| Co-operative home schooling, which brings a number of
families together to share the work in educating their children, helps
somewhat but home schooled children still, may not experience the
plethora of mental stimuli experienced by their more traditionally
schooled counterparts. One way to ensure that your child has access to
these stimuli is to pack up your
motor home and hit the road.
Math Class
As you head down the highway in
your one room school house on wheels, opportunities for teaching
abound. In addition to the regular daily lesson plan, you can
incorporate trip specific lessons into the daily work. For example,
the math lesson begins when you stop at the neighborhood filling
station to top off your tank. Consult the owners’ manual of your
motor home and find out the
capacity in gallons of your fuel tank. If age and grade appropriate
have your young student convert this measurement from gallons to
liters. For younger children, a fun activity is to let them watch the
pump through the
RV window and
count the gallons or even tenths of gallons that pour into your
motor home's fuel tank. Of course with the
current price of gasoline, this activity will be much more fun for
them than for you.
Once you’ve filled your tank, get
out the map and sit with your student to study your route. Consult
your
motor home's manual again and
find how many miles per gallon you can expect to get. Help your young
student compose a formula to find how far down the planned route
you’ll be able to travel before your
motor home requires fuel again. You can help
your child use the map to help navigate as you travel along. Plan a
side trip at the spur of the moment. Ask your child to tell you how
this side trip will affect your timetable and fuel bill?
History Lessons
Plan your trip so that you follow an
historical route. Follow the
Trail of Tears
maybe the
Oregon Trail. Travel
the dusty path the
cowboys rode in cattle drives
from
Texas
to
Dodge City,
Kansas. If you’ve got the
time, follow the route of
Lewis and Clark or,
explore the vast expanse of the Louisiana Purchase. What ever path you
choose to follow, make sure you have plenty of supplemental materials
for your young student to study. Many
motor home parks have high speed internet
available to their campers. At the end of each day, have your child
connect to the Internet and gather information about the history of
the places you’ve visited.
Social Studies
Take a trip through Appalachia. Venture some
distance from the Interstate into the heart of some small town. Stop at a
small store or local diner. Observe the people who live and work there.
Listen to their accents or, eavesdrop on a conversation. There is no
better way to discover how other people live than to explore these
microcosms of America. You might even want to contact local parents who
also home school their children and arrange a visit to learn more about
each other and compare home school curriculums.
Other Destinations
Many home schooling co-operatives
hold events at various
motor home parks to compare and refine home
school curriculums and provide new experiences for their home schooled
students. An Internet search for these home school meet ups will yield
many entertaining and informative events. If you choose to make one of
these trips, be prepared to have a good time and be sure to bring your
favorite covered dish.
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