I have a million reasons why I'm going to homeschool my kids, but at the very tip top of that list is that homeschooling can happen wherever we are.
Which is nice when you want to take a 3 week vacation across the country.
I knew that most of our time here would be spent with family and being on the go, but I was so excited that Josie is finally old enough for trips to be hands on educational experiences for her.
I was unbelievably lucky to find Musings Of Me's blog and find her State Passport Packs.
Right at the top of the contents?
We checked out books on Aztec Indians, Navajo Indians, The Grand Canyon, and Cacti the first week we were there and fit in the worksheets when we had down time at the house.
We were also able to turn quite a few of our day trips into educational trips.
We spent one morning at The Desert Botanical Gardens and learned so much about what grows in the desert.
Even I learned a lot that I didn't know. And being able to see them right in front of us really helped us retain what we learned.
We were also able to spend some time in the Butterfly Garden.
Josie loved identifying the butterflies. She wasn't able to hold still long enough for them to land on her, but she tried really hard!
That night we read our books on Cactus (or is it Cacti!?) and did a fun art project.
We also spent a day at the zoo.
The Phoenix Zoo lets you feed giraffes so while we waited in that line we came up with questions we would like to ask the Zoo Keeper about giraffes.
Josie came up with:
- Do giraffes sleep standing up? (yes)
- Do giraffes eat meat? (no)
- Do giraffes like to be pet? (no)
- How long is that giraffe's tongue? (15 inches)
When it was our turn she asked her questions and then pretty much forgot everything in the excitement of feeding Eyelash!
We also took Josie to a local production of Joseph And The Amazing Technicolor Dream Coat. She love, love, loved it!
The next day she found all my Mom's hats and scarfs and came up with these costumes to play Joseph at the house!
Just like anytime we are with any of the Grandparents, there was also a lot of puzzles and nature walks and reading.
Josie learned so much on this trip!
I love Homeschooling on the go!
I'd love to hear your reasons why you are home schooling. Do you have to follow the guidelines of your district when Josie is school age? Do you as the teacher have to pass any tests to prove you can teach the material they need to know (math, science etc) because I know if I tried to teach high school math my kid would be screwed!
ReplyDeleteLooks like so much fun!! I left my heart in Arizona years ago and LOVE to visit anytime I can. I'm glad your got to spend such a fun trip there! Who knew that Giraffe's had a 15 inch tongue? That's crazy. Learned something new today!
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