Headed out on a road trip soon with toddlers? My children are 2-years-old and 4-year-olds and since this is a literacy blog designed to teach moms of toddlers and preschoolers about how to teach reading, I wanted to give some ways we are incorporating reading into our time in the car.
The truth is when you going on a long car ride, one of the last things you probably think about as a mom of a toddler is teaching them to read. It’s not, how am I going to teach them their letters? Or how will I include phonemic awareness into our day?
This post may contain affiliate links, which means I’ll receive a commission if you purchase through my link, at no extra cost to you. Please read my disclosure below.
The first thing you probably think is, I hope we all get there safely (justified). I hope we don’t have to stop 1,243 times to use the bathroom (also, justified). But as a teacher that loves to teach reading and has a heart for children learning to read I can’t help but think about adding some reading activities into our road trip!
Why Should I think about Teaching Reading on a Road Trip?
So momma, if you are headed on a long car ride or road trip you are thinking of all things you’ll need. Probably necessities like diapers, snacks (on snacks on snacks), iPads with movies downloaded for entertainment, and extra clothes that are easy to reach.
But what if I told you that adding in a bit of letter identification, phonemic awareness, and reading comprehension skills were easy add-ins on any road trip? What if I told you that just spending 15 minutes a day in the car talking about letters, sounds, or reading a book could help improve your child’s reading skills later in life? It might seem worth the extra trouble of bringing a few things to help out, right?
After reading this article, I hope I leave you feeling empowered knowing that you can do it. That teaching your toddler early literacy skills isn’t that difficult and something you can squeeze into a road trip.
What Materials Should I Bring?
So hopefully I’ve at least convinced you that you can do it and that it is worth thinking about. Now let’s talk about some things are you could bring to help support your child practice early reading skills on the road.
- Books (New and Old Favorites
- Sticker Books
- Coloring Books
- Crayons (Note: These have been known to melt in hot cars, you may do better with colored pencils or taking them inside)
- Zip-lock bags or smaller reusable bags
- Magnetic Letters
- Magnetic Lunchbox
- Cards with Characters they Recognize
- Magnadoodle
- Waterwow
What if I don’t have room for all those things or we didn’t bring them? No Worries! I have a few ideas that don’t require any extra materials at all. All you’ll need are just you, them, conversation skills, and listening ears.
Activities for a Road Trip to Encourage Reading
I’m sure some of these items you already had on your list of ways to entertain them. Now, let’s talk about how to make these items work for learning.
Communication
One of the best ways to prepare your young child for learning is to encourage communication and language skills. This means improving their ability to understand and use words correctly. You can teach your child just by talking to them and showing them different things they haven’t seen before. That is the beauty of a road trip.
As a teacher, we see that some big road blocks for students are simple vocabulary. They might be learning about “ea” words and see a picture of a seal but they don’t recognize what the animal is because they don’t live in an area where seals do. This is one reason why building a strong sense of vocabulary in the early years is so beneficial.
For example, if you are driving in the mountains, try talking to them about what it looks like, how their ears feel (if they are popping), and the different signs on the road is a great way to add new vocabulary and language. Maybe you are at the ocean and you can get some great vocabulary in about salt water, fresh water, sand, different textures, and even discuss different animals that live there.
Books
I couldn’t write about literacy ideas for a road trip without writing about books. My biggest tip is to take both old favorites and new finds. If you need some new book ideas for toddlers, I wrote about all of my toddler’s favorite books.
You are more likely to entice them to read or look at a book if it is a favorite or known well to them. My 2-year-old will look at books for a while before he puts them down and it’s a great way to sustain his attention. You can also create conversation by changing up books to make them work on long trips.
When we took my son (at age 1) to Disney World, we brought along several books from the set I have linked for you below. We took 1-2 with us every time we left the hotel room and read them while waiting at restaurants or while on the bus. It was probably his favorite toy (other than the stuffed Mickey we got him when we arrived) we had with us on the trip.
Magna-Doodle
I use a Magna-Doodle in my classroom when we are working on letters, digraphs, blends, or vowel team letter hunts. I write the letters on the Magna-Doodle to make it pop out to students so they know what they are looking for.
Using a Magna-Doodle during a car ride can be used for a variety of purposes including:
- Writing Letters
- Writing your Name
- Letter Identification
- Letter Sounds
- Spelling
- Reading
- Drawing
- Fine Motor Skills
What are some other ways you can think to use a Magna-Doodle on a road trip? Let me know in the comments below!
Food Game or ABC Games
Get ready for this game because it doesn’t require any supplies or materials at all! It’s even great if you are on a car ride by yourself. It goes like this …
You will start by having someone in the car say the name of a food “bananas” and then the next person in the car says another food name “apples”. You continue to have everyone in the car go around saying different food names until someone repeats a food that has already been said. I originally heard this game from Carly at WeeTalkers. You can find her at www.weetalkers.com.
I first tried this game with my 2-year-old when we were taking long car rides to go house shopping in a town about an hour from where we lived. He really enjoyed it and we continue to play it 2 years later!
I think it would be easy to switch this game up with the alphabet. You can try going around the car and saying the letters of the alphabet in alphabetical order or you can say words that associate with each letter.
Magnetic Letters with a Magnetic Lunchbox
Magnetic letters in a car … I know what you thinking, I don’t want my car totally trashed by the time we get there. Ha, I know, me either! That’s where a magnetic lunchbox comes in awesome!
But thats why I love pairing it with a magnetic lunchbox! You can then practice making:
- Spelling CVC words
- Putting the Letters in Alphabetical Order (at the top of the box lid)
- Finding letters for letter Identification
Road Signs Game
One of my favorite ways to teach letters and letter sounds is by using popular store, restaurant, and road signs. I often tell parents of the children I teach to point out all of the words they see when they are out for a drive.
This makes so many connections in the brain. The more children see, interact and work with words the more likely they are to start making connections with letter identification, letter sounds, and more.
You can do this by incorporating great conversation with your children. Another option is to play a “road sign Bingo”. If you have older kids you could do an alphabetical order sort or use some of the printables from my free resource found at Teacher Pay Teachers. Your children can practice writing spelling and more!
Water Wow
Have you see the Melissa and Doug WaterWow toys yet? They have a whole selection of them now including some with letter writing, color and find and more. The best part is they only need water.
For my kids they are a go-to restaurant activity. They are very easy to incorporate literacy activities in the car for toddlers. This is because you can discuss a variety of things like:
- Vocabulary: Talk about & describe the pictures
- Beginning Sounds: Talks about the sounds within the pictures; “Cat sounds like /c/ at the beginning, what else sounds like /c/ at the beginning?”.
- Ending Sounds: Try finding pictures that have similar ending sounds, discussing what sound a word ends with by looking at the pictures on the page.
Coloring Books
I like using coloring books for learning because it’s easy! If you haven’t noticed yet, I’m all about making things as easy as possible.
With a Coloring Book you can Practice:
- Writing their Name
- Uppercase and Lowercase Letter Matching
- Create stories using the pictures (Bonus** if you use time order words: first, next, then, last)
- Practice CVC words within the picture if it’s a picture of a cat, draw 3 lines and see if they can identify the letters that go on each line
- Try the word searches within them or make it into a letter search!
Which activity are you going to try on your next road trip?!
I hope this helped you think of ways to reuse what you already take on road trips to add some early reading skills into play! I love giving moms a new way to repurpose what they already have.
There is no need to get out and buy a lot of supplies and create things for your kids to do. Just use effective communication and think outside the box!
Hey if you’d rather see these ideas in action- follow me on Instagram @loveashleye I’d love to see you and meet you over there!
Until next time,
Love, Ashley E
