Friday, February 03, 2006

Traveling School

Today we start packing and planning for our "business trip." We will be driving to Gulf Shores, AL tomorrow and will spend the night. Sunday we will finish the trip to Orlando. Traveling with hubby used to be easier before we had so many animals. So far, I have found someone to come over and feed the cats, found someone to keep the yellow dog, have yet to find someone to feed and check the horses, cows and chickens. Staying at home would be easier.

I am not so deluded to think that my children will want to "do" school when we are in Orlando, but I thought we might pack some of our reading for the trip down and for bed time stories. My 9 year old is reading On the Banks of Plum Creek. The family read aloud selection is The Strand installment from the Sherlock Holmes project. The youngest will bring her readers. I am bringing Haruki Murakami's Kafka on the Shore. I started it last night and I have never left a half finished book anywhere. I will also let each child bring a few other books, but I refuse to lug The Complete Calvin and Hobbs (3 volumes) that my son will want to bring.

Having a captive audience during the 15 hour drive, I could torture everyone with math facts or Latin pronunciation and conjugation that I have conveniently stored on my Ipod. Would I sink that low? Possibly. The only other things I will bring are the How Come? and How Come? Planet Earth books. Long drives bring out the questions I can't answer.

I am making bread and granola for the trip. We will have picnic lunches and breakfasts instead of fast food. The children and adults need a stretch of the legs rather than a stretch of the stomach. I know there will be plenty of opportunity for junk food without planning for it.

Off to the packing!

2 comments:

Henry Cate said...

We've found that tapes or CDs can keep children happy for several hours. We've listened to Susan Wise Bauer's "Story of the World" series several times. We've also listened to Odyssey, and other stories.

We find that variety helps. A couple hours of tapes, a couple hours of reading, a couple hours of drawing, and maybe even an hour or two of talking.

Good luck with your trip.

DavidofOz said...

Have you tried audio books? In addition to the options of iPods, CDS or free audio on line, you can borrow some from the library. Our children really enjoy listening to lots of great books.
It makes long drives much easier (and useful).
We actually look forward to long trips now!