Kids & the Car: Keeping it Clean and Getting In and Out Quickly

With Fall here and all the falling leaves, I had an idea for a solution to a problem that I've been having. I have 3 boys and getting in and out of our van can be like torture sometimes (depending on how excited they are about where we're going). My 3 year old likes to travel throughout the van prior to sitting in his seat and buckling, which can make it a little stressful when trying to leave in a hurry. He also is very independent and must buckle himself, which is obviously more time consuming.

My next problem was the mess that the kids would leave in the van; the items they brought in don't get returned to the house and new items are often left in the van. There is also some playing in the van prior to my 2 and 3 year olds getting out and in the house. With the weather getting colder, I wanted to find a fun way to get the kids in and out quickly and not have to clean the van as often (especially when the snow starts falling)

So the idea that I have come up with incorporates fall (and can change for every season) What I did is have each boy pick 6 leaves from outside. We talked about how fall is also called AUTUMN and we spelled Autumn together on the white board (my 5 yr old was able to tell me the letters by the sounds in the word) I wrote out each letter and asked them how many letters there were.

This was so far a great way to learn about autumn; ie what happens in Autumn: leaves fall, how to spell Autumn and how many letters are in the word (counting). So next I said that we each had 6 leaves, so I was going to write each letter of the word on the leaves A-U-T-U-M-N. I then laminated the leaves in little precut laminator sheets and punched a hole in the top and attached a string to each leaf letter card. (If you don't have a laminator, I believe that you can just buy the sheets with wax paper and an iron)

Next I explained to the boys what will happen each time we get in the van. When they get in the van quickly and buckle, I will give them the first letter by hanging it on the built in hooks in the van above each boys seat. (you can decide if you want to give 2 each trip or 3, one being for good behavior in the car) They can get the next letter when they pick up the van and get out quickly. When they have received all 6 letters they can get a treat.

What I think is really awesome about this activity is that you can change it each season. When winter comes, make snowflakes or fun pictures for winter and use the word Winter with an addtional symbol to make 6 (possibly a snowflake), then there's Spring-you can use flowers, and Summer also has six letters. This will create a set routine, but also create excitement about the changing seasons and a fun learning activity with your kids.