How to Teach Your Homeschooler While Driving

Homeschooled students often joke that it should not be called homeschooling as they are always in the car on the way to activities and lessons. That time spent driving does not have to be wasted. Many important lessons can be effectively learned while commuting. Here are some ways to teach your homeschool student while driving.

Instructions

Difficulty: Moderate

Things You’ll Need:

• Learning videos
• History and science videos
• Books on Tapes
• A Creative Mind

1. Purchase or borrow videos related to your child’s current school level or subject matter that they are working on. Utilize your car’s video player during those drives when no one feels like talking or on long trips.
2. Play books on tape that go along with books that your kids are reading. They can read along or reinforce what they have already read. This is a great method to get them very familiar with classic literature.
3. Teach spelling while playing verbal games. Get children in the first and second grade to spell out whatever they want to say. You or another child in the car will have to do the same. When you hear a spelling error, just correct it in a matter of fact way and continue to play until someone cannot take it anymore. If your children are the competitive lot, you can keep track of errors and the one who makes the least mistakes wins.
4. Upgrade the verbal spelling game to a grammar game. I like to call this game period, comma. I just announce that it is time to play period-comma and we continue having a normal conversation inserting periods and commas in the appropriate places. Once they become experts at period comma, you can add exclamation points, question marks, semi colons, and for long winded children, add paragraph breaks. It really is a fun game.
5. Take notes on index cards before getting in the car of the capitals of states, or on a recent history lesson. When you are in the car, refer to the notes to ask questions, (it may be safer for an older child to ask the questions. Keep score on who gets the most right, and reward the children when you reach your destination.

Tips & Warnings

• Prepare before getting in the car
• Remember to always pay attention to the road. Have an older child direct the games and learning activities whenever possible.