Homeschooling on the Road | Calvert School Blog

Homeschooling on the Road

Joan Cooke is a new Learning Guide to nine-year-old twins. For the past five years she and her husband have taken their children on an eight-week, cross-country trip to visit relatives and friends. Joan does not want to cancel the trip, but she is concerned that her children will fall behind if they take a two-month break from their lessons. What should she do?

For most people, traveling is a treat, but time away from home can be a little daunting for Learning Guides who want their students to stay on schedule with their lessons. Before you decide to skip the trip, remember that one of the benefits of home schooling is flexibility. With a little planning and creative thinking, teaching your student on the road can be a fun and rewarding experience.

The Calvert Education Counselors offer the following tips for effectively teaching your student while you travel.

Organizational Ideas

If you know you will be traveling during the school year, you can do some things that require some work up front, but that allow you to pick up and go with pieces of the course more easily when the time comes.

At the beginning of the school year, remove all of the lesson manual pages, hole-punch them and put them in a binder. That way, you can pull out the lessons you need while on the road. You can also place the pages from each set of 20 lessons in a small binder, along with related activity pages and answer keys that are used during those lessons.

Plan trips based on curriculum. At the beginning of the school year, look at the topics that you will be studying and choose the ones you would like to further explore. Plan field trips to reinforce the content of the course. For example, if your student will be studying Impressionism in Art History, contact local art museums in the area you will be visiting to see if they have collections from that period.

Keep your student involved in travel plans and tell her the areas you plan on visiting. If she is old enough, let her pick a destination and assign her a small research project before you leave so she can be the tour guide for that particular area when you arrive.

Ideas for Student Learning

• Have your student keep a daily journal of the activities and sights on your trip. Get him a travel journal so he can record special moments. Include a glue stick and a plastic re-sealable bag so he can attach any mementos.
• Play educational and entertaining car games. For ideas, visit this website.
• Listen to audio books.
• Give an older student an allowance for the day. Tell him that the money can be used for snacks, treats or souvenirs, but once the money is gone, he will not receive any more. This exercise will help him learn to budget money and make wise choices.
• Make a map of your trip. Draw your own map that has the major stops and cities, and a drawing for your final destination. Include a few simple drawings of landmarks you will see along the way, such as a big bridge or a mountain tunnel. A homemade map is easier for younger students to follow and gives a clearer picture of how much farther there is to go. If your student is old enough and it is a trip that you take frequently, have him make his own map!
• Plan stops at museums, historical/cultural sites, famous landmarks, and local fairs and festivals. GoCityKids.com provides a list of family-friendly activities by city.
• For the budding artist, provide small sketch books and colored pencils.

Here are some additional creative exercises your student may enjoy.

A Student-Created Travel Guide

Assume the role of editor and have your student be the travel writer. Assign various topics and give him/her a ?deadline? to submit the article. Topics can include attractions visited, local history, landmarks, unusual events or sightings. To make the guide more colorful, ask to include a photograph or drawing and caption with each article.

Map Activities

Give the student a blank map of the area you are visiting so he or she can create her own route map.

He or she can mark and color states/countries, cities, rivers, geographic features, state parks, bodies of water, etc.

Math Activities

Your student can practice math skills by calculating various items such as mileage and the cost of gas and food. He can also calculate distances, arrival/departure times and total time spent. At an amusement park, he can calculate speed, velocity and momentum and point out simple machines such as levers or pulleys.

Reading Activities

Have your student read in advance historical fiction based on places on your planned route. Locate settings from the book en route and explore landmarks related to story elements.

Curriculum Connections

In advance, research destinations on your route that tie into course content especially geography and weather patterns. Plan visits or discussions based on these connections. During the trip, have your student prepare questions for the way home so she can be the teacher!

Home schooling on the road is not exclusive to extended trips. If your trip is short, focus on just one subject area, and catch up on other subjects when you return. The Calvert Math course is compact and portable, even if you take all of the material. Or, if your student is reading a novel, get a used copy for another family member(s) and have discussions in the car.

Remember, you can always count on the Calvert Education Counselors for support. They are experts in student development and can work with you to help you teach on the road. Just contact them at 1-888-487-4652 or e-mail them. You can also access them through Live Chat on the Calvert School website.

October Reading Suggestions

The Education Counselors recommend the following books to read before or during your travels. If you are unfamiliar with a particular book, please read it first before sharing with your children.

For Parents

Educational Travel on a Shoestring: Frugal Family Fun and Learning Away from Home by Judith

Waite Allee and Melissa L. Morgan

For Kindergarten ? Grade 3

Up and Down with Kate (Easy Reader) by Kay Chorao

Wild About Books by Judy Sierra

Cam Jansen and the Mystery of the Babe Ruth Baseball by David A. Adler

Mufaro?s Beautiful Daughters by John Steptoe

Not My Dog by Colby Rodowsky

For Grades 4 and 5

Lowji Discovers America by Candace Fleming

The Pirate?s Handbook: How to Become a Rogue of the High Seas by Margarette Lincoln

For Grades 6 ? 8

The Watsons Go To Birmingham?1963 by Christopher Paul Curtis

Night of the Twisters by Ivy Ruckman

Source: http://blog.calvertschool.org/home-education-tips/homeschooling-on-the-road/

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