luckymom Posted June 10, 2009 Share Posted June 10, 2009 I always take school on out trips. We take long trips. But, the dc did finish all regular curriculum during the school year and I load more stuff on in the summer - handwriting, grammar, math, latin - more of it. We do a lot of history and journaling during our trips. I am wondering if it is "right" or "wise" to load on curriculum during the trips or if it would be better to stop, travel, learn through the travel, read books for fun, and then start up again later. THoughts. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gardening momma Posted June 10, 2009 Share Posted June 10, 2009 I always take school on out trips. We take long trips. But, the dc did finish all regular curriculum during the school year and I load more stuff on in the summer - handwriting, grammar, math, latin - more of it. We do a lot of history and journaling during our trips. I am wondering if it is "right" or "wise" to load on curriculum during the trips or if it would be better to stop, travel, learn through the travel, read books for fun, and then start up again later. THoughts. Not having been there yet, I'd lean towards a lighter load--fun books, pay attention to historical landmarks while you travel, reading informational signs at places you go, but don't bring schoolwork. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
elegantlion Posted June 10, 2009 Share Posted June 10, 2009 Unless you are traveling full time, I say enjoy the time on the road. Some of my fondest memories were of our travels as a child. If you simply must bring something how about one page a day of something. I created a "dialogue journal" for my ds for the summer (we're not traveling that much) and everyday he will get an assignment in the journal. It could be to look up some words in the dictionary, translate or diagram a sentence in English or Latin, Solve this math problem, etc, you get the point. I'd probably have reading time daily as well. I'm hoping it will take him 30 minutes or less each day, but be enough to keep certain things fresh for next fall. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Willow Posted June 10, 2009 Share Posted June 10, 2009 I am planning a trip to the Uk for 6 weeks next Northern Hemisphere summer. I am taking Maths to do on rainy days (this IS the UK ;)) and we are planning to visit castles, museums, Yorvik, Whitby (replica of Captain Cooks ship) etc etc. Thats it, no journaling, no workbooks, just maths. My sister, whith whom we will be staying, owns a second hand and antiquarian bookshop, otherwise I would take holiday reading but as it is, I think we might find enough to read! I think traveling and seeing what is there is great education by itself. I so remember school trips as a child. I dreaded them. A week of writing about what we were going to see. When we saw it, we had to fill in questionnaire sheet all day, stifling any possible enjoyment, and then another 2 weeks of writing about what we had seen! Ugghhhh..... I swore never to do that to my kids! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rita Posted June 10, 2009 Share Posted June 10, 2009 I am planning a trip to the Uk for 6 weeks next Northern Hemisphere summer. I am taking Maths to do on rainy days (this IS the UK ;)) and we are planning to visit castles, museums, Yorvik, Whitby (replica of Captain Cooks ship) etc etc. Thats it, no journaling, no workbooks, just maths. I would strongly encourage you to have the kids do a small amount of journaling each night. Not necessarily about what they've "learnt" but about what they saw, and what impressed them. Even just a paragraph. Depending on the age of your children, they could do it themselves, or they could dictate it to you. When we went to England when our eldest was in Kindergarten, we had him dicate to us each night. It's very sweet now, looking back, at what he deemed important! This past summer we went on an 8 week adventure through Europe. The only thing the boys did was journal (I'd have love to have them do maths, but that simply didn't happen). They ADORE looking over their journals and "remembering" what they did (they were 11 and 13). While maths IS important, journaling is a simple thing to do. Buy a pretty (or "manly") notebook for them and let them go! Rita Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rita Posted June 10, 2009 Share Posted June 10, 2009 I always take school on out trips. We take long trips. But, the dc did finish all regular curriculum during the school year and I load more stuff on in the summer - handwriting, grammar, math, latin - more of it. We do a lot of history and journaling during our trips. I am wondering if it is "right" or "wise" to load on curriculum during the trips or if it would be better to stop, travel, learn through the travel, read books for fun, and then start up again later. THoughts. How old are your children? They could still "do" school on the long trips...but the school of life...reading maps, researching/finding cool places to stop along the way, etc. If they've finished their regular school work, I wouldn't load on more. I do, however, make my kids do math all year long (I figure it's not much for them to give me 30 minutes a day for math, and that leaves them 23 1/2 hours for themselves!!) There are soooooo many great books that they could read for enjoyment, or you could listen to them on tape :) Rita Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
luckymom Posted June 10, 2009 Author Share Posted June 10, 2009 12, 9, and 6. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ellie Posted June 10, 2009 Share Posted June 10, 2009 My thought is to stop, travel, learn through the travel, read books for fun, and then start up again later Education isn't only about filling in workbook pages or writing reports or anything else that looks like school. It's about *learning.* When I traveled with my dc, we enjoyed the traveling. We all learn so much more that way. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KrissiK Posted June 10, 2009 Share Posted June 10, 2009 We don't take long trips, but when we do I just consider it one big field trip. We make sure we take in a museum or nature walk, but we don't do regular schoolwork. Unless you're really having trouble making it through your curriculum, I'd suggest getting away from the books and think outside the box educationally speaking. Have the kids make scrapbooks of the trip, drawing pics of the native flora and fauna or landmarks, collecting brochures of places you've been. Read aloud bios of famous people in the area. Track your travels on a map. Figure out how much money you've spent, determine your gas mileage. There are all sorts of fun things you can do without "bringing out the books!" Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JennW in SoCal Posted June 10, 2009 Share Posted June 10, 2009 I'm in the middle of putting together a scrapbook of homeschool memories for my ds who is graduating this weekend. Some of the most wonderful things I found when digging through old boxes of homeschool stuff were the journals, photos and postcards from our travels. I NEVER took school work along when we traveled, but gave my kids each a disposable camera and a small spiral notebook with blank (unlined) paper. And of course lots of pencils. They made wonderful journals, describing things they did and saw and thought. They drew pictures or used tape to put museum maps and tickets in their journal. They made up stories and wrote those, or just sketched for fun. We'd read books related to places we went to, but it was usually a fun fiction read aloud rather than a fact filled book. My kids learned so much from our travels and they remember it all fondly. It has given them context that helped them more deeply understand history, current events and science. And those journals are now a treasure! So dump the school and let the world teach your kids! Don't correct their spelling or grammar, just let set them free and enjoy all they learn. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
irizarry4 Posted June 10, 2009 Share Posted June 10, 2009 I'm in the middle of putting together a scrapbook of homeschool memories for my ds who is graduating this weekend. Some of the most wonderful things I found when digging through old boxes of homeschool stuff were the journals, photos and postcards from our travels. I NEVER took school work along when we traveled, but gave my kids each a disposable camera and a small spiral notebook with blank (unlined) paper. And of course lots of pencils. They made wonderful journals, describing things they did and saw and thought. They drew pictures or used tape to put museum maps and tickets in their journal. They made up stories and wrote those, or just sketched for fun. We'd read books related to places we went to, but it was usually a fun fiction read aloud rather than a fact filled book. My kids learned so much from our travels and they remember it all fondly. It has given them context that helped them more deeply understand history, current events and science. And those journals are now a treasure! So dump the school and let the world teach your kids! Don't correct their spelling or grammar, just let set them free and enjoy all they learn. :iagree: That is exactly what I would do, almost to the T. Don't call it journaling. You are scrapbooking (the way it used to be, not with the fancy papers). Kids love to have command and control over a camera. Let them stick pieces of napkins from funky restaurants, museum tickets, postage stamps, postcards, maps. Let them draw a picture of their favorite part of that day, even if that was when the squirrel stole sister's popcorn at the park. They have to caption it, so there's writing involved. It works even better if you take your own little notebook and sit down and put together your own scrapbook at the same time. Then it's not schoolwork; it's a family activity. You'll see. They are the ones who will be trying to collect treasures for their scrapbook. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Debbie in IL Posted June 10, 2009 Share Posted June 10, 2009 I agree. I love the idea of the journaling - but beyond that, please enjoy the traveling and the time together! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
babysparkler Posted June 10, 2009 Share Posted June 10, 2009 Unless you are traveling full time, I say enjoy the time on the road. Some of my fondest memories were of our travels as a child. Ditto. I usually just take advantage of "teachable moments" while traveling. There is so much to learn and so many things that spark their curiousity that get my kids wanting to come home and "google it". Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
IATeachingMom Posted June 11, 2009 Share Posted June 11, 2009 Most of the time we take a few read alouds (ds6). When I'm worried about keeping a schedule (ds needs a schedule to do well) then I take math because it's the easiest for us to tote around. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
swellmomma Posted June 11, 2009 Share Posted June 11, 2009 Well we don't really travel but I am planning on bringing a read aloud, each kid will bring a book to read as well as their math when we go to family camp at the end of the month. We will be gone for a week, staying in dorms. There is nothing major to see though we keep pretty busy there. However, last year I got them used to going back to our rooms for 90 minutes of quiet time mid-day. The baby naps during that time and they all did puzzles, coloured etc. This year I plan on having them do 1-2 pages of math, and some reading in that 90 minute period. And then we will use the read aloud at bedtime. If we get to take our huge 3 month long road trip in 2011 like I hope to, we will be bringing any school work we had not finished by that point simply because we will be gone for so long. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Starr Posted June 11, 2009 Share Posted June 11, 2009 We take school with us and don't do it. I'd say to travel light and enjoy the trip. A travel journal might be fun. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KAR120C Posted June 11, 2009 Share Posted June 11, 2009 And DS's only assignment while we're gone is to write. A lot. If it were a less-interesting trip, like just to visit relatives (no offense to the relatives but.... LOL), then I might bring schoolwork, but we're going to India for a month, and I really want him to write about it! And take pictures, record sound (we have two USP-charged MP3 players that record), draw, etc. No matter how the trip goes, we're going to be having new experiences left and right, and there's no way to remember all the stories you want to tell when you get back. I traveled a bit before DH and I were married, but never really kept a journal, and the gaping holes in my memory are ridiculous - even when I have photographs I don't always remember what they're from. But the trip we took 7 years ago as a family I still have my journal from, and the scrapbook I made of the photos, and even the things I didn't write down specifically have a "hook" to hang on... so my memories of that trip are much clearer. Of course it's much easier these days -- we used to have to worry about taking all that film, and whether it would survive going through security at the airport... This trip we'll be uploading the digital pictures to a blog each night, writing at the laptop (although I'm bringing two moleskine books for each of us and extra sketchpads too), and keeping our families and friends updated along the way. :) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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