Top 4 Tips for Kids in the Car

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My Top Four Tips for Teaching Moments with Kids in the Car

We have been lucky thus far to have positive trips in the car with our newly 2 year old toddler, Tomato. She is often happy to travel along and I think I can attribute it to the fact that we treat each ride as opportunities for teaching moments. I am happy to share with you my top 4 tips for keeping your child engaged in the trip while also being unplugged.

1. Have a go-to box of books and toys within the child’s reach.

We still keep some of the little shaker toys that she enjoyed as a baby in the car because now she uses them to play along with music. She will flip through her books and with the shorter ones, she will even try to read them to us as we are driving. The teaching moment lies in discussing the colors on the toys or asking for summaries of the books.

You can easily grab some good coloring books when you fuel up on snacks and drinks at any Walgreens, Rite Aid or CVS or grab some at the dollar store. Keep crayons within a safe reach of the driver’s seat and you are set if you get stuck in traffic. Talk about the colors, ask your child what they see on the page and if traffic is really stopped and you have the Sesame Street book and the Sesame Street CD, connect the characters with their songs.

3. Music, music, music.

We have been fortunate enough to attend an Infant/Toddler Music Together class and the CDs that we get each session have been a goldmine of car entertainment. We sing the songs, Tomato does the movements and we generally have a really good time. She and I had to make a 2.5 trip by ourselves a couple of months ago and there was no fussing the whole way because we had 3 of these CDs. She loves the music, we talk about what instruments that are being used and she is prepared for class when we go.

4. Play traditional “I Spy” games.

Since we talk most of the way through any trip about where we are going, why we are going and what we will do once we are there, a natural progression was for us to play “I Spy” games. Tomato know her ABCs and numbers so we’ve been advancing what we are looking for in the last few months. They worked for most of who are now driving when we were little, so there is no need to give them up in lieu of DVDs or electronics in the car. They help to teach focus, patience, listening and awareness of surroundings, which as a former teacher I can say are skills that need more honing in today’s world. Here is a list of our favorites:

• Do you see an….A-Z? Play all the way through the cycle and then start again if they are interested. 
• Do you see an…0-9? With this and the ABC games, look on license plates, billboards, sides of vehicles, road signs, etc. It is a great way to progress toward talking about place value when you are on I-95. Cycle through as many times as the kids want to.
• Do you see…pick any animal you want? Choose a dog or a cow with older kids and it keeps their rapt attention in order to be the first to spot one.
• Red car/Blue car. If you have a couple of elementary level kids, keep some steno notepads in the car to practice making tallies and assign each kid a color car. When the trip is over, add them up. Level it up by adding the state license game as a layer and find red Hawaii cars, blue Hawaii cars and color in maps of the states as you go.
• Identify the truck or construction vehicle. This is one of our favorites especially on the NJ Turnpike right now :). We have a couple of books, which I will be reviewing on Friday, that have taught Tomato all kinds of vehicle names. She shouts, “Auto carrier!” from the backseat with great enthusiasm. We make up stories about where they are going and what they are doing.
• Spot the motorcycle. My daughter has a thing for motorcycles. It may make me worry in her teen years, but for now it is one of her favorite things to look for on the road.

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