Planning a Road Trip Is the Perfect Opportunity to Teach Kids Real-Life Geography & Math Skills by Kim Kusiciel


Planning a Road Trip Is the Perfect Opportunity to Teach Kids Real-Life Geography & Math Skills

You decided to take a road trip! Yay, but don't do all the planning yourself. Involve your kids and show them how geography and math skills relate to the real world! You can either work on this together or let them figure it out. 

  • Plan your route (map skills).
  • Determine the number of miles to travel round trip (addition). 
  • How long will it take based on the speed limit of the roads? (division). 
  • Using your car's average MPG, how many times you'll need to "fill-up" (division). 
  • Research the cost of gas where you are traveling and average it (data collection). 
  • Estimate the total cost of gas (multiplication). 
  • What other costs will you incur: hotel, food, entertainment, etc. (addition).

So take a load off, let your kids do the number crunching. Then enjoy the trip!

Elisa Schmitz
Totally agree, Kim Kusiciel ! Great ideas!!
Dieter Schmitz
Map reading is such a valuable life skill. Thanks Kim Kusiciel
Mike Prochaska
So bad. At reading maps so
Glad for gps but my wife great at it and she does this with my kids when we drop to Texas to visit grandma
Toni B
We like to highlight the route on a map or atlas so kids can follow along during the trip and learn geography at the same time.

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