Great Chitter Chatter - Stories from Loud Voices

How many times have you heard your 4 year old ask this question from the back seat of the car as you drive the last hundred miles home after the summer vacation.
On the outward journey the question was ‘Mummy, are we there yet?’  The vacation home was still many miles away but the kids couldn’t understand what was taking so long This certainly annoys the older kids and, tension within the confines of the car can start to rise.
So, what can be done to calm the nerves of the tormented driver who has quite enough to do maintaining her concentration on the busy highways?

Distractions are a must but not for the driver- for the kids.
The ‘I Spy’ game is good for maybe half an hour well, that is providing everyone is concentrating.

On one occasion my star performer spied the steering wheel and her clue was ws and of course we all thought this meant windscreen. However after many frustrating miles the answer was not forthcoming And there was a good reason for this, because her nibs got her steering wheel and her windscreen muddled up! She was not too popular for a while after that.
So when ‘I Spy’ is played out, what then? One option is to play Charades, and this can be good fun for a while too.
So, what is the long term solution to prevent four energetic kids from getting bored?

This summer, we found the answer in an audiobook article. We had to dig a bit into our hard earned cash but it was worth it. Four MP3 players later and we now had the right tools to silence the little lambs!
The great thing about audiobooks is that you can load several of them onto each MP3 player so that there is enough material there for both journeys, there and back. Peace for hours for a small price.

We had toyed with the idea of burning some audiobooks onto CD’s and letting everyone hear the same story, but, this was bound to spark another row. “I don’t like Shakespeare, I don’t like Superman, I don’t like Roald Dahl etc..etc…’
I would advise you to allow the children some choice here too, so that they do not feel forced to listen to something they might not be too interested in.
It even makes sense to look ahead to the English curriculum of your local schools for inspiration. Huckleberry Finn seems to be an evergreen.
When they get a little older, the daily trips on the school bus could easily be put to good use by listening to some of the classic literature titles or language audiobooks from the curriculum.

Anyway, here are some of the audio books we selected: The Book of Pirates, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, The Chaos King, Groosam Grange, Coraline, and Alice in Wonderland. And, there are plenty of titles for the adults as well.