Roadschooling: Geography From License Plates

November 30, 2023/

Unsuspecting kids will begin learning geography from license plates, including cardinal directions, capitals and state characteristics.

My kids started playing “pudiddle” after my oldest one learned it from a friend. The current ‘tween version involves punching a sibling whenever you see an out-of-state license plate. We live in a college town with lots of summer tourists, so there has been a lot of punching going on. And if you’re a mom like me, there’s probably LOTS of time spent driving around in a car. It was getting to the point that there was lots of fighting and frustration from younger ones, and I just wanted to ban the car game. Admittedly, I raised my voice a few times and enforced 24-hour bans. But the game kept coming back.



Then I got an idea. What if my oldest could only punch when she could name the capital of the state, and not just the state? This could level the playing field, with less one-way punching. (And it’s not really PUNCHING, but more of a love-tap.) I quickly created a cheat sheet of states and capitals that we kept in the car. Now my nine- and ten-year olds were yelling out “Carson City!” and “Lansing!” while tapping each other. Sibling rivalry and games are excellent motivators. Suddenly, they were learning geography from license plates.

Then I remembered this great Melissa and Doug license plate game that we got before a Colorado – California road trip two years ago.  I loved it and kept ticking off the states, but my kids lost interest quickly back then. Now II brought it out again and their level of interest from the “pudiddle” game has kept it going strong. When driving through town, we are on the lookout for new states so that as a team we are trying to get all fifty states (less sibling rivalry.) When Kai is holding the board and we have found, say, Montana, he needs to physically locate the state to flip the block. He asks,

“Where is Montana on the map?

I say, “find Colorado. And trace your finger north.”

And then he might say, “what’s ‘north’ again, Mom?”  And I tape a NESW compass to the back of my seat.

Now I can say, “Washington state is in the NW corner of the US,” and he can find it straight away.



And when we are stuck in traffic:

  • They quiz me on capitals. They say the capital and I say the state (start easy.) Once they hear these enough, then I start saying the capital and they say the state.
  • We wonder and guess the answers to questions about why there is a peach on the Georgia plate, or why we see so many Texas plates and none from states like nearby Nebraska.
  • The younger kid holding the Melissa and Doug Board, might ask, “Name five states south of Colorado,” or “Find six states that touch the Atlantic.”

Side note from this teacher: fact memorization, like state capitals, might seem like a waste of time, but memorization skills are developmentally important and easily translate to many other life uses beyond school.  Memorization is a muscle that needs to be trained and the sense of accomplishment of learning something as simple as every state capital will embolden each kid with confidence.



Have fun! Learning geography while scooting around town will keep everyone happy.