Doesn’t it sometimes feel like you live most of your life in the car? Running errands. Waiting at stoplights. Stuck in traffic. Shuttling the kids back and forth to events and activities. With everything going on in our busy lives, it can sometimes feel like there isn’t time to add anything else into our schedules. However, those little moments spent in the car can add up. Spend some of that time engaging your kids in these simple activities and encourage learning in the car!

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I remember a lot of car trips as kids. Besides the longer road trips, we also had a lot of memorable car trips just driving short distances. My parents were always teaching us things in the car. I remember lots of conversations with my Dad where he told us stories and history of our family and our neighborhood. He also taught us a lot about music, ranging from his favorite classical composers to out of the box favorites such as Elvis is Everywhere or Time Warp. (Seriously, if you have ever heard or danced to Elvis is Everywhere, please shout out below in the comments! I’m curious if we were the only ones!).

My mother has always been a strong believer in finding learning moments all around us. Honestly, it is that belief of hers that lead me down the path of education and to starting this blog. She taught us so many important lessons in the car. My favorite lesson is probably “You’re never really lost. You will eventually hit water or a border.” While this seems like a funny sentiment. It has come in ridiculously handy for me and my sister. We have found ourselves lost on too many occasions to count. Because of our mother’s wisdom, these adventures always leave us in tears or laughter instead of fear. Some of the car learning activities I listed below are completely inspired by her lessons to us over the years. (Thanks Mom!!)

Reading Your Surroundings

Directions – Kids are more cognizant of their surroundings than we realize – and that is a great thing! It is so important to teach kids about their surroundings and how to get from here to there. I don’t even remember how young we were when my mother started asking us how to get home. While driving home from the store or the library, she would ask us to give her the directions back to our house. It made us feel really smart and important to be the one navigating. I have started this with my 2 year old and I am often impressed by just how well she knows the routes back to our house. This activity has also given us the opportunity to practice differentiating between left and right, as well as talking about landmarks near our home. (Let’s drive by the playground, or the house with the butterfly on it, etc).

Road Sign Bingo – This is a game that you may have played some version of as kids. While we were on long road trips, my mother used to draw bingo boards for us, using road signs, symbols, and logos that we would see on our trip. This not only kept us occupied, but also encouraged us to look at our surroundings, read signs and recognize important symbols on our trip. There was something so memorable about the homemade boards that my mom created for us, but there are lots of versions available for purchase now if you don’t have time (or the patience, seriously thank you Mom!) to create your own.

Sharing Stories

Storytelling Rounds – Create a story together. Have one person start with a simple story starter, such as Once upon a time, there was a young girl named… Have each person in the car add another line to the story. You will be amazed at the wonderful (and often hilarious) stories that your family can create when you have to share the direction of the story.

Playing with the Alphabet

Finding the Alphabet – Review the alphabet while encouraging kids to engage with the world around them with this easy alphabet game. Look out the windows and find things that start with each letter of the alphabet. You could choose to only look for business names that start with each letter, or you could find each letter on various street signs. You could also encourage them to find items that start with each letter, or mix it all up and say anything goes!

Alphabet Game – Take inspiration from your family’s interests and make your way through the alphabet in this easy personalized game. Choose a topic that your family is well-versed in. Starting with the letter A, try to think of something in your category for each letter of the alphabet. For our family, we are huge Disney fans, so we have played this using Disney Characters as our theme. A stands for Ariel, B for Baloo, and so on and so on. You will have a lot of fun challenging yourselves to think up answers for each letter!

There are so many ways that you can encourage your kids to learn while riding in the car. Those little moments spent in traffic can add up quickly. In addition to helping kids learn practical skills, these games can also provide hours of entertainment, as well as giving your kids memories that will last a lifetime.

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