3 for the Road
Written By Mary Cleary Kiely
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Car Game 3: Road Map
ages 5 and up
This early course in orienteering introduces kids to geographic concepts such as maps, distance, and "Where's north?" Now you can counter every are-we-there-yet with a you-tell-me.
Prep
With your child, use a yellow highlighter to trace your route from beginning to end on the map. Now use different colored highlighters to break the route into segments of 1 to 50 miles. Attach the map to the Travel Board with four pieces of magnetic tape. Glue or stick the car image onto the card-stock square, then trim around the car, leaving about a 1/4-inch margin. Stick the last piece of magnetic tape onto the back.
Short Cut: No time to make playing tiles? Use Post-it notes with stickers instead.
Play
Hand your child the board and the bag of stickers, and have her place the car where the route begins. As you drive along each highlighted segment, ask her to find different things. For example, if the first stretch takes you through farmland, have her look for cows. Every time she sees one, she can put a sticker on that section of the map. (Not familiar with the territory? Gas stations, blue houses, and airplanes are safe candidates.) Each time you reach a new segment (if there's not another adult to help keep track, road signs will jog your memory), have her move the car to that spot. If kids start to get antsy, tell them that as soon as they find 10 cows (or trucks, or houses), you'll hit the nearest rest stop for some high-quality vending-machine chow.
- Basic Travel Board
- Colored highlighters
- Map showing route of journey from beginning to end, trimmed to fit Travel Board (you can photocopy a map you already have or download maps from aaa.com or mapquest.com)
- 5 (1-inch) strips of self-adhesive magnetic tape
- Glue stick
- A 1- to 2-inch cutout picture of a car, or a car sticker of the same size
- A 3- by 3-inch square of card stock
- Scissors
- 1/4-inch dot stickers (preferably restickable), stored in a sealable plastic bag
