This month the theme for Poppins Book Nook is “Planes, Trains, and Automobiles,” I’d planned this big long Lego building theme, and then my entire family taking turns getting sick, and an emergency room visit for a toe that wasn’t broken, but sure hurt a lot, changed my plans. Instead, I thought I’d give you some travelschooling tips inspired by one of my favorite Madeleine L’Engle books: The Moon by Night by Madeleine L’Engle
The Moon by Night
The Austin family is traveling cross country by car, and 14-year-old Vicky is struggling with who she is now and who she wants to be. As they travel Vicky journals about what she’s learned and who she wants to be.
And when I remembered that book I realized what our activity was this month. We’re going to journal our trip.
So here’s my vacation journal for kids’ tips:
- Be flexible. Sometimes there won’t be much going on to write about.
- Look for field trips you can do. The Austins drove all over Canada and the Northern United States to many different landmarks because they could. On this trip we’ve seen: Arkansas state capital, the Parthenon, met friends, Fort Boonesborough, Kentucky Horse Park, random parts of Cincinnati, the Creation Museum, and who knows what else on our way home.
- Make all of it an adventure. If you think it’s all an adventure, then your trip will be a lot more fun.
- Give them a chance to share what they wrote, otherwise where’s the fun in writing?
What did I require for our vacation journals for my elementary kids?
They only had to write 1-3 sentences, and draw pictures of it, and sometimes it wasn’t sentences, sometimes it was charts or drawings. For older kids, I would probably require more, but this was more than sufficient, most of the learning is coming from what they are seeing and hearing. There’s not much need to add in extra schoolwork for the short term. If this is a long-term plan, then you’ll need more.
If you’re looking for some slightly more traditional transportation posts, here’s what we’ve done in the past:
We were “honored” to be a part of your travel plans- MAYBE we will even make the journal! ;0)
You bet you did!
My family is getting ready to go on a road trip, we might need to incorporate a vacation journal! Thanks for the idea! 🙂
I wish I had had Emma do this last summer!
I love the fort magic sets. I think my kids would particularly adore the airplanes.
I hope you can make some travel plans sometime that include Silicon Valley, so we can meet up!
I love your idea to journal a field trip. Your kids might enjoy Genius Files where there is a lot of action happening over a gigantic road trip. I have mixed feelings about this series (I think Dan Gutman could have done a lot more with his initial premise), but Smarty thought the books (four of them now) are wonderful. And, by the way, I subliminally took over your idea of Lego building for this theme 😀
Thanks for allowing me to share your post in my traveling with kids roundup. It will go live November 12th!