Spring fever has hit over here, so it’s taking some ingenuity to get our homeschool lessons done. To keep the learning going through play, dig through the toy box and come up a handful of toy cars. There are ways to use toy cars for learning, and since most kids LOVE toy cars they will play with them for hours. Which is great, since they won’t realize they are working. Anytime I can use the things we have to extend learning, it is a mom win, and there are so many ways you can use toy cars for learning. 😉
5 ways to use toy cars for learning
#1. Build a road together
When you have your children do an activity together, they are growing and learning together. Spend an afternoon building a road for the toy cars of your home. You can make your own road out of black and yellow duct tape.
Duck Brand Color Duct Tape, BlackDuck Brand Color Duct Tape, Yellow
That said, if you’re even remotely concerned about the finish on your floors, test out the tape on your floor before you put a bunch of it down. You do not want to ruin your floor over a fake toy car road. We have kempas hardwood flooring throughout our house, which is why we prefer PlayTape Classic Road tape.
This activity will allow to see your child’s thinking and engineering skills at even a young age.
#2. Number Garage
If you have a cardboard box lying around your house, you are going to win parent of the year. Cut open the top of the box and create little parking spaces for the cars. Next, you will want to put numbers in the parking spaces.
Jazzstick 360 Smiling Glitter 1-9 Number Stickers, 10 sheets
Your child has to find the parking spot associated with the number you ask them to find. This game is so much fun and your kids won’t even know they are learning.
#3. Road Alphabet
Since we’re working with toy cars here, you have to get creative in how you present the lesson. A very creative way you can use Toy cars for learning would be to create letters A-Z that look like roads.
For this activity, the PlayTape Broad & Tight Curves tape comes in handy!
PlayTape 2 Pack Broad & Tight Curves
Your child can use the road alphabet to zoom through the alphabet. This is another lesson they won’t even realize they’re learning from (but they are).
#4. Toy Car Alphabet and Spelling
Want to get your child excited about learning their ABC’s and spelling? Use the toy cars in your home for alphabet fun. Place letters on the cars, then spend time helping your child learn their letters and how to spell by lining up the cars in the desired order. Using removable stickers to add the letters can help keep it from ruining the cars paint job when you’re ready to take them off.
Avery Round Color Coding Labels, 0.75 Inch, Assorted, Removable,Pack of 315 (6733)
Kids love these types of games because they are right up their ally. They get to have a fun and learn how to spell at the same time.
#5. Money Math Cars
If you have a plethora of toy cars on hand, use garage sale stickers to create this fun game for your kids. Use the garage sale stickers to add a price to each car. These preprinted prices range from 10 cents to $20, so the possibilities are endless. Easily use these to skip count by 2s, 5s, and 10s. There are 10 sheets in this pack, so if you want to count all the way to 100 by 2s, you’ll need two packs.
Avery Preprinted Removable Garage Sale Labels, 0.75 Inches
Help them add and subtract the car values. This is just a fun way to get your kids to use their math skills each and every time they “play.”
As you can see, there are a lot of ways to use toy cars for learning!