Utilizing this useful and fun lesson that covers pages 14 to 17, your child will be able to comprehend traveling in a vehicle, understand safety precautions, and how quickly incident occurs in a moving vehicle.

Primary lessons in this picture:  Information and Understanding

• Preparing your child to travel in a vehicle safely, secured and with an understanding of communication. (pages 14-17)

  • Listening to instructions from parents.

  • Loading into the vehicle.

    • Staying close to parent as car is loaded.

  • Getting buckled into their car seat or seat (for older children).

  • Playing the checklist game to make sure they are:

    • Buckled in.

    • Have their toy, blanket or other comfort item (page 16 Jesse and Bear).

    • Giving a wave or patting their own head while making eye contact with the parent when the parent gets into the driver seat.

  • Behavior when the car is in motion.

    • Using the buddy system (middle of page 14/15 Bonnie Sue and Jesse)

    • Staying aware of parents (None of the kids in any of the pictures seem aware of the parent)

    • Not fighting (Middle of page 14/15 Meow Meow and Rico)

    • Getting used to being aware if awoken (page 16 Jesse)

      • Jesse is asleep in these pictures because we feel it is important to practice awareness with children every once in a while, by waking them or getting their attention so they are used to knowing where they are through familiarity of traveling.

    • Rico and Meow Meow are in a heated battle in these pictures, with Rico being the instigator.

      • If incidents like this occur, quick reaction by the parent to correct the situation the first few times it happens will set a precedence for what will happen if a child misbehaves in a moving vehicle, and decrease the likely hood that a permanent behavior will be present in a moving vehicle. REMEMBER, CHILDREN ARE GENIUSES AND LEARN MORE IN THEIR FIRST 5 YEARS THAN THEY WILL FOR THE REST OF THEIR LIVES. If they can learn to walk, talk, communicate, and learn social skills, they can learn to behave in a motor vehicle, but the correct behaviors must be instituted from the first vehicle adventure.

      • Meow Meow is screaming, that is disruptive and dangerous as it is a distraction to the driver.

        • Children should learn to communicate when they are mad as clearly as when they are happy.

      • Rico has taken Meow Meow’s doll and is pulling her hair. If an incident rises to this level you are already behind the curve of behavior correction.  At this point the driver should find a safe place to pull over and correct the behavior.

      • MOST IMPORTANT: Rico is NOT buckled into his seat. Children should understand the importance of seat belts and the dangers of not wearing them.

    • Bonnie Sue is being a good girl in this photo montage, however it is important for children to remain aware of the driver/parents and check in mentally from time to time. If they don’t, it is ok for the parent/driver to ask how they are doing in order to bring them back to reality.

  • When the trip is over (can use any page)

    • Children should stay seated and buckled up until the car is parked and the parent is ready for them to get out of the vehicle.

    • Children should be instructed to leave with the items they brought. Even very young children will build muscle memory and habitually follow a pattern if the parent repeats the same routine over and over as standard operating procedures.

    • Maybe this is wishful thinking on my part, but bringing paper towels and getting the older children in the habit of cleaning up the vehicle before they depart would be a great habit to instill.

Plans of Action and Reaction:  Child and parent working together:

• Children should know what to do when getting ready for a trip, know how to upload, how to buckle in, how to act under transit, and once they have arrived at the proper destination, know how and when to unbuckle or wait to be unbuckled. Using the Team Little Bigs book to run through these standard operating procedures before you travel will help a child visualize them while you take then to the car and actually travel.

  • Use couch pillows to represent the vehicles seats, in correlation with using the pictures 14-17.

  • Make traveling fun

• Parent should understand the same plan and practice if possible utilizing the pictures of Meow Meow interacting with the Police Officer and Fire Fighters on pages 24-25.

• Have a plan of action for dealing with unruly children when the vehicle is in motion.

  • Discipline as you feel necessary

  • Reward children that have been well behaved and aware.

• Have a plan on what you should do if you are ever in a motor vehicle accident with children in the vehicle or a medical issue such as choking occurs in transit.

  • Pause for a few seconds to make sure you are ok.

  • Head count and eye contact with each child.

  • Assess their state of mind, remind them where they are and that they are ok.

  • If anyone is injured, attend to it if possible, but try and be a reporter to first responders rather than a hero when dealing with major injuries

• Rehearse these emergency plans yourself before you ever have the children with you in a motor vehicle.

  • If you ever hit a big bup or have to swerve or brake quickly and it gets the childrens attention, use that experience to teach the children how they should communicate with you and how you will communicate with them.

Conclusion:

When you and your child have worked your way through these pictures and taken full advantage of simple games of preparation as described above, you and your child will be fully prepared for riding in a motor vehicle.