{"id":3659,"date":"2014-01-31T02:25:35","date_gmt":"2014-01-31T02:25:35","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/socamom.com\/w\/fighting-the-glow-5-activities-kids-can-do-to-unplug-and-learn-in-the-car\/"},"modified":"2023-09-04T21:53:16","modified_gmt":"2023-09-05T03:53:16","slug":"fighting-the-glow-5-activities-kids-can-do-to-unplug-and-learn-in-the-car","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/socamom.com\/w\/fighting-the-glow-5-activities-kids-can-do-to-unplug-and-learn-in-the-car\/","title":{"rendered":"Fighting “the Glow”: 5 Activities Kids Can Do to Unplug and Learn in the Car"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Image via Instagram – @socamom<\/a><\/span><\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

My three little moths… always drawn to “the Glow”…<\/strong><\/p>\n

Them: <\/strong>May I hold your phone, please Mommy?<\/p>\n

Me:<\/strong> No.<\/p>\n

Them:<\/strong> What about your tablet?<\/p>\n

Me: <\/strong>No.<\/p>\n

Them:<\/strong> Did you bring your laptop?<\/p>\n

Me:<\/strong> Yes.<\/p>\n

Them: <\/strong>Can I use it, please?<\/p>\n

Me:<\/strong> No.<\/p>\n

This is how the conversation always goes, so I have no idea why they even ask me anymore. <\/strong> I have no games on my phone or tablet, so they are no fun at all – this is totally on purpose – but they still ask. \u00a0It is like kids these days can’t survive without “the Glow”. \u00a0Kids are plugged in from the time they can sit up, sometimes earlier, and in many cases, that’s not a terrible thing.<\/p>\n

For families like ours whose visits to see family members are few and far between for various reasons (distance, cost, time), the technology allows us to come face to face with them more often than we would if we didn’t have things like Skype and Google Hangout. \u00a0Facebook makes me feel like I see my cousins all the time, when in fact I rarely do.<\/p>\n

Even though the technology pulls us closer to our family around the world, we do step back from technology when we can to spend time with each other.<\/strong><\/p>\n

As a homeschooling family, we spend a lot of time in the car on the way to music lessons, enrichment activities, and field trips.<\/strong> My kids don’t have iPads or their own tablets, so we have to find other ways to keep them from annoying one another… and eventually annoying me. \u00a0Here are five things that we do to keep the kids minds moving while we are on the move.<\/p>\n

1. Flash cards<\/span> – True story. I STILL don’t know my multiplication facts.<\/strong> I have all sorts of tricks, but are the memorized? Nope. I am starting to think I am too old to learn. \u00a0My middle son is (as I was told) a “reluctant learner”, so I have been tempted to teach him all my tricks instead of making him memorize them. \u00a0We have flash cards that the kids use in the car to quiz one another, and he is almost done memorizing them… painlessly. Baby girl enjoys making the “aaaaaaaaaa” buzzer sound when he gets it wrong, and he loves impressing his dad with his “12 times”. Everyone wins.<\/p>\n

2. Old School Music<\/span> – We take it all the way back to the 50’s and up to the 90’s when we say “old school”.<\/strong><\/p>\n

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So I started…”I wanna rock right now…” The boy answers… “I’m Rob Base and I came to get down.” My job is done. #dropsmic<\/a> @Robbasemusic<\/a><\/p>\n

\u2014 Eva Loves (@WhatEvaLoves) January 29, 2014<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n