Car Time

It seems sometimes as homeschoolers we are never really at "HOME" And we spend a fair ammount of time in the car. I began to realize that this was prime time- they are a captive audience with nothing to do- and I wasn't using it well enough.

Every morning I have to run pick Bug up from his class at the public school- he's taking a first hour class this year- he has PE right now- and will have Band the next 2 trimesters. So every morning- We pile into the car to go get him- it takes about 10 minutes there, and another 10 back home- not to mention the few minutes we spend waiting for him to come out- so there's lots of car time.

On our way to and from the school we practice the songs and poems that the kids will perform at the care center each month. Doodle and Roo practice their poems, and we go through the songs. It seems to be perfect timing- we finish the last song right as we pull up to the school.

The car seems to be a perfect time to practice memorizing poems, they have to say them loud, so I can hear them over the car engine. After they have their poem memorized, we work on Articles of Faith, Math facts, spelling words, or other stuff that needs memorized.

As we are waiting in the car- I keep the newest copy of The Friend magazine Each boy takes a turn chosing a story to read while we wait. We also have a copy of The Big book of 5 Minute Devotionals and we read a story from it. On the way back home we practice the songs for the care center again, with Bug's help.

Other times when we are out running errands or in the car- we have a book on CD to listen to. The library has wonderful selection of children's books. I've found if the kids are listening to a story, they are less likely to fight amongst themselves (maybe I'm the only one who has kids who like to fight in the car- but I kinda think not)