I am planning a vacation from home for our family this summer. Does anyone have any great ideas as to how I can turn the planning process into a great homeschool experience for a 4 and 6 yo? Has anyone ever vacationed from home? I would love to here what you did! Thanks Rhonda
We camp a lot. Last summer, I got together with Deena, Crystal, and Tracy in Philadelphia to see King Tut's Treasures. While there, my kids also visited Valley Forge and hiked a section of the Appalachian Trail. One year, we camped at Mammoth Cave in Kentucky, one year we went to a family reunion in Wisconsin, drove home across Michigans Upper Penninsula and camped at the base of the Macinac Bridge. This summer, we're camping at a Conference Grounds my mom learned about called Sandy Cove in Maryland, on the Chesapeake Bay. I'm hoping to meet Becky while I'm there! This place even has a Homeschool Week, but that was full. It sounds WONDERFUL, and the cost for us to camp for a week is VERY reasonable. They've all kinds of activities for the kids!
I'm not sure exactly what you have in mind, but if you're planning local trips or excursions ("vacation from home"), find local small history museums or art museums. See if any local businesses or farms would let you tour. A newspaper field trip might be fun. If you are actually traveling.... If you go to national parks, they may have a Junior Ranger program for their age. Typically, you complete a short booklet with activities and then the child earns a badge or pin. In terms of the planning process, this is a great time to introduce map reading. Again, for the ages of your children, simple finding states and maybe a major highway if you're driving is terrific. Include learning directions (north, south, east, west). As they get older, we've had our kids determine routes, use Yahoo maps to find out approx time of travel, and even help pack when given a list of items. Hope this helps! Carol
I'm not sure because of your kids ages. My 5 year old isn't doing any planning on our summer vacation but the older one has. She is learning to read a map well enough to navigate us along the way. They both had a hand in choosing activities though. I agree a junior ranger program is great. We usually go camping for our big vacation but this year we are getting a cabin. Two years ago the place we camped had a great ranger program with daily hikes and other nature activities for the kids.
When they get older, try to coordinate with the homeschool days at Colonial W'burg/Jamestown/Yorktown. It's great and still not at super busy times of the year (Sept was still busy but the Feb ones were awesome although a bit cold a few days). Doesn't help now...4s probably a bit young to enjoy all the aspects but my 5 1/2 year old did pretty well.
Oh we lived in a RV for years and travel all the time, there is so much out there, they can do and not even know they are learning. So, many things to see, and all the places like museum and things like that they will take the children under there wings and go with them, my girls had so much fun, seeing and learning, if you go during the week not many children are there and the staff just has a blast.
HAve the kids research with or for you... choose a couple of locations, then have them research the sights, once they have written and printed up some info on them let them try to sell the trip to you... this would be economics and geography btw if you are looking for what is learned.. if theyr esach historical areas in the locale then they will also have History in there! Science for anything that would constitute that type of thing.. aquariums, or nature walks hikes etc can be fact finding missions too!
I'm not sure if this is the kind of thing you're looking for but one year when we took a beach vacation in September (after everyone's back in school!)...I took a lot of stuff. We did a unit on oceans and ocean animals, went to a seashell museum, etc. Each day I had each child draw a picture of their favorite event of that day, and then underneath I had them write a few sentences about that favorite thing. (I used a form from www.donnayoung.org which was blank on top for drawing, but had the handwriting lines on the bottom). It's such a neat scrapbook of our trip! Was that the kind of stuff you're looking for? Or are you wanting them actually part of the research/planning process of your trip???
Those are all great suggestions! We can't afford to take a "real" vacation so we are going to try to vacation from home. Meaning, we will use our home for lodging and try to do all the vacation type things you would normally do if you are away somewhere. We live in a failry scenic area with lots of outdoor recreation and history. So, I am trying to figure out how to do it and what to do. I was just looking for ways to get the kids really involved in the planning process as far as deciding what we are going to do and how and when and so on. You all gave lots of great ideas. Thanks!
AHHH!!!! Then here's some ideas of what you should do: Go bowling Play Putt-Putt Golf See a movie Visit the zoo and/or museums Have a picnic Go Letterboxing
OH okay, so its "SUMMER PLANNING" mreo then, we do that here! This year we MAY get to Wa for a few days but for the most part will "vacation" at home too! SO we will do bike rides to parks, ( saves gas too!) Swimming Pools and lakes, We plan to do a bike to the mall day once a week and have lunch out while there! We could bike to bowl too but bowling ball is a bit heavy for me to carry and ride
