Teaching Street Names/Navigation

[Anonymous]

I was kind of surprised that my 9 year old couldn't tell me the name of Connecticut Avenue. We drive on it practically every single day, and I'm sure that we've mentioned the name in passing dozens, if not hundreds, of times. But today, in the car, I decided to quiz her and ask her to name the street (we were driving northbound in NW DC on Connecticut). She didn't know. I can't remember how I learned street names, but I know my parents didn't go around teaching me the names of different streets. I think I just observed it, and at some point knew them.

At what age was your child able to navigate city streets and give them names? As in, able to give simple directions explaining how to get to Child's Play from Broad Branch Market?

[Anonymous]

Do NOT go down this road (see what I did there?) with your child - your head will explode. Nine year olds are complete idiots. I nearly had a nervous breakdown that my daughter couldn't tell me how to get to the main drag that we live right OFF at that age.

Save yourself. Let it go. I think they're bad at verbally giving directions, but if you made a wrong turn they'd be able to say "hey, where are you going? this isn't the right way."

[Anonymous]

Mine could do it before age 9. In fact, this weekend, I left my kids with a babysitter who had to drive my 8 year old to an activity. I never even bothered to leave directions or an address because my 8 year old knows the way.

[Anonymous]

Is your kid paying attention/looking out the window when you're driving or looking at something else? If they're not paying attention then I guess that makes sense.

[Anonymous]

It depends on the child.

There used to be preschools who made sure that kids knew their parents' first and last names, home phone number, directions to their home from preschool and directions to either a grandparent's home, babysitter's house or some other trusted adult's house, from either the preschool or their home. When I helped a child learn directions to her grandmother's house, she used landmarks, not signs, because she couldn't read all of the signs (combination of not being able to read all of the big words and not being able to see all of the signs from her carseat). With that said, if the driver flubbed a single direction, she was lost. Because directions from home to grandma's house involved a 1 hour trip on the freeway, mom stopped for a potty break mid-way, and the one time that her uncle tried to have her do directions, he got lost because he refused to stop and she got confused.

Most kids can learn directions earlier by using landmarks, and as they start reading, they can incorporate in street names. Kids don't navigate with cardinal directions well, unless there is a stationary compass installed in the car, in which case they learn to recognize that it should be pointing a certain way for each leg, but they aren't really using it correctly.

The biggest issue is that adults have been getting away from kids learning all of this early, and kids have been allowed to do other things in the car. If a child isn't allowed toys or screens, they're more likely to pay attention to their surroundings. If the driver plays games involving finding letters, numbers, items or colors OUTSIDE of the vehicle, kids pay attention to their surroundings.

[Anonymous]

Op here. We don't do screens in cars, and the kids have had addresses and phone numbers memorized since PK. I'm more interested in developing a kind of street savvy that I think city kids should know. I think the landmarks idea is a good one. We will work on that, too.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Op here. We don't do screens in cars, and the kids have had addresses and phone numbers memorized since PK. I'm more interested in developing a kind of street savvy that I think city kids should know. I think the landmarks idea is a good one. We will work on that, too.

Given your child's age, I would definitely recommend a mix of landmarks and street names.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Op here. We don't do screens in cars, and the kids have had addresses and phone numbers memorized since PK. I'm more interested in developing a kind of street savvy that I think city kids should know. I think the landmarks idea is a good one. We will work on that, too.

My 7 year old knows street names and can give coherent directions to many places. He can also tell you all the metro stops along several of the routes although we rarely ride it and live in the burbs. He loves trains and examines the metro map often. My 5 year old can tell you where to turn as he's riding with you, but can't give directions in advance and doesn't know street names. Both know their addresses. However, I cannot get either of them, even the SEVEN year old, to reliably tell me a phone number. He's not interested and it doesn't come up enough, I guess?

[Anonymous]

Depends on personality type. My son (14) loves to navigate, is able to figure out where we are, and is just really geographically aware. My nephew, who is the same age, could probably barely get out of his neighborhood and could NOT find his own way to school despite riding the school bus on the same route everyday.

My son was always like this. He could identify streets and houses very early on. My nephew will never be very in touch with his surroundings -- but he is brilliant in plenty of other ways. My brother (his father) is exactly the same. GPS navigation is a Godsend for them.

[Anonymous]

I'm 9:06, my kids also like to hold the phone with the google maps and track our progress. Maybe that's an idea.

[Anonymous]

I think going in the car versus walking/biking makes a huge difference. My sons (8 and 10 year olds) bike to school in the suburbs, so obviously they need to know how to get from point A to point B (it is about a 1 mile journey with a couple of turns). There is no need for your daughter to navigate when you are driving her in the car, so I wouldn't worry at all. If you really want some street savvy, then start pointing out landmarks and start walking/biking to places.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Op here. We don't do screens in cars, and the kids have had addresses and phone numbers memorized since PK. I'm more interested in developing a kind of street savvy that I think city kids should know. I think the landmarks idea is a good one. We will work on that, too.

My 7 year old knows street names and can give coherent directions to many places. He can also tell you all the metro stops along several of the routes although we rarely ride it and live in the burbs. He loves trains and examines the metro map often. My 5 year old can tell you where to turn as he's riding with you, but can't give directions in advance and doesn't know street names. Both know their addresses. However, I cannot get either of them, even the SEVEN year old, to reliably tell me a phone number. He's not interested and it doesn't come up enough, I guess?

I bribed my children with candy. It worked.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Op here. We don't do screens in cars, and the kids have had addresses and phone numbers memorized since PK. I'm more interested in developing a kind of street savvy that I think city kids should know. I think the landmarks idea is a good one. We will work on that, too.

My 7 year old knows street names and can give coherent directions to many places. He can also tell you all the metro stops along several of the routes although we rarely ride it and live in the burbs. He loves trains and examines the metro map often. My 5 year old can tell you where to turn as he's riding with you, but can't give directions in advance and doesn't know street names. Both know their addresses. However, I cannot get either of them, even the SEVEN year old, to reliably tell me a phone number. He's not interested and it doesn't come up enough, I guess?

I bribed my children with candy. It worked.

God bless our tae kwon do master who made memorizing a parent's phone number part of the promotion test for the little kids. I'm pretty positive DS would have been a 16 year old who didn't know his phone number if not for that.

[Anonymous]

This is the trouble with kids nowadays. They are coddled and never left alone. By 9, we all knew street names because we were off on our bikes or skateboards with friends. Now we need to coddle and teach street names with a game? UGH!

[Anonymous]

I grew up fairly free-range, as we say today, and while I knew my address and how to get to lots of different places, I paid no attention to street names, aside from the one I actually live on. My house was on a corner and I never paid attention to the other street that wasn't on my address. One time in middle school a friend's parent was driving me home and asked what the cross street was for my house and I didn't know the answer and felt like such an idiot. I knew we were 10 blocks away but could my produce the street name. Made sure I paid more attention after that. These days I'm a pretty high functioning adult, so I wouldn't worry about it. Thank god for GPS though.