The HomeSchool Hutt - Learning in the Car

Thanks to the many wonderful ideas from the Games For Learning Yahoo Group,
here's some things that have worked wonders for us.

Fun Boxes

I took a cleaning bin - the two-sided rectangle kind with the handle in the middle. Since we have the two kids in the car all the time with us, this box was put in between them and they each have a "side" of the bin for them. I did it this way mainly to stop the "Will you stop touching me!" and the "Mom! She took my [fill in the blank]" coming from the backseat! LOL! Putting the Fun Box between them has cut that to a minimum. :)

They get to help decide what goes in their bin for the car, however there are a few staples that remain all the time. Crayons/markers/colored pencils (crayons not used during hot summer weather), paper, an inexpensive cassette player with earphones, story tapes and song tapes, and their Fun (Travel) Books with dry erase markers.

Fun (Travel) Books

For these I took a thin 3-ring binder and about a dozen clear plastic page protectors to fit in them. In the page protectors I slip Puzzle Pages, Reading/Phonics Worksheets, Math tic-tac-toe, Travel Bingo, etc. Writing practice - made with a dotted font OR here, for which I used words/sentences specific to them, including their name, and the alphabet.

Example
For the alphabet writing practice I made the sentence:
"The quick brown fox jumped over the lazy dogs."
in both upper and lower case. This sentence contains
EVERY letter of the alphabet at least once!

All of these I have either made myself or found on the internet. Very inexpensive since you can get most of what you need at a dollar store and free on the internet! :) I try to gear them toward each child's interests, and keep them within their ability levels. I change the pages every few weeks or so. You can use dry erase markers with these so they can do the pages over and over!

Magnetic Games

These are fun as well in the car. Using a cookie sheet, you can do these different ways:

(1)	Print out on paper what activity you plan to do, be it paper dolls, tic-tac-toe, travel bingo, game board, whatever! Then use small magnets in the corners to hold it in place. Use different kinds of small magnets for game markers. The pieces don't fall off the game and get lost in the car! :)
(2)	If you can find magnetic printer paper, you can print your games/activities onto a sheet and use that to stick to the cookie sheet. You can also print game markers, etc.
(3)	Slip the page in a clear plastic page protector and use dry erase markers. This is great for travel bingo, tic-tac-toe, squares game, etc.

Use your imagination!
The possibilities for fun and learning in the car are endless!