, in our cars. How do you
use your road time as educational time? I know we regularly borrow
books on tape from the library for our commutes back and forth to the
ice rink, to art classes, to the museums, to skating competitions, to
historical and nature sites. My daughter doesn't do well reading in
a car; it makes her carsick. But she doesn't have a problem listening
to a good read. Lots of folks with younger kids keep an assortment of
musical learning tapes in the car, for learning sing-a-longs.
On long trips I have made tapes (or you could burn a cd) of favorite
sing-a-long folk songs. These are good to get everyone singing and
to break up the monotony on a long trip. We also love to listen to
the Garrison Keillor tapes from "A Prairie Home Companion," any of
them.
And here are some other fun things to do while traveling that I
remember from childhood. Growing up in a large family (8 children) we
had to have games to play while traveling, to prevent fratricide.
Some that we used to play were games translating numbers, like
license plate numbers, or billboard phone numbers, into words. The
site below gives you some ideas on how to change letters into numbers
and numbers into letters using the telephone keypad equivalents. Some
pads of paper and pencils or pens can keep brains busy for hours on
this game:
http://www.rinkworks.com/words/phone.shtml
We currently play a "points" game spotting specific cars. Two we like
to spot at the moment are "slug bugs" (the new VW version of the
Beetle), and "coach roaches" (my name for the Chrysler PT Cruiser).
In our rules you must be the first to spot one of these, call it out
by color and name. For example someone might say, red "slug bug," or
silver "coach roach". We give two points for a moving vehicle and
only one point if it is parked. No points at car dealerships! Maybe
you have other car favorites and can think up cute names for them?
Feel free to make up your own rules, too.
And then there's our old time family favorite that my brothers and
sisters and I used to play, "Think Pink." A think pink is a pair
of one-syllable words that rhyme with each other; a thinky pinky is a
pair of two-syllable words that rhyme; a thinkety pinkety is a pair
of three-syllable words that rhyme. And for an extra challenge a
thinkety pinkety plus is a pair of four-syllable words that rhyme.
For example: one person thinks one up then says, "Okay, I have a
thinky pinky for odiferous jam" Everyone gets a turn to guess until
someone gets it right, or the person playing stumps them. Odiferous
jam? That's smelly jelly! Try some of these:
What's a think pink for an insect that lives in a carpet?
What's a think pink for a bunch of people with high self-esteem?
What's a thinky pinky for a beautiful cat?
What's a thinky pinky for what you might call a man whose last name
means the opposite of brother?
What's a thinkety pinkety for a dawdling tenant?
What's a thinkety pinkety plus for a lack of good work habits?
1. rug bug
2. proud crowd
3. pretty kitty
4. Mister Sister
5. hesitant resident
6. efficiency deficiency
All of these are suitable for all ages, though for some inexplicable
reason adults seem to tire of them faster than children. :?)
And the added bonus to all these games? No batteries required!!!
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As for our driving time, we really don't spend a lot of time on the road.
But when we are driving, we tend to use that time for conversation, which is
a big part of our homeschool plan anyway. Billboards spark discussions on
everything from consumerism and economy, to the environment to art. People
we see can start us on conversations on culture and social studies. Lately,
they've taken to counting the number of people they see on cell phones, and
that in itself is a cultural issue. And the flags of course, raise issues of
nationalism, current events and more.
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