The kids and I made a journey up to my mum's this weekend. We used the trip up to learn about distance and time estimations by playing a game estimating distances to the next town. I had to admit i had an ultimate, non-academic purpose in mind - focusing them on short--term goals so they would whine less about how long the trip takes! LOL
Here were the rules:
1) As we left each town we read the distance to the next town on the mileage sign, then everyone estimated how long they thought it would take to reach the town (each person had a minimum five minute increment, unless the next town was really close, in which case we did two minute increments).
2) Whoever won that round was owed a dollar by Mum (great motivation to keep them all playing! LOL).
3) Whoever currently had the least amount of money got to choose their time frame first so that they all got turns at having first dibs at the most likely times.
4) Once your time rolls past, you were out of the competition. So, for example, if Tanner said 2:23 and Nicolas said 2:28 but we arrived at 2:24, Nicolas would win as Tanner's time had already rolled by.
5) The clock kept ticking at unscheduled stops (taking photos, pit stop) unless Mum called a delay, in which case we added the stop time and recalculated. The only time I called a delay was when I took a 15 minute nap, so we added 15 minutes to everyone's totals when we resumed travel.
6) If the town is one we plan to stop in, the stopping point is where we calculate to. If we are just driving through, we calculate at the entrance to town, where the "Welcome to... " sign is, or equivalent.
It worked well, and by the time we arrived Tanner had earned $4, and the others $5. The only reason Tanner was down one was that we stopped to photograph the mountain goats he saw, and that meant his time expired by the time we got there! LOL Best of all, I think they are getting a better idea of how times and distances work, so we managed to roll a math lesson in while bringing the whining WAY down!
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