MAKING THE MOST OF TRAVEL
IN YOUR HOMESCHOOL CURRICULUM
As I write this, many of you are planning
trips. I remember how helpful our travels were in the educational
process when Kosta was a contract engineer and we lived for a
time in the Seattle area and traveled to Massachusetts for a
visit when he worked there. We drove back and forth to Seattle
four times, and across the country once. Aside from the wonderful
field trips this made possible, we gained from the traveling
itself. When we took our trip across the country, Jason was 11
and Sarah was 15. Jason sat in front with me, our AAA trip tik in
hand, and navigated. He also kept track of our gas mileage. I
knew he’d watch the scenery and observe everything without
any push from me because he was so curious he would’t want
to miss anything.
Sarah, on the other hand, was the type who
preferred to sit in the back seat and write letters or read. I
was determined she should not miss what might be her only chance
to see this great country of ours, so she was assigned the
responsibility of keeping a log. She had to write down the times
we started out in the morning, passed major cities,crossed state
borders,and arrived at the evening destination. She kept track of
climate changes, landmarks, rivers crossed, industries and
agricultural activities we passed by as we drove. If we had
questions about things we didn’t understand as we passed
them, she had to write them down so we could find the answers
later. She also kept track of all the historical and scenic
places we visited. When we got home, she had to put this log into
a journal form that I later edited and that served as an
introduction to our individual keepsake trip albums.
When we got back from our trip, each child was
given a U.S. map and individual outline maps of every state
we’d passed through. They had to show our route and color in
the states we visited on the U.S. outline map. On the state maps
they wrote in the major rivers, mountain ranges, capital cities,
cities where we went sight seeing, and the locations of
historical monuments and state and national parks we visited.
We collected our share of postcards and took
plenty of pictures. We later used the pictures in our keepsake
albums, and each had to be labeled with important information.
Some pictures I took and copied for use in flash cards and
testing. Example: in the West we took pictures of land features
such as mesas or craters. We photographed hogans and landmarks
such as Ship Rock. Along the Oregon Trail they were expected to
tell the difference between Fort Casper, Fort Lamamie, and Fort
Bridger by uncaptioned photos and identify Independence Rock,
which they had climbed, Devil’s Gate, the Platte River, etc.
Another thing we used for testing were
duplicate AAA maps we had lying around. We cut out pieces of them
that represented important places we had passed through or
visited and pasted them on a piece of cardboard, identified only
by number. The children had to know which state each piece was
taken from.
Ah, but I'm ahead of myself. Most of what I've
mentioned above happened during and after the trip. But the
activities before the trip made our experiences on the road much
more interesting. My son had read Carry On, Mr. Bowditch
and had studied the life of Abigail Adams before we visited
Salem. He could hardly wait to see the places where these people,
who had become very real to him, had lived. We had also read On
to Oregon aloud as a family, and that made us all eager to
see the sights along the Oregon Trail. As soon as you know where
you will be going, start reading biographies, history, or
historical fiction that relates to places you will see. This will
build anticipation and also give your children a frame of
reference for their sight-seeing adventures.
Before we visited living history museums, we
had the children make lists of questions to ask docents who were
impersonating people from times past. These docents do a
wonderful job of being other people, and you should allow a lot
of time for your children to interact with them. They not only
convey information, but they also reflect the attitudes and
morals of the people whom they are impersonating.
If you visit the national parks or historical
parks, be sure to go to the gift shop at the first one and buy a
passport.Your children will love to get them stamped as they
visit each new park. And later on, they will have a good record
of where they've been.
These are just a few ideas for incorporating
your travels into your curriculum. Those of you who are planning
trips might also want to look into the following books:
Going Places: The Young Traveler’s
Guide and Activity Book (5.95, O/P but we might have a couple
left.) This is for children of 8 or older, and is full of
suggestions for trip planning, what to do while standing in
lines, observing geography and making maps and compasses, and
understanding air travel and time zones. There is background
information to help young travelers get the most out of visits to
campgrounds, museums, amusement parks, zoos, beaches, cities, and
rural areas. Mom and Dad might find the information useful, too.
My Vacation Book for Kids by Kids (9.95) is
a tool to help children both keep a record of their trip and keep
occupied while traveling though the boring stretches. It contains
a small outline map of North America, signs to look for along the
road, license plate activities, math activities, games to play in
the car, a drawing and doodling section, pages and pockets for
photos, etc, journaling ideas, and log pages to last several
days. It is spiral bound.
For children ages 3-7 we suggest Fun Things
to Find on the Road (4.95) There are eight copies each of
eight different searches in this book. Each search has a simple
labeled picture of an object in a box with a square to check it
off when found. Page themes are "B" words,
"t" words, yellow things, red things, circles,
rectangles, counting (2 different ).
If you have done your homework, your vacation
can be the ultimate field trip.
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