While there’s a lot of travel activity books out there that we could have purchased for the kids to work on during our fall road trip, I asked K to create custom activity books for the kids.

Why?

Because I wanted to reinforce specific skills and not bring a whole library with us.  And because I wanted a solid set of activities that fit their abilities and interests.

So last week, K set out into cyberspace, as part of her schoolwork (think technology and research skills), to hunt down worksheets, coloring pages, and other activities that would appeal to each of her siblings and herself. And put them together into custom trvel activity books.

She used 3 prong folders, color coded to each child, and filled them with similar activities, but customized for each child’s interests and abilities.  Here’s quick video she did (also part of her schoolwork), sharing with you the fruit of her labor.

But just in case you can’t watch the video, here’s a few pictures of the activity books she created:

She put maps of the United States on the outside and one on the inside so that they can color the states we drive through, as we drive through them. And so it is easier for the kids to visually where we are in our journey.

Inside, there’s age appropriate mazes. You should see the mazes she found for her and J. They are very cool and very complex. I’d like to give them a try.

And then at my request there’s a little math work in here. Can’t let that go too long. So she add math facts worksheets and Sudoku pages in each book, just enough to have one per day.

And then of course she added some dot-to-dot and coloring pages, keeping them customized to each person’s interests. So Z’s book has a lot of military items, while Little E has more than a few princesses! J’s has knights and medieval theme, while K found some mandalas for her to color.

And when she was done, we hid the activity books in my desk, so that the others didn’t know about them and couldn’t flip through them until it was time to pack up the trip activity backpacks.

Once the kids packed up their activity backpacks, K and I revealed their surprise. Lots of ooos and ahhhs as they flipped through, looking at all the things she had picked out for them to do on the road trip. Z even started tracing out one maze before we got them packed away.

So now the kids have plenty of variety to keep them company on the trip, something new to discover in their own backpacks, and K got more than a few schoolwork hours in putting together the travel activity books for everyone.

And she discovered that she really likes doing this type of work – bonus!

Last week Bobbie asked me about the Bob Books and what we use to teach reading. Now if you’ve been following along with these Learning to Read posts, you know that so far I have two voracious readers who came to reading relatively late, one flourishing beginning reader, and one struggling dyslexic, soon to be reader.

Over the last 10 years, I’ve looked at and tried out a lot of different reading materials, and I’ve pulled what works for us and our learning styles from a variety of sources. At this point, I’m pretty comfortable with teaching reading and have complete confidence that even my struggling reader will eventually love to read.

One of the books that helped K and I break through her barriers was Reading Reflex combined with a set of plastic letter tiles.

I since have used the techniques taught in Reading Reflex with all the children, even Z. And those lessons that I’ve done with Z from this book, have stuck the best with him.

Our favorite and most effective exercises from this book are the auditory processing exercises that teach specific sounds and how blending them in different ways creates new and different words.

Combining the use of plastic letter tiles with a small segment of sounds that make up a variety of different words, we engage mind, body, and senses to learn how words are made.

We start out with a pile of letter tiles, from which I have the child choose the specific tiles (“sound pictures”) we need for the exercise

Next, from that small set of sounds, I ask the child to create the first word on my list:

Then from there, I say, “now, let’s turn ‘Sat’ into ‘pat’” and the child figures out which sound needs to change to create the new word. And this goes on through our list of words.

Then we do our final words, which usually end up swapping out the middle or last sound, so they further see how changing around sounds comes up with completely new words.

And then to end it off, I have the child put the letter tiles away, and we have a game for that too. But this has been a very effective way to teach phonological sounds, CVC words, and word structure.

This is but one exercise from Reading Reflex, and definitely our favorite. If you are looking for a way to further explain reading to a kinesthetic learner, or one that focuses better if they can move, this is a wonderful exercise.

As we have been preparing for the Fall Road Trip, there’ been a few things we’ve needed to pick up. And K reminded me that there was a few things she wanted to invest in for Jazzy.

Since our last major road trip in 2009, K has done more research about traveling with a dog. And of course she learned a few lessons just from bringing Jazzy along last time – like towards the end of the last day, Jazzy is just as ready to get out of the car as everyone else.

So this week we headed off to a big box pet store to look at the item that K had researched. She had a limited budget, and a specific shopping list. The first up was a auto safety harness.

Personally I had no idea that they even existed. But now that she has one, it’s a pretty neat idea. Basically it’ a dog halter that clips onto a short leash like thing that attaches to the seat belt. So if we have to slam on the brakes, Jazzy won’t go flying.

But in looking through the selection at the pet store, I was unimpressed with the pricing. Even though K was paying, I still wanted her to get the best deal. So, the outing turned into a lesson in personal finance, and different ways to comparison shop online vs. offline.

Since the pricing in the store was more than the pricing she had seen online from the same pet store, she agreed and we picked up only a few things from her list. Items that she felt were worth it.

But of course being that it is close to the holidays there were a few temptations, like trying to convince me that Jazzy needs snow boots for the trip

Look Mom, They're so cute!

 Sorry, not happening. But if she wants to buy them, that’s her choice.

But one of the reason I enjoy shopping with my kids is that it offers up these abilities to discuss practical real life situations. Like when is it a good price, or even if it is on sale, that doesn’t mean it’s the best use of our funds.

These are good lessons, and really good ones to learn early, and often. I hope by taking the time to shop with the kids and discuss purchasing options, they will become wiser stewards of their money than I was, and learn the lessons earlier and on an easier slope than I had to.

And in case you are wondering, I said no to the Christmas stocking too. She’ll have to save up for it, if she really thinks Jazzy needs it.

The life of a homeschooler looks different for each family. Each family has its own routines. Some are more relaxed, others are very scheduled, and then there are those who are in between.

Here we are a mix,depending on whether it’s a full school day, light school day, or unschooling day. Today at our house it’s a light schoolwork day, with a play date, and a bunch of errands schedule. Plus a couple key deadlines looming this week for me.  So what does our day look like?

Since I needed the car today, my day started at 6:15 to take my husband to the mass transit bus stop. Instead of going back to bed like I normally do, I decided to take the quiet time to get in some extra work and mapped out some thoughts for a coaching client.

As the kids started waking up, we talked, laughed, and spent some time together. Everyone was up by 8:30, which is very unusal for us. Usually my morning risers are up by 8:30, while K is usually up later because she and I stay up much later at night. But today it is necessary to be up and going much earlier in order to meet the commitments of the day.

This morning K made biscuits for breakfast, while I worked and answered questions from Little E and Z. J and K then started in on their chores and schoolwork.

K is on trip preparation duty for schoolwork this week, so she’s gathering things up and prepping things for me, and helping me with some adminstrative details.  As a teenager, one day soon she’ll be doing this all on her own, so part of her education is to be proficient in all the things that go into putting together a road trip and running a household. All this goes under the category of Home Economics, entrepenuership, personal finance, and technology.

J is working on Fractions, reading, writing, and later will listen to an audio book while doing his chores. Plus he also has responsibilities in preparing for the road trip. Just not as many as K does.

Z and Little E and I will work on their reading a little later this morning. But right at this very moment they are watching Go Diego Go rescue some animals while I write to you. Both are studying animals, and I’m not really up for Animal Planet this morning (Little E’s favorite TV privelege!). So Deigo is a good compromise for TV Schoolwork.

Lunch is in the refrigerator defrosting. About 11:30 I’ll go down and get that going, after I get all the kids through their baths.  During bath time, I’ll be working on some client work.

Around noon, I’ll ask the olders to start gathering up the library materials that we need to return, and remind K to renew anything that needs to be renewed. She does a great job as my libary assistant, and helps keep our library fines down and me on track with library visits.

We have a playdate with friends we haven’t seen in a while scheduled for this afternoon. Between their schedule and ours, especially since we are both WAHMs, sometimes it’s hard to get a visit in, so we’re looking forward to visiting in person.

After that it’ll be the libary visit, and then a stop off at the bank to take care of the weekly banking.

It’ll be a early dinner tonight. I’ll get that going and leave it for K to finish off while I go pick up my husband. Then we’ll be back to eat and get the kids ready to head off to youth group and AWANAs. While J, Little E, and Z are off at church, K and I will go do the grocery shopping for the Fall Road Trip.

Then it’s family time and then bed time at 10. I’ll talk with Greg, squeeze in another 2 or more hours of work, while K listens to her audio book and has her quiet time.

And then tomorrow begins another day, with different, at-home all day, schedule. But that’s part of balancing life as a work-at-home, homeschooling mom and staying sane – creating a schedule that works for you.

…Shannon

P.S. As you can see K plays an important role in keeping my life balanced. It is part of her education, her training, but it is also something we pay her a small salary for. A couple years ago, when she started taking over some of the work her daddy used to do and doing it well with a good attitude, we decided then that she should be compensated for it, and that works out well for both her and I.

So, I realized last week that I announced it’s time for a family road trip, I forgot to tell you where we are going – sorry!

Well, I guess I did tell you we are going to visit my mom in Oregon, and that’s how planning for this trip started. But in the process of trying to figure out how to get there, whether to fly or to drive, we discovered that my husband actually did have enough vacation time for us to take a road trip – and we can afford a road trip, while flying was outside of our budget. So, the trip took on another dimension.

The Route for the Fall Road Trip

Now, we are going to Oregon for four days, but on the way there we’ll be taking a side trip to the Grand Canyon.

And on the way back, we’ll stopping in one day in the Humboldt County, California (where I grew up), and then we’ll also be stopping off in Denver to visit my brother and sister-in-law.

In all, it will be over 5500 miles in less than 16 days, driving through eight states.

From a homeschool perspective, the built-in educational aspects are huge. It’s like a giant field trip. Just thinking about the biomes we’ll be goin through, wow. We’ll be visiting deserts, mountains, beaches, temperate rainforests (Redwood forest), marshlands, and that’s just from the top of my head. 

I won’t even get into all the literature, math, science and hstiory we’ll be immersed in on this trip. You should see the pile of audio books the kids have picked out to listen to. It’s huge!

It’s one giant adventure, and I hope you’ll come along. Not only will I be posting periodic updates here on Living Life at Home, but I have also moved my old Travels with Kids blog over to Wordpress and resurrected it at FunFamilyRoadTrips.com, so that our family and friends (that includes you ) can follow along the journey.

So come along with us – heck if you are homeschooling feel free to get your kids involved and follow along and make it fun part of your homeschooling too 

Planning and prep is in full swing now. The actual adventure begins in one week!