Reading: Great Way to Pass a Long Road Trip

Despite soaring gas prices, people will still hit the road this summer.

Whether it's weekend trips to visit grandma, day trips to Starved Rock and Taste of Chicago or a family vacations to the Dells, Americans are on the move during June, July and August.

On each and every trip parents are plagued by the dreaded question, “Are we there yet?” Asked by children from 2 to 18, usually after the first mile of travel.

Entire websites are devoted to how to entertain children during car trips. Suggestions on these sites include activities like car bingo, printable coloring pages and activity books. One simple solution often overlooked by these websites is reading aloud.

One adult drives while the other reads aloud. If an adult is driving solo or is not comfortable reading aloud, audiobooks are an easy solution. They can be purchased at any bookstore or checked out of the library.

Another option is to have each family member (except the driver) take a turn reading. This helps kids improve their reading skills and keeps everyone involved.

Reading during road trips keeps kids' minds occupied while they draw, play hand-held video games or simply gaze out the window. It exposes them to literature they might never pick up on their own, but that they might really enjoy.

In many ways, reading to children in preferable to playing a DVD. When you get right down to it, watching a DVD in a car isn't all that different from watching one at home and vacations are about experiencing new things. Why not start the new experiences as soon as the car pulls out of the driveway?

Watching a DVD doesn't stimulate the imagination as does listening to a story. A movie, TV show or music video provides one vision – that of the director. While listening to a story being read, everyone's imaginations soars. Each person can picture the story in his or her own way. This doesn't mean that TV shows, movies or music videos are lessor art forms. They're just different.

People watch new things everyday. That is not always true about new books. Kids who fight tooth and nail when told to “read 20 minutes a day” might welcome listening to a story when they have nothing to do but watch the street lights zip by mile after mile.

As an added bonus, road trip reading will fulfill most schools summer reading requirement.

Picking the right story to read is, of course, key. A parent must select something that appeals to their children's taste. Their favorite movies and TV shows can give clues, but one can never know for sure. A book a parent thought would be big hit might bore the kids to tears. A book no one ever thought they'd like could hold their attention all the way to the Grand Canyon. It's a good idea to bring a selection.

Parents should not be afraid to try reading classics like To Kill a Mockingbird or Treasure Island to their children. Classics are classics not because some English teacher somewhere decided "this book is a classic." They're classics because they have riveting stories that can entertain people of all ages.

Some road trip favorites include The Phantom Tollbooth; Alice in Wonderland; The Outsiders; Tom Sawyer; The Belgariad; The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe; Have Spacesuit Will Travel; The Hobbit; and The Little House books.

So when packing for your road trips this summer, do not forget a selections of books or audio books to fend off that incessant question: “Are we there yet?”