5 Fun Ways to Teach Your Kids about Auto Maintenance

5 Fun Ways to Teach Your Kids about Auto Maintenance

One of the most exciting things about growing up is finally receiving your driver’s license! As a parent, teaching your children these auto maintenance tips can be very beneficial to them when they experience an auto maintenance issue. These tips will help you children be prepared for years to come! Also, don’t forget to keep your kids safe in the car by using a wonderful car seat.

1. Check the Tire Air Pressure

Many kids learn by watching their parents, so making sure your children pay attention when you are checking your tire pressure can be very helpful! Tire pressure can change in an instant. Knowing your tires’ correct air pressure amount as well as knowing how to air up your tires is an important skill for all drivers. A fun way to teach your child about tire air pressure is giving them the tire gauge and letting them check and record the pressure for each tire.  It can be a fun activity and a skill that they won’t regret learning.  Check out some guidelines on proper tire inflation here.

2. Wash the Car

Washing a car can be fun and keep you cool on a hot summer day! If you have a space for it, wash your car at home to get everyone involved and play music to keep the energy up. A car is an expensive investment, so teaching your child the importance of keeping your car clean and protected by regular car washes is a wonderful lesson. Bird droppings and sun damage are just some of the threats that can be treated by car washes.

3. Under the Hood Checks

First, teaching your child how to open up the hood and trunk are both important things for them to know.  An under the hood check can be a great learning experience and with this check, they can learn all the placements for different types of fluid. Make this fun by quizzing them on it and rewarding them if they do well in identifying.

4. Purchase Items for Your Car Emergency Kit

Being prepared and packing a kit for your car can prove to be very beneficial in the case of an emergency! Discuss some items like jumper cables, tire inflator, ice scraper, and other things that might be helpful during an emergency with your child. Take a trip to purchase different items to go in the kit and give the bag to your child to place it in the trunk of the car.

5. Lights and Other Visual Checks

Give your child the task of performing a visual check before getting in the car.  Even if your child may not be able to tell immediately if something is wrong, getting kids into the routine of doing this can form a great habit!

By Guest Author: Lauren Byrd

Lauren is a contributing writer and media specialist for Mavis Discount Tire. She regularly produces content for a variety of lifestyle and automotive blogs based around driver safety tips, auto service tips, and more.