Road Trips and Literacy

Long road trips can often be an endurance test. However, with some planning you can make the time seem to pass quickly, build some language skills and strengthen family bonds.

Books

If your children are independent readers (and assuming they don’t get car sick), reading books is an easy way to pass the time. If your children are not yet independent readers you can read to them or you can listen to audio books.

• Help your children select some books that they would like to read and/or have you read to them.
• Pack a ‘surprise’ book. It might be a new book you have bought or a book borrowed from the library.
• Choose some audiobooks the whole family can listen to (see Our Favourite Audiobooks or ask your librarian for recommendations).
• Stop occasionally and ask everyone to say what they think will happen next – adults as well. Alternatively, ask what will definitely NOT happen next and come up with really crazy suggestions.
• At the end of the book, take the time to discuss some of the underlying themes and apply to your children’s lives. How else could the protagonist have solved the problem or reacted or….? Was there a time in your life when something similar happened? It’s important that parents share as well so it is a discussion rather than a ‘test’!
• Let your children choose an audio book that has a hard copy and they can listen on their own device while following along. Your public library may have books on CD that you can borrow or electronic audiobooks you can download to your device.

Stories

Oral language in an important component underpinning literacy development. Car trips are a great opportunity to develop a range of oral language skills using a game approach.

• Take it in turns to tell a story of a previous holiday.
• It is great for parents to share stories of holidays from before their children were born as well as reminiscing about family holidays.
• Create chain stories where everyone takes it in turn to contribute to the story. An easy starting framework is to retell a familiar folktale or a family event.
• A variation of this activity is to randomly ask ‘why’ questions which need to be answered before the story is continued.
• A second variation is to change the traits or behaviours of the characters (e.g., Cinderella is the mean sibling, the step-mother is kind and lovely, etc.).
• Another easy strategy it to use the ‘that’s good, that’s bad structure’ whereby the first person makes a statement and finishes with “that’s good” (e.g., I found a gold ring – that’s good) and the next person continues with a statement ending with “that’s bad” (e.g., Unfortunately, the ring was broken – that’s bad).
• Have a family debate where half the family argues to support a topic and the other half argues against (e.g., Christmas is better than birthdays or monkeys are better than koalas).
• Choose an everyday object (e.g., broom, shoe) and see how many innovative ideas for using the object everyone can come up with.
• Have a bragging competition (I’m so strong that I can…..).
• Share a photo from a family experience and ask everyone to talk about the event from their perspective.
• Play ‘would you rather’ (e.g., would you rather be a cat or a dog, would you rather play cricket or basketball, would you rather eat a frog or a worm…) and explain your answer.

Other Oral Language Games

• Using the letters on number plates, everyone has to spell a word (e.g., your name, the destination, etc.) or find all the letters of the alphabet in order. You can do this competitively or all working together.
• Take it in turns to think of words in a category in alphabetical order (e.g., fruit – apple, banana, coconut…)
• ‘I spy’. If you have young children rather than saying the name of the letter with which the object begins say the sound (e.g., if the object is a ‘sheep’ say /sh/ rather than ‘s’).
• Twenty questions – take it in turns to think of an object, person or place. The other people in the car can ask up to 20 questions to try and determine the answer.
• Going to the moon –  the first person says, “I’m going to the moon and I’m going to take….”  Each subsequent person repeats this phrase plus all the items that the previous people have mentioned. If you can’t remember, you drop out of the game or for a non-competitive version anyone can help with remembering the items.
• Word chain – the first person says a word and then everyone takes it in turn to add another word that fits the pattern. It could be words that rhyme, start with the same sound or you can keep changing the pattern (e.g., cat – the next word has to change the vowel sound – cot – the next word has to change the first sound – rot – the next word has to change the last sound – rock – etc.).
• What are you bringing game – one person thinks of a spelling pattern (e.g., double letters, words starting with a specific letter, words ending with a specific letter, words containing a specific sound, etc.) or it could be a particular category (e.g., fruit). The person then gives an example of an object that follows the pattern and one that doesn’t. For example, if the pattern was a double letter, you could say, “I’m bringing some butter to the party but not margarine.” Everyone has a turn at saying what they will bring to the party. If an item is chosen that follows the pattern, that person can come to the party. Continue until everyone is at the party.

Music

Song lyrics also provide another avenue for developing literacy skills.

• Make a playlist of songs you can sing along to. Involve your children in the construction of the list so there is a mix of songs that they enjoy and you enjoy.
• Print a copy of the lyrics for each person so they can read the words to the songs.
• Teach your children a song – children’s classic (e.g., The Wheels of the Bus), traditional folk song (e.g., Waltzing Matilda if you’re an Australian), the national anthem, etc.
• Invent new words for songs. It’s fun to make these related to family and friend. For example, at a simple level, think of what members of your family could be doing on the bus when singing the Wheels of the Bus go round and round. At a more complex level, develop verses to the tune of the Quarter Master’s Store .