• About
  • Contact Us
  • PR and Advertising
  • Privacy and Disclosures
    • Facebook
    • Instagram
    • Pinterest
    • Twitter

Ben and Me

  • Home
  • Homeschool
    • Notebooking Across the USA
    • Homeschool Curriculum
    • Delight-Directed Learning
    • Unit Studies
    • Reviews
      • Curriculum Reviews
      • Product Reviews
  • Parenting
    • ADHD
    • Heart Parenting — a 10-part series based on The Christian Parenting Handbook
  • Essential Oils
    • 10 Best Essential Oils for Everyday Use
    • Essential Oil Recipes
  • Faith
  • Travel
    • Field Trips
      • Kentucky
      • Indiana
      • Florida
      • Washington DC

Make Your Other Emails Jealous

Receive our newsletters and special promotions

You are here: Home / Field Trips / How to Homeschool When Traveling + 10 Ways to Learn in the Car
I make commissions for purchases made through links in this post. For more information please see our disclosures page.

How to Homeschool When Traveling + 10 Ways to Learn in the Car

Please share!
Facebook
Twitter
Pinterest

You may have noticed over the years that we doing a little bit of traveling. Having a husband who travels a lot for work can be challenging on family dynamics, but homeschooling allows us to take advantage by taking our homeschool on the road. While this is a tremendous blessing, it takes some careful planning so that the traveling does less interrupting of homeschooling and instead, enriches it. 

After about 8 years of traveling up to 12 weeks during the year, here are some tips and ideas I have discovered for how to homeschool when traveling. 

How to Homeschool When Traveling -- After about 8 years of traveling up to 12 weeks during the year, here are some tips and ideas I have discovered for how to homeschool when traveling.

 

Discover the area history

State parks, the homes of historical figures, war sites, pioneer villages, state capitols, even old cemeteries can contain literally hundreds of years of historical significance — plan field trips to one or more of them. These field trips can provide for amazing learning opportunities, as well as many rabbit trails. Here’s a list of 20 field trip ideas. 

State Unit Studies

If you have time to begin a study of the state or states you will visit, that’s great, But even if you don’t, go ahead an gather maps, library books, DVDs,  and/or online links to take with you. You can even create a notebook or lapbook filled with information about the state’s natural resources, geographical treasures, native plants and animals, state map and state flag.  Visit my unit study series: Notebooking Across the USA and Washington DC: A Comprehensive Resource List.

Biographical Sketches

Learn who the famous people are from the area where you’ll be visiting. See if you can find a biography of the person to read aloud on the road. For your older kids, do a literary analysis of the book, focusing on the character traits of this person. If there are homesteads or libraries centered on them, take a field trip. 

Food Connections

Most states (and some cities) are famous for some kind of food dish — find out what the local favorite is where you’re visiting and  find a restaurant that serves it! The book, Eat Your Way Through the USA, is awesome if you’re looking for ideas. 

Core Subjects

To keep up with the core subjects, be sure to bring along a backpack with math textbooks, notebooks, paper, pens and pencils, current reading list book and anything else you might need to keep on track with the 3Rs. 

 10 Ways to Learn in the Car -- car time is a great time for learning. Here are some ideas to get you started!

 

 

10 Fun Car Traveling Activities for Kids

iPad or Kindle Fire loaded with apps. Download my 115 Free Educational Apps for iPad or 80 Free Educational Apps for Kindle Fire

Audio Books or Radio Theatre. Learn the benefits to character of listening to radio theatre. Our whole family enjoys Adventures in Odyssey and The Chronicles of Narnia. 

Learning Wrap Ups. This is a great way to drill math facts and keep hands busy.

Load your Kindle with great books for kids. Here’s a list of more than 175 free Kindle books for kids and 170 Kindle Books for Homeschool Education

If you have a portable DVD player, bring it along with some DVDs to watch (don’t forget the headphones). This is the one we have. A laptop computer will work, too. 

Sketch pads and colored pencils will keep most kids busy for hours.

Car games are great fun and make the time pass more quickly! Some of our favorites include:

  •  20 Questions: One person thinks of a famous person, place or thing. Everyone else is allowed to ask the player 20 questions which can only be answered ‘yes’ or ‘no.’ Whoever guesses correctly becomes the next person to think of something.
  • The Alphabet Game: Take turns working through the alphabet thinking of a word that starts with a specific letter. We do this by topic — animals, vegetables, fruits, famous people, movies, books, etc. 
  • Story Telling:  One passenger starts a story with a single sentence. Then the next person adds a sentence. Continue until you build a complete story.
  • Memory Game: The first person says “A is for —” filling in the blank with any word beginning with the letter A, such as “apple.” The second person comes up with a word for the letter B, such as “book,” but must also repeat the “A” word: “A is for apple, B is for book.” Continue through the alphabet, each person taking several turns and reciting more and more letters and words. By the time you reach the letter Z, that player will recite the whole alphabet and its corresponding words. If you have younger kids, allow them to work in teams with the older ones.

Keep an eye out for license plates from different states. Print out this free license plate bingo page to keep track of the ones you see.

Have you seen Kinetic Sand? I know, you’re cringing at the thought of sand in your car, but this stuff is cool and it only sticks to itself — no mess. Bring some along in a plastic storage box for some hands-on creative fun. Here’s a video if you’re not convinced: 

The book, Carschooling, by Diane Flynn Keith and  is a plethora of ideas for even more learning activities. Our library carries it and I think we’ve probably checked it out more than 25 times over the years!

What other ideas do you have for homeschooling on the road? 

***

If you found this article helpful, you might also enjoy Travel Is Our Favorite Way to Homeschool!

Travel Is Our Favorite Way to Homeschool

 

Please share!
Facebook
Twitter
Pinterest

Field Trips// Homeschool// Travel1 Comment

« Jesus Through the Eyes of Isaiah
Does Your Child Have the Edison Trait? »

Welcome

Disclosure

Ben and Me is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to amazon.com. This site contains links from a number of other affiliate programs as well. If you click on these links and make a purchase, I may receive a commission. This does not cost you any more, and it helps cover costs associated with running the website. I am very picky about the products I recommend and the companies I support. I never recommend a product I would not use myself.

Copyright © 2022 · Savory theme by Restored 316

Copyright © 2022 · Savory Theme on Genesis Framework · WordPress · Log in

×