[scottiegazelle]

Hey, guys, I would love any feedback or advice. We are presently living in our motorhome so we can travel with my husband while he works. He pretty much stays in the NE (primarily PA but also CT, NY, NJ, MD, and DE). His jobs take us all over the place, and I am looking for the best way(s) to maximize the experience for my kids. My oldest is only 5-almost-6, so I'm not overly stressing, but we will be doing this at least until Christmas, most likley until next May, and possibly even longer, so I want to get some good plans in place.

The biggest problem I am having is that there is very little time for planning. My husband finds out 75% of his work for the next week on the preceding Thursday. About 25% of it is 'this is broke and we need you to head over here in the next day or two and fix it', which means even if we make plans, they can be changed in a flash. One of the biggest downsides to the motorhome is that we don't have a library card; however, when we go to smaller towns, we like to spend a few hours in the library, so it's not completely bookless; it's just difficult to plan.

We hit some really neat places; so far we've been to the Statue of Liberty, the National Zoo, the Fredericksburg & Chancellorsville battlefields, the Joseph Smith birthplace, Kitty Hawk, and various hands on children's museums. We've also hit a local fire department and a multitude of libraries. We are looking to go to an aviation museum in the next few days.

How can I maximize this experience? I thought about going to the library beforehand, but we just don't know. So the next thing I came up with was visiting the library afterwards and reading about whatever we learned. I'm still not sure this is ideal, but it is better than nothing.

Any suggestions for maximizing the experience would be greatly appreciated. My kids are almost-6, 4, 2, and a newborn.

Thanks!
Nola

[QueenAngie]

Welcome to the board, Nola!

I do not homeschool, but there are many new friends online here that do.

Here are my thoughts:
Going to the library 1st will give all of your children an idea of what is planned for your visits. What about using websites of the location you are visiting?

Other ideas: everywhere you go there will be brochures available.

Make a scrapbook with them. You'll need 2 of every brochure for use
in the front and the back.

It will give you time to review where you have been and what you saw.
You could also add comments from each of the children.

This could perhaps include English,
communication skills,
handwriting skills,
geography,
history,
the weather,
the alphabet,
numbers & letters.

For the little ones, maybe even some baby sign language.

On regular vacations, we always made a point to stop at museums,
zoos,
historical places,
state parks.

One incidental side trip in Florida, we stopped at Homossasas Springs
and learned all about manatees. We got to see them up close in their
natural habitat and learned so much. This is one side trip, the boys
talk about even 12 years later. My sons brought up this trip again
this weekend. They do not recall much of the rest of our expensive
FL vacation.....but they distinctly remember the manatees!

You will be making wonderful memories with your children. Take photos!

Your children have allready been exposed to culture, art, & history in a
wonderful way with the best teacher possible - you!

[twinzplus3]

I too agree that making a scrapbook, notebook, lapbook etc. is a great idea. Soon I am going to be writing about making a lapbook in the homeschooling section so I'll make sure and link when I'm done. Take pictures and study wherever you're going. I assume you're using a curriculum for math and English? So from there, just take whatever you're going and maybe do "follow up" studies. This is definitely a very special time for you guys and they'll never have this opportunity again. I'm sure you'll find a way to creatively incorporate all you're doing.

If you want more specific advice. . .let me know!

[ahermitt]

I just wrote a blog in response to your question. It is here:
http://homeschooling.families.com/bl...-during-travel

[scottiegazelle]

Thank you everyone for the great suggestions! Andrea, I loved your blog! (and thanks for linking me to my blogs, too!) The kids and I got really excited about it. Val, we are not using a curriculum yet. My original plan was to develop my own and try to integrate everything, which is still my plan, but I forgot to factor the new baby in.... So it's still in a work in progress. Queen Angie, thank you for the great ideas on the scrapbook! Awesome!

Thanks again everyone! I am really excited again!

[ahermitt]

You are very welcome!!!

[twinzplus3]

I highly recommend getting a reading list of some sort. (Sonlight has a great one but I'm sure if you google reading lists--you'll find ample material.) And base unit studies around that. Then take off when you need to do some exploring or whatever. You're obviously going to have to be very flexible.

I seriously find that the longer I homeschool, the more I am convinced that it is more about the exchanging of ideas between adults and children that enables children to learn well--rather than the curriculum. Simply talking about what you're doing and where things are will go a long way!

[Aerie]

Our family travels more than most, though not as much as yours! I do try to do a learning blitz focused on things about our destination beforehand. We are going to be hitting some American History hard soon in prep for our Philadelphia/Wash D.C. trip in July. I do think they get more out of it if they can learn some beforehand- the experience is deeper, so to speak. But if that isn't an option for you, don't worry about it. Just live in an atmosphere of learning and discovery, and your children will too. If they see you get excited about what you see and want to learn more, they will continue to live and breathe the excitement of learning! You could have them sketch things that they want to learn more about, and take pictures of them with their favorite things. Then find some websites about those interesting items or subjects and research what books would be good. You could also try seeing if audible.com has an audio book for children on a subject related to your destination, and you could listen in the car on the way there.

Whatever you do though, relax and have fun!!!

We leave on Tuesday for NC/SC, I will be repeating this mantra myself at times.

Best wishes,