Car Talk (for Kids)

With the start of the school year, Meghan Cox Gurdon finds herself back on the road carpooling, listening in on a car full of children.

With the start of the school year, Meghan Cox Gurdon finds herself back on the road carpooling, listening in on a car full of children.

Well, here we all are, back in our vehicles again as the school car pooling season resumes. Much has been written about the awfulness of spending hours crisscrossing Washington with a cargo of children, but, it must be said, there can be amusing compensations.

Sharing a car with lots of children can mean sharing their confidence; it can also mean sharing games that you'd never otherwise play.

On a recent morning, as I maneuvered a minivan full of schoolgirls, the noise was terrific. With seven children on board, from a trio of fifth-graders to a child in nursery school, the thing handled like an armored car and practically pulsed from the ebullient back-to-school racket inside.

It was only after we'd been driving for a while did I become aware that there was method in the noisy madness.

Click here to read more.