I am a big fan of teaching kids MORE than they need to know. I believe you can never really provide a child with too much information, assuming the details are safe for their eyes and ears. While they may not understand what you are showing them or talking to them about right then and there, the lessons, words, topics and maybe most importantly, the time shared together communicating and exploring new themes and ideas will benefit you and them over time.
For example, with the car on but not running and parked in our driveway, I will let my girl sit in the driver’s seat and allow her to play with all the buttons, knobs and levers in the dashboard. She loves pressing down on the big emergency/hazard light button and furiously working the left and right turn signals, but the runaway favorites are those features that impact the outside of the car and whose results are immediate and undeniable: the spray of windshield wiper fluid and the flashing of the headlights and hi-beams at night!
Naturally, you should never leave your child unattended in the car – it is not a toy after all, but rather an expensive and potentially dangerous place. This should go without saying, but each year we hear about kids getting locked inside cars and nothing positive can come of that experience. However, as a well supervised activity, the front seat of a car can be the equivalent of another kingdom for those who are, 100% of the time, relegated to the rear of the vehicle.
I talk to her about what each item does and what I use it for while driving, this is the part that may be totally over their little heads now, but I swear it all makes a difference. I would rather her be more informed than less, even if she cannot put her new-found knowledge to work for another 13 years. I am trying to raise an observant child and by fulfilling her inquisitive side like this, I feel that I am progressing towards that goal. Even though many of us with long daily commutes may grow to loath the inside of our automobiles, for our youngsters, playing in the car can be a boatload of fun – a little self-contained adventure ripe with wondrously illuminated and noisy things within their reach!
Have any funny car stories to share, like a pair of little hands laying on the horn in the early morning?
More Fun in the Car: