On our latest trip down to San Diego we decided to go without any electronic entertainment for my 3 year old daughter. Someone will say: how is it possible? While others will chime in: that’s how we did it all our lives and on cross country rides, nothing special! Well, for us it was a conscious decision and we just went for it. Don’t’ take me wrong, we took entertainment for her for the road: books, coloring books and crayons, audio books, CDs with our favorite Russian songs, her Music Together CDs, toys. So we were prepared. But as both of us have thought there were several instances of utter boredom for my 3 year old when she was just on the verge of crying and starting a tantrum. So we played games. One of her favorite games turned out to be I Spy with My Little Eyes.

Ex: I spy with my little eyes something blue. A car? No. The sky? Yes! I spy with my little eyes something round. The wheels? No! The steering wheel? No! The sign? Yes! With help when after 2-3 tries she could not come up with the answer. And take turns asking questions.

The game started in English by my husband and they were going strong for a good 20-25 minute period, at which point my husband was done with the game…my daughter was not! So I was volunteered to continue on and instead of doing it in English, the rules changes to doing it in Russian. We started with colors, then moved to objects and then ended with everything and anything. It was so much fun!  I figured out several words she was missing and mispronouncing in Russian, she learnt several new words and even my husband did (talk about sneaking in teaching him Russian!).

On the way back she asked to play the same game and we did the English only, the English and Russian and the Russian only versions.  Now she just randomly starts playing it on the walks, in the car and if she knows the color of the object but not its name in Russian I think it’s one of the ways she learns the names for those things.

Now I need to think of other fun road trip games that I can involve Russian in for the next trip this summer. A much longer one… any suggestions?

Some common words used during the game:

car – машина

semi, big truck – грузовик

SUV – джип

road – дорога

highway – шоссе

sign – знак

tree – дерево

bush – куст

house – дом

people – люди

dog – собака

store – магазин

building – здание

sky – небо

cloud(s) – облако (облака)

traffic light – светофор

wheels – колёса

trunk – багажник

roof – крыша

steering wheel – руль

window – окно

glass – стекло

door – дверь

windshield wipers – дворники

air conditioner – кондиционер

etc. – и многое другое!