Roadschooling East to West Coast

Lately it has been my desire to do more roadschooling – traveling with the intent of learning while we’re on the go. This summer I GET TO DO JUST THAT – in an EPIC way for us. We are moving from the East Coast to the West Coast. And we’re taking three weeks to make the drive. 18 states! 21 days! What better time to get some schooling in than during the hours that we’ll be driving AND with all the sites that we’ll be passing.

I took several months to plan out the curriculum. Naturally, the places we’ll be going to and the experiences they’ll have will provide a lot of education in and of themselves. I wanted to make sure, though, that we were getting specific subjects in as we traveled. To do this, I mind mapped what I was sure I wanted them to learn. I then spent lots of time online compiling information, finding worksheets to use, and creating my own.

Here are the things we’re working on:

• I created a “daily page” that would work on each day. It includes copywork, some math work (deals with our gas each day),
• I created a state page for each state we’ll be driving through. The girls have to find the state tree, flower, and bird, the motto, the date of statehood, the number of electoral votes, etc. We’re going to try to taste local food from each place we go, so there’s also a place for them to record the food they tried.
• They’re going to journal on most days about what they did and what their favorite parts of the day were.
• We’re also going to learn about:
  • the earth’s layers
  • the continents and oceans
  • the countries of North America
  • the 50 states
  • the 5 biomes of the earth
  • the 8 eco-regions of the USA
  • the water cycle
  • the rock cycle and rock identification
  • caverns and bats
  • the Grand Canyon
  • the Hoover Dam

The girls each have an atlas so they can plot our progress and learn about the states. They’ve got a map to mark off license plates that they see. They’ve got some grammar pages to work on each day. We’ve got audio books to listen to. And, of course, we have the Barbies.

WHEW! It seems overwhelming and I’m not sure how it’s all going to actually pan out. I hope to document each day as we go along. The key is to be flexible and know that, even if we don’t get everything covered that I had planned they still ARE learning.

Pictures are coming soon of our school bins, folders, and days!