"By wisdom a house is built, and by understanding it is established; and by knowledge the rooms are filled with all precious and pleasant riches." ~Proverbs 24:3-4
Taking it on the Road: Fun for Homeschoolers Away From Home
If you go on a lot of road trips like we do, if you’re always running errands around town, or even if you only take a vacation once per year, you will love this book! Taking it on the Road by Lynda Coats is a must-have resource for any family that spends a lot of time in the car, not just for homeschoolers.
Taking it on the Road is a 25-page guide to making travel educational and fun no matter whether it’s a cross-country journey or a quick trip to grandma’s house. It will also come in handy whenever you’re stuck in a traffic jam on the freeway.
The downloadable e-book format is ideal because you can print one e-book to keep in the car and another for the RV or other vehicle. Then when a copy falls apart from overuse or gets lost on the road somewhere, you can simply print out a new one.
Taking it on the Road is packed with great things to do! I have always considered myself an expert at having plenty of tricks up my sleeve to keep the kids happily occupied while driving for long distances, but this guidebook contains some excellent suggestions that I hadn’t even thought of before.
Actually, the book is more like a curriculum supplement than a collection of travel games and activities. For example, you can study geography or roadside history or turn a stop at the gas pump into a math lesson. Children will exercise logic, practice valuable thinking skills, and even review information learned from other lessons.
Taking it on the Road contains a wide range of activities listed by subject area for all ages and levels, as well as many interactive ones that can be pursued by the while family together. Most of these activities can be done over and over again with different results, based on location or other factors.
Each activity in this book consists of a one paragraph description with recommended age level in parentheses. Most require no supplies except paper and pencil. Activities that do have special requirements are noted by an asterisk with the needed items listed in bold type.
The first part of Taking it on the Road explains how to use this book. The second section contains many activities listed by subject. The third section consists of additional activities specifically related to alternate modes of travel – trains, boats, and planes.
Chapters and topics include:
Bible and Character Training
1. Round Robin Verses
2. Who am I?
3. Bible Twenty Questions
4. I Challenge You
5. Memory Check
6. Music for the Heart
7. What If?
8. Bible Stories to Go
9. Pray Along the Way
10. Notice the Needs of Others
History, Geography, and Social Studies
1. Welcome Center Scavenger Hunt
2. Travel Brochures
3. Get a “Guided Tour”
4. I Know Where That Is
5. Geography Scrapbook
6. Get a Taste of Local Culture
7. Celebrate with the Locals
8. License Plate Geography
9. Car Tag Bingo
10. Trace the Trip
11. Put Yourself in Their Shoes
12. Roadside History
13. Whose Highway is It?
14. I Know Who That Is
15. Book Them All
16. Who am I?
17. History Twenty Questions
18. Check It Out
19. Step Back in Time
Language Arts
Alphabet and Phonics
1. Billboard Alphabet
2. Road Side Phonics
3. License Plate Alphabet
4. I’m Going on a Trip
Reading Skills and Good Books
1. Daily Read-Aloud Time
2. Listening to Good Books
3. Tour Guide of the Day
4. Read Up on It
5. Share your Ideas
Composition and Writing Mechanics
1. Writing for Information
2. Journey Journal
3. Postcards Home
Spelling and Vocabulary Development
1. What Exactly Does That Mean?
2. Make Something of It
Creative Thinking and Writing
1. State Anagrams
2. State Poetry
3. What’s Going on Here?
4. Heads in the Clouds
Arithmetic and Higher Math
1. Are We There Yet?
2. How Far is It?
3. All in a Day’s Drive
4. What Would the Tax Man Say?
5. More or Less
6. Money at the Pump
7. Miles to Metrics
8. Computing Your Cargo
Science
1. What Grows There?
2. Birds of a Feather
3. Running Wild
4. Preserve the Wildlife
5. Venture Off
6. It’s in the Stars
7. Climate Control
8. Higher and Lower
9. What Time is It Really?
10. The Late Night Sun
11. Take a Detour
12. How Do They Make That?
Trains, and Boats, and Planes
Riding the Rails
1. Enjoy the Adventure
2. The Conductor is Your Friend
3. What’s the Difference?
4. Keep a Sharp Eye Out
5. Put it All in Focus
6. Read All About It
On the Water
1. Check out What’s Offered
2. Time for the Family
3. Map It
4. Go Ashore
Fun if by Air
1. What’s the Best Way to Get There?
2. Take a Look Around
3. Up, Up and Away
4. What’s All This About?
5. Where Are We Anyway?
6. What’s Available up There?
7. What Are You Doing Here?
8. Take Your Time
9. Boy, That’s Fast!
All of the above topics are addressed in the most interesting and creative ways. Get this book and you will find yourself saying “Why didn’t I think of that?” Taking it on the Road will make you want to go for a drive just so you can do some of these activities! It's available as an instantly downloadable e-book for a special introductory price of only $7.95 at www.lyndacoats.com.
Lynda Coats, the author of Taking it on the Road, also wrote Far Above Rubies and Blessed is the Man. In addition, she has recently finished a historical fiction trilogy, Life with the Pony Express, as well as a new immersion phonics program, All the Letters, All Year Long. You can visit Lynda’s website at
www.lyndacoats.com and read her blog at www.homeschoolblogger.com/homeschoolruby.
L
K