My latest article in the Gippslander magazine. This can be viewed online in the link below or you can read the article here. Enjoy, and safe travels.
http://www.gippslander.com.au/
Reading Car Games for the whole family.
Whether you are travelling with kids and home-schooling, unschooling or just enjoying an extended break with your family there are always opportunities to learn. As adults we read on holidays, it may be the latest bestseller, facts about the places you visit or signs and directions of where to go.
Car travel is a great chance to develop your child’s reading ability in a fun and informal way. Here are some car games they whole family came play.
Environment Language
Holidaying with children usually exposes your child to new environments. Exposing children to new language helps their comprehension skills when reading. Gippsland is a diverse area, you will find oceans, lakes, forests, farm land and National Parks. Introduce children to new words or environments when travelling, this may be single words such as dolphins, seals, pelicans (Lakes Entrance) to more complex information, how caves were formed (Buchan). Tourist information centres are great for providing information on areas within Gippsland.
Eye Spy
To learn to read children need to recognise the letter and connect it with the sound it makes. Playing Eye Spy can help reinforce this connection. Say, “I spy with my little eye something beginning with the letter m and that makes the sound /m/.” This helps younger children connect objects they see with the beginning sound they make.
Signs
Your child may be learning to recognise the alphabet, sounding out words, learning sight words, or an independent reader. Signs provide a great opportunity for all children to read. Often signs provide diagrams as well as text. While younger children can interpret the diagram older children can read the text.
Number Plates
There are many reading games involving number plates. Older children can invent silly sentences using the letters in the Number Plates such as RAC123 could be ‘running after cows’ or ‘raindrops are colourful’. Younger children can play letter spotto, recognising the letters on the Number Plates. Turn it into a game by counting the number of times they see the letters in their own name.
Books
There are many wonderful Opportunity Shops throughout Gippsland. In most shops for under $1 children can buy Picture Books, early Reader chapter books or Young Adult fiction. With the limited space in a car it is a great chance to continually replace books.
Enjoy your trip and travel safely.
Jenny Graham - abcJenny 