I was brought up with homeschool, and I have very fond memories of taking trips around the world. Not in real life, but on paper.
First, we chose where we wanted to go. It could be anywhere—the sky was the limit. My favorite trip was to England. Then we would get a book about that place and decide what we wanted to see while we were there. Now, with the advent of the Internet, you don’t even need to go to the library—all the information is on your home computer.
After we decided where we were going, we’d think about how we’d pack. What would we take with us? My mom received a ton of clothing catalogs in the mail, so we’d sit down and pick out what we’d take with us. We’d cut out the pictures and glue them onto sheets of paper. Now, I should point out that I grew up in a family of girls. Boys might not enjoy this part of the process, but my sisters and I loved it.
The next step was to start writing everything down. What time did our flight leave? How long were we in the air? What were we wearing, and what did we see? For example:
“I woke up at six o’clock so I could be on time to catch my 11:00 flight to New York. I wore my new blue dress (page one) and sandals (page three). My flight lasted three hours, and I saw fields of corn over the Midwest. Then there was a three-hour layover in New York while I waited for my flight to London.”
By using the Internet, you can find out what restaurants are in the airports, what flight path the airplane will take, what times all the museums are open—you can make your report as detailed as you want. You can even find pictures of all the art galleries and pretend you really are there … wearing the pants from page two and the shirt from page six.
Doing an exercise like this covers many aspects of your child’s education. They are learning world geography. They are learning how to use the Internet for research. They learn art appreciation, if they visit museums in those countries. They can learn about the culture of the place they are visiting. They are writing everything down in story form, so it’s a fantastic English lesson. And because they are choosing where they will go, what they will see, and what they will eat and wear while they are there, it’s like the best game of pretend ever.
I believe I wore a pink satin dress when I went to Buckingham Palace …
Related Blogs:
Don’t Know Much about Geography?
Learning Unit – Japan and Natural Disasters
A Whole World Curriculum – Learning about Other Lands and People