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Travel and homeschooling
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Have suitcase, will travel - and I'll travel without the suitcase. That's my motto. I was an exchange student in high school and knew long before that semester abroad that traveling was one of the best ways to learn. I experienced geology in Yellowstone and Yosemite, American history in Washington, D.C., Philadelphia and Boston, and science at San Diego's Reuben H. Fleet Space Museum, to name a few family travel destinations. There is , in my opinion, no substitute for seeing the places history happened and the artifacts mankind has carefully preserved for yourself. Travel really is broadening.
How, then, can we integrate travel and homeschooling? First, it's important to recognize that travel doesn't equal distance. You can take your children to historic sites, museums and nature centers wherever you live. In fact, that's what inspired my "Baltimore Homeschool Field Trip of the Week" feature. There are so many amazing places to visit in and near Baltimore, places you can visit and discover with your child. From art to zoology, you can probably find it in Baltimore. As time permits, consider adding a local field trip to your lesson plans. Follow up with activities and explorations related to what you learned. If you visit the Walters, try your hand at calligraphy or organize your own collections. After spending an afternoon at Fort McHenry, fold your family's American flag properly or find out more about flagmaking.
If your family has a chance to travel farther afield, keep a travel journal and encourage your children to do the same. This could be a written chronicle, photographic record or even a comic strip. Artist Guy Delisle recently published Pyongyang: A Journey in North Korea, which consists of a series of "comic" strips - they aren't funny, but they are extremely enlightening - about his months working in the North Korean capital. I have seen many travel journal pages that include sketches, maps and detailed drawings.
Family vacations offer the perfect opportunity to teach map skills. Even if you own a GPS, consider teaching this important subject to your child. (Ideally, your children will pay off student loans before buying GPS systems.) Ask your child to plan alternate routes or to look up your journey on Mapquest and plot it on a paper map. Once you hit the road, hand a map to your children and have them help you navigate. If you need an instant travel game, tell your children to pick out the ten weirdest town names in your state or the state you're driving through. They'll have great fun with this, believe me.
Once you're at your destination, spend as much time as possible absorbing local culture. Eat local foods, spend time at the park and check out festivals in the area. All of these activities will help you meet new people and find out more about the area you're visiting. Bring along a kite or inflatable beach ball - your children will have instant friends.
If you're lucky enough to be able to visit another country, you and your child will be learning every minute. You can practice speaking another language (or record the differences between British, Canadian and U.S. English), learn about the history of your destination, go grocery shopping, find out how local families spend their time and use math to convert currency values - and that's just the beginning. Drag out that travel journal or camera and record every experience. Go to playgrounds and meet local families - don't forget that inflatable ball - or visit a well-known landmark and strike up conversations. We visited the World's Largest Lobster Sculpture in Shediac, New Brunswick, Canada last summer and my daughter still corresponds with a girl she met while perched on the lobster's head.
While it can be difficult to send your children off on their own, consider allowing them to spend time in another state, province or country with trusted relatives or friends. Learning to appreciate other cultures is a gift that comes only through experience, but it's a gift that lasts a lifetime. We have hosted exchange students to expose our family to other cultures and to introduce young people to our own culture, and we've been rewarded with opportunities beyond our imaginings. At age three, my daughter was a flower girl in our French student's wedding. None of us will ever forget that amazing week.
If travel isn't part of your budget right now, you can still share the world's best natural, historical and cultural destinations with your children via the Internet. Look for photo galleries, virtual tours of museums and re-creations of historical sites and events. Supplement these virtual travel experiences with trips to the library and time with maps and atlases. If you don't have a computer at home, get a library card and use the computers at your local branch - it's free!
Traveling - at any age - can change your perspective on life forever. Why not give this gift to your children?
