It's All About West

Page 22 It’s All About West Swindon
Aspire Tuition
Education Matters – by Andrea Parkinson of Aspire Tuition Turning a long journey into a learning experience
Playing some ‘old-fashioned’ games in the car can alleviate As the ability to rhyme is fundamental to reading and spelling
the boredom of a long journey and help develop your child’s development children can be encouraged to make up silly
literacy and numeracy skills. Keeping a child occupied with rhyming sentences, perhaps about something seen out of the
oral games, especially those involving looking out of the window ‘I saw a cow taking a bow’.
window can also reduce the likelihood of travel sickness. Here
are some ideas: To develop number skills children can be asked to look out
and count particular objects i.e. post-boxes. Children can
To develop your child’s play games such as ‘I went to the look for particular shapes like triangles which can be found
shop / zoo’ where one person in the car says ‘I went to the . in many situations not just on sign posts. A challenge can
. . and bought a . . .’ adding an item of their choice. The next be given to add up the numbers on the number plate of the
person repeats what the ﬁ rst person said and then adds their vehicle in front or passing on a motorway.
own item to the list. Consecutive players have to repeat all
that has been already said before adding to the list. The game One really mustn’t forget my favourite childhood car game
continues until nobody can remember the whole list. ‘Pub Cricket’. Many parents will know different rules for this
game which, although guaranteed to cause some friendly
All sorts of alphabet and word games can be played such arguing, will help the time pass. Each player looks for pubs
as making up a list of words on a particular topic starting along their side of road and adds up the number of ‘legs’ on
with each letter of the alphabet. For older children make this the pub sign i.e. the Red Lion would give a score of 4, the
harder by making the next word begin with the last letter of Baker’s Arms – 2, keeping a running score throughout the
the previous word. ‘Car alphabet’ can be a challenge but fun – journey. The lucky passenger who has the ‘Cricketers’ on his
take the letters on a number plate and make a funny sentence / her side would obviously score highly but passing a pub
out of them i.e. D523 WSS could become ‘Dad wears Smelly (that I’m sure exists) called ‘The Charge of the Light Brigade’
Socks’. would surely win the game for its spotter! A fun game but not
advisable for long motorway journeys!
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Issue 5 West.indd 22 30/07/2009 17:03
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