5 Fun Learning Activities for Your Road Trip!

Summer road trips are a great time for fun family learning activities and games. Here are 5 of our favorite fun, educational activities you can incorporate into your short or long road trip to pass the time and engage your child’s mind!

• Budget Buddy | Math: currency, addition, subtraction
  
  Excited about buying snacks for the trip or souvenirs at your destinations? Give your child a notebook with your snack or souvenir budget and ask her to help you keep track of what you’re spending in the store. When she asks for a specific item, ask how much money is left in the budget to spend.

Add an extra math challenge into the mix by asking your child to calculate how coupons affect what you’re spending or what percentage of the budget you’ve spent so far.

• I Spy… | Reading & Writing: vocabulary, word choice
  
  Whether you’re in the car, at the hotel or at a trip destination, ask your child to choose something in sight and use 3 words that describe it. Now guess what it is. If you can’t guess it, ask your child to add another descriptive word. After you’ve guessed correctly, ask your child what other descriptions he was considering. Add more of your own until neither of you can think of any more.

This variation on the “I Spy…” car game will not only help build your child’s vocabulary, but it will also help develop your child’s description and word choice skills as a writer.

• Garbage | Math: number sense, counting
  
  Great game for younger kids practicing numbers! You’ll need a deck of cards. Deal 10 cards face down in front of you, and 10 cards face down in front of your child. The goal of the game is to replace these face-down cards with number cards in the correct order of 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10. (Aces count as one and all face cards are not countable or “garbage!”.)

Place the remaining cards in a draw pile in the center of the table, and turn one card face up. If the card is a number you don’t have, replace the appropriate face-down card (ex., if the card is a 3, replace the 3rd of your 10 cards). Discard the face-down card you’re replacing in the draw pile. The other player can either take this card during his turn or draw a new card from the deck.

• Trip Journal | Writing: ideas, word choice, voice
  
  Keep a notebook that your entire family writes in over the course of the trip. When your child is excited (or frustrated) about part of the trip, ask her to write about it in the family Trip Journal. Add your own entries and write back to what your child has written!

This will help build your child’s personal connection to writing and create a great record of your vacation, too.

• Storytelling | Writing: active writing, ideas, organization
  
  Ask your child to write about what __(a specific someone)__ would think if he or she were where you are right now. That specific someone could be a best friend, a cousin, a historical figure, a dog or even an alien. Try choosing a different someone for each member of your family and writing a set length (2-4 paragraphs) for a set period of time (10-15 minutes).

When time is up, read your stories to each other. Not only will it be fun to hear one another’s ideas, your child will also be building active writing skills that are important in school and on tests.

What games do you play with your family on the road? Share your favorites below!