Tuesday, October 12, 2010

The Best Travel Toys For Educational Time

By Jenny Untermeyer

The home today is full of distractions - from e-mail and texting to TV and video games - it can be challenging to get kids to study and develop important skills. Travel time is the perfect time to get away from the distractions and work with your kids to master a topic or face an educational challenge. These tips help you find the best travel toys and activities that are also educational.

Travel journals can be utilized to develop writing and spelling skills. Begin the work prior to leaving home with some research on the destination and then complete the journal during the trip. In addition to entries on best/worst/favorites, include fact based pages for the history or other interesting information about the destination city or country. For summer trips, the journal can serve as the starting point for writing a back to school essay. It may also serve as extra credit in English or History class.

You can practice math facts anytime. On short trips around town, review basic facts. On longer trips, you can print math fact sheets, create flash cards or even play with math magic. Dice games are also a fun way to practice math facts.

Go beyond the coloring book with activity books. Multi-purpose activity books will build a range of logic and problem solving skills. If there are specific areas that need mastery, look for a dedicated book. Beware of loading up on all one type of book - a mixture will entertain kids for longer and avoid burnout.

Map reading skills are a natural for travel. I suggest buying several different types of maps and using all of them during the trip. One map should show the entire journey. A detailed map of the city can be used for finding fun activities, planning an itinerary or even mapping out the directions for the day. Once at your destination, look for the colorful tourist maps that are fun to use for identifying unique or unusual restaurants, destinations or shopping.

Help your child use travel time productively by learning a new skill or mastering a challenging one. It takes time to find the best travel toys that are educationally based but it is worth the effort! - 39815

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