by Linda Haver

Created on: October 03, 2010

Families spend a great deal of time in the car on their way to lessons, scouts, appointments, and sporting events. This drive time offers great opportunities for teachable moments.

Preschoolers will love singing songs and playing games to practice verbal skills or readiness concepts. Pass the time with elementary-aged children by reinforcing skills they are learning in school.  Time spent in the car with middle-school or high school students can be used initiate conversations to find out what is happening in their lives. 

 Teachable moments are everywhere.  Parents can use this time to help their children grow intellectually while having fun and spending quality family time.  Listen to and interact with your child to make riding in the car an enjoyable experience.

 Preschoolers are developing their verbal skills and vocabulary.  Use your time in the car to promote learning by singing about things that you see.  Use a familiar tune and sing, “I see a barn, I see a barn, I see a barn, a big red barn”.  Change the item you see as you drive.  As the children become more verbal, sing, “I see___” and let them fill in the blank with something they see.  Soon they will be singing the song along with you.  Remember to use describing words to develop those concepts.

 The game I Spy can be used with children of all ages.  Preschoolers can look to find something of a special color or shape.    Reinforce concepts like big-small, tall-short, and fast-slow by pointing out objects they see out of the window.

 I Spy the alphabet can be played two different ways.  Children who are learning to identify letters can look to find the letters of the alphabet on signs or license plates.  Challenge them to find the letters in alphabetical order or give them a list of the letters and they can check them off as they find them.

 As children learn the sounds letters make they can play I Spy by finding objects that start with the sound of each letter of the alphabet.  You may have to skip some letter sounds.  It is hard to find an object in the environment that starts with X or Q.

 Riding in the car is a great time to practice math facts.  Take turns giving and answering.  For variety, sing or rap the facts.  Practice spelling words the same way.

 Study for social studies or science by playing Jeopardy.  Children can pick the difficulty of the question for you to ask.  They can keep track of how much “money” they earn before they get to their destination. 

 Many teachable moments in the car can be found by listening carefully to what your children are saying or sometimes what they are not saying.  Children today face many different issues in life.  Usually they will give you some verbal clues if they are troubled.  In this age of electronics the skills of conversation are being lost.  Listen and respond appropriately to your child in these teachable moments.

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