Rachel Kokensenski offers a wealth of creative and practical tips and ideas that homeschoolers can implement in their family travels in the following guest post:
Children who go to school at home can benefit greatly from traveling with their parents and siblings. Educational trips can add untold advantages to a basic homeschooling curriculum, enhance children’s learning in all areas, and build strong family ties all at the same time. Here are twenty ways that homeschoolers can benefit from educational travel.
PLANNING A TRIP
1. Children can learn to set goals.
2. Map reading skills are encouraged.
3. Library and online research about possible destinations becomes highly motivational.
4. Creating and following a vacation budget teaches financial accountability.
5. Organization and planning are developed through packing for a trip.
WHILE TRAVELING
6. Skills with charts and graphs are enhanced by reading airline and train schedules.
7. Teamwork is encouraged through getting the whole family on the road or aboard the plane.
8. Regular homework can be done during the trip.
9. Children can keep a journal of their travels, which develops writing skills.
WHEN VISITING ATTRACTIONS
10. Students can create a list of questions they want to have answered through their visit.
11. Science museums and displays will suggest topics for further research and experimentation at home.
12. Historical sites will give a personal feel to subjects covered in textbooks.
13. Viewing quality works of art or professional music, drama, and dance performances will build appreciation for fine arts.
14. Visiting new cultures will broaden a child’s understanding of citizenship and provide motivation for learning a second language.
AFTER RETURNING HOME
15. Regular homeschool assignments can build on information and experiences gleaned through traveling.
16. Students can outline and condense the knowledge they gained into a report or presentation to be shared with relatives or friends.
17. Practical math lessons can be devised centering on miles traveled, fuel used, money spent, etc.
18. Homeschoolers can find creative outlets by writing a song, play, poem, or other piece that tells about their trip.
19. Older students can become mentors to younger children by teaching them about their newfound knowledge.
20. Family members can share their memories with each other for years to come.
These are just a few of the many advantages that educational travel can provide for homeschoolers. If you try it with your family, you are sure to come up with many more benefits yourself.
Author Rachel Kokosenski, Co-Founder of Travel 2 Educate: With a background deeply rooted in the love of learning inspired by her parents in her childhood, Ms. Kokosenski believes that educational travel is vital to the learning and development of children. Through combining common practices, hands-on knowledge, and cultural enrichment early in life as part of growth process, Ms. Kokosenski is devoted to helping parents plant the seed of the love of learning early in their children. Using the specially designed research and planning tools of Travel 2 Educate, Ms. Kokosenski strives to construct an easy-to-use and easy-to-access information platform for homeschool parents.