SummerMath, Part 4: On the Road Again

If you're like most Americans, you and your children spend a lot of time on the road. There are plenty of ways for kids to pass the time on car trips, whether of 5 minutes or 500 miles. Several of them I'm quite sure you know:

Screaming "She's on MYYYY side!!!! Mom, make her get off of MYYYY side!"

Asking as often as possible, "Are we there yet?"

Threatening to throw up.

Singing vaguely risque songs like "The boys and girls are kissing in the D-R-A-K, D-R-A-K, D-R-A-K, Dark!"

Singing "George Washington Bridge." OH MY EARS QUICK RINSE THEM OUT WITH RUBBING ALCOHOL (George Washington Bridge, for those of you not in the know, repeats the lyrics "George Washington Bridge" again and again and again to an essentially unmelodic melody. My sister pulled this one on a 5-hour car ride between Chicago and La Crosse, Wisconsin, many years ago, and when she was finally told she could NO LONGER sing "George Washington Bridge" she said "Okay, then I will sing 'Adobe Bricks.' 'Adobe Bricks,' as it turns out, is 10 times worse. We eventually threw her out of the car)

But those days are over, for here is a list of WONDERFUL MATH ACTIVITIES that you can do in the car. (Assuming that your children can actually see out the windows.)

1. LICENSE PLATES. In New York State, most (not all) plates are of the form AAA 1111--three letters, then four numbers. Have kids hunt for license plates withe certain characteristics. Who can find one that has four even digits? Four odd digits? Four digits that are ascending (like 4689)? Descending (say, 8521)? Two digits that are the same? Three digits that are the same? If you're stuck at a stoplight, ask your child to add the four digits on the license plate of the vehicle in front of you--which two are best to add first? What shortcuts can your child find? (To add 6364, kids might start with 6+6=12, a "doubles fact," or with the "ten-friends" fact that 6+4=10.) Estimate by looking if the sum will be greater than or less than 20. Then check. Whoops, green light--better move on...

2. STOPLIGHTS. How many stoplights do you think there will be between here and the mall/camp/Grandma's house? Let's keep track. Will they mostly be green when we get to them, or red? You count the red ones, I'll count the green ones. Do you think it'll be about the same on the way back, or will it be different? Let's find out. For a route you drive frequently, choose a couple of lights and keep track of whether they're red or green over a period of 8-10 days. These are exercises in counting; they also ask kids to gather, use, and interpret data. More than half of the lights are green? Why do you think that might be?...That light where we cross Route 55 is almost always red when we get there--how come?

3. VROOM, VROOM. On a 4-lane highway, have kids count the cars you pass and the cars that pass you. Make this an exercise in counting forwards and backwards: start with a score of 10, add one for every car you pass, subtract one for every car that passes you. Or, start with 50 or even 100. Try not to give in to your children's pleadings to do whatever it takes to avoid being passed by that in-your-face Oldsmobile or to overtake that weirdly painted appliance truck. Does it matter who's driving?...why yes, yes, it might. (And can we correlate that with speeding tickets received? Why yes, yes, we can...)

4. NUMBERS ON SIGNS. There are lots of these running around the roads: speed limits, mileage markers, route numbers, distances to upcoming cities. We call Route 376 "route three-seventy-six," but what's its "proper" name? (Three hundred seventy-six. Yes, I know it isn't *really* a number, because it doesn't indicate three hundred seventy-six of anything...) Who can find a two-digit number on a road sign? A three-digit number? An odd number? The sign tells how many miles to Montreal and how many to Buffalo. Which is further away from us right now? How do you know?

5. MENTAL ARITHMETIC. We're at milepost 27--look, there's the sign. What milepost will we pass in five miles? Ten miles? (Careful--are we driving towards milepost 0 or away from it?) How many more miles till milepost 40? (See above.) The sign says Albany is 65 miles away. Our speed is, guess what, 65 miles per hour. About how long till we're in Albany? (Only use easy numbers for this kind of question!) The car can be a good place to go over basic facts as well: "7 + 2." "9!" "Tell me two ways to make 10." "Um--"

6. MAPS and DIRECTIONS. Have children direct you to a location they've visited many times before. Ask them to tell you where to go straight and where to turn, and whether you should go left or right when you turn. Obviously, don't break any traffic laws--you are still the captain of the ship! As for maps: Print out a map showing your route to a (relatively) nearby place. Go over the map with your child before you leave. Have your child hold the map and try to track your position along the route as you drive. Try using a road map for longer distances: Find a long thick blue line with a shield and the number 84. That's the road we're on now. We're heading west...which way is west? Can you find a city called Middletown? Excellent--we're just a little bit west of that right now. What's the next town you see? Some third and fourth graders can become quite good at navigating. Just be sure that the "road" they're having you follow isn't just a marmalade stain on the map (this happened once to Paddington Brown and his family, I believe).

As always, these are ideas, nothing more; you can come up with others yourself. Be sure not to push too hard. REPEAT: BE SURE NOT TO PUSH TOO HARD. If you find you're suddenly more invested in these activities than the kids are, cut the games short and do something else: talk, sing, tell jokes, look at scenery. But if people start yelling about siblings being on theirrrrr side, it helps to have games like find-a-license-plate-with-4-odd-digits in your back pocket; and if you can find the right combination of math activities for the car ride on any given day, you will NEVER EVER EVER have to put up with anybody singing George Washington Bridge, and that will make any hardship worthwhile.