We’re about to travel cross country to California.  I grew up going on road trips, and my husband hates flying with a passion reserved for mortal enemies.  Most people would look on this concept with dread.  I’m looking forward to it.

 

Why you might ask?

 

Because think of the wonderful chance to learn we’ll have as we drive.

 

Learning Ideas For Road Trips

 

Audio Books

First, we’re going to be listening to audio books.  A great way to engage your audio learner.  Last year when we drove out to Williamsburg we listened to “Felicity, An American Girl,” set in Williamsburg.  When we arrived there the kids were so excited to actually see what we’d heard about, and were able to place it.  This time we’re going to listen to another American Girl CD set, but it’s unrelated to our destination, but they’ll pick up drips and drabs of history as we drive.

 Geography

Second, they’re getting another chance to learn about geography as we drive through four states during our trip.  They’ll see flatlands, mountains, and desert.  They’ll understand why it was so hard to travel all the way across the country in a covered wagon in a much more real way.

 National Landmarks

Third, our national landmarks.  Yes, that was a sentence fragment, but I wanted to emphasize it.  Our country is very culturally diverse, the more I travel and read the more I realize it.  As we drive through New Mexico we can stop and see some of the Spanish missions.  When we get to Arizona we can drive South to Tombstone and see the “Wild West.”  In California we can see a very different viewpoint from Texas (there are practically no steak places out there!).

 Museums

Finally, the museums.  Oh, the museums.  I LOVE museums, my honeymoon was spent going from museum to museum to ridiculously old historical building.  I was in heaven.  We’ve explored most of the museums in our area.  Traveling lets me see new museums, and I’m not talking about the big ones that get all the billboards.  No, it’s the little ones that often have the most interesting things.  As we drove through Louisiana two years ago we discovered a small local museum about World War 2.  We got to see uniforms, weapons, TANKS!  All of it was lovingly preserved by the local veterans.

 

I’m sure you’re wondering right now, how on earth do I find all of these little gems?

 Visitor Centers

You want to know my secret?  Lean in closer and I’ll tell you.  STOP AT EVERY VISITOR CENTER YOU SEE!  Especially the ones when you cross state lines.

Go in, introduce yourself, talk to the people there.  Ask about the traffic in the area.  They’ll tell you about upcoming road construction.  Tell them you’re homeschooling.  Often they’ll have special information for homeschoolers about their state.  As we traveled through Arkansas and stopped there I think I got 10 pounds of information from them, coloring books, state maps, information about different areas of interest, who was born there.  If you tell them what area you’re going through they’ll point out places you should go in particular.

That’s how I found out about the World War 2 museum.  That’s also how I found out about a dragon museum in Tennessee that’s been on my to go to list since I drove through there 6 years ago.

Of course keep your eye out for billboards, how else will I know to stop and see “The THING!” as we’re driving through Arizona on this trip.  I’m still trying to decide if that will be age appropriate, but I sure am curious after 20 billboards for it.

Did we take along a textbook?  No.  Did we learn amazingly a lot about our country without a single text book?  You better believe it!  Did my kids get to see and touch history and science?  You better believe it.  6 months later my daughter still pretends to be Felicity and shows me the lessons she learned from Williamsburg on how to be a proper lady.