Dump those age-old caveman games for
"road scholar" fun!
Carschooling offers ingenious learning alternatives for every subject required
by The National Curriculum Standards
Now, instead of lamenting lost time spent in traffic jams or acting as referee
between your kids on the next road trip, cover educational curriculum in the car
that's fun and entertaining!
Here are just THREE samples from the 350 games, resources and lessons the Carschooling
book provides. Be sure to ALSO sign up for FREE monthly games and activities.
See if these new takes on old education don't convince you to adopt "Auto Academics."
Foreign Languages – Game
We are studying Spanish so we like to practice when we are in the car. We pick a category
like animals, numbers, colors, etc. Then we call out what we see in Spanish. For example,
the category is “numbers.” We take turns spotting road signs with numbers on
them (like mileage or speed limit signs) and saying the number in Spanish instead of English.
Or if the category is “animals” and someone sees a cow – they say vaca
instead of cow. It’s unbelievably fast moving, is worth a giggle or two, and has
really helped us all improve.
Visual & Performing Arts – Resource
Lives of the Musicians ~ Good Times, Bad Times (And What the Neighbors Thought)
By Kathleen Krull
Published by Audio Bookshelf, Prescott Hill Road, Northport, Maine 04849, 1-800-234-1713,
Family Listening, grades 5 & up. www.audiobookshelf.com
So, you don’t think your children will be interested in the life stories of long-gone
classical musicians? Think again.
If they listen to this book on audiocassette they will discover that: Johann Sebastian Bach,
composer of the Brandenburg Concertos, got into a knife-fight; that in spite of Mozart’s
fame, he was so poor he couldn’t afford firewood and had to dance to keep warm; that
Beethoven had such poor personal hygiene that when his clothes became too dirty and disgusting,
his friends would replace them with new ones during the night - and Beethoven never noticed the
difference; that Chopin wrote a waltz for his girlfriend’s dog; and that Igor Stravinsky
(whose music was featured in the Disney movie Fantasia) once wrote a piece called “Do Not
Throw Paper Towels In The Toilet.” That ought to get their attention!
Listening to the inside scoop on what these musical geniuses were really like brings them alive
and incites a real interest in their music. The audiocassette includes brief, familiar samples
of the composers’ work.
Geography – Game
The first player picks the starting geographical site, usually where your trip commences.
If you start in Los Angeles, that ends with the letter "S," so the next player has
to think of a geographical location or thing (like a city, country, mountain range or a river)
that begins with "S." So perhaps then, she would say, San Francisco. That ends in an
"O," so the third geographical item then must begin with O. So the next player might
say Oregon Trail. That ends with an "L," so the next player says something beginning
with an "L" -- perhaps Lima, etc.
The game ends when you run out of E's and A's or when you arrive at your destination. Anything
geographical is fair game. You just can't repeat items. Use mountain ranges, cities, landmarks,
places (e.g. Arctic Circle, Antarctica,) continents, etc.
A Language Arts Activity – Game and Resource
Game
Let your kids go fishing in the car! Give them a short dowel with a long string that has a
magnet attached to it. Place magnetized letters and words into a shoebox under their feet.
Tell them to fish for whatever will stick to the magnet on their dowel. When they catch a
letter or word – tell them to read it out loud or use it in a sentence.
Resource
Books-On Tape — Audio Bookshelf offers a wonderful catalog of unabridged,
award-winning books (on tape and CD) that your family will love. Their website even has printable
curriculum activities to match every title and every age or grade range. Audio Bookshelf, 174
Prescott Hill Rd, Northport, ME 04849. 1-800-234-1713 Web: www.audiobookshelf.com
| 
