Vicarious Traveling

One of the many things that I love about homeschooling is that you can take real life happenings, and, with just a bit of effort, bump it up a notch into a meaningful learning experience.  That's what we're doing these days, as Ryan and Sarah and the children travel across the United States on the way to their new home.  

The most learning takes place when interest is piqued.  And interest in the geography of the United States is keen right now, which is why it's the perfect opportunity for some US geography lessons! 

• We have pulled some US geography books from our shelves.  
• There is a map of the US lying about for reference.   
• We have printed a US map from Uncle Josh's Outline Map Book so that Bekah can mark their route.  
• Bekah spent some time on MapQuest this week, typing in beginning and ending points and all the planned stops in between, and then printed a detailed map of their journey.  
• We have learned about the borders of different time zones, as our travelers have crossed from one to another.  

These are all simple activities, but my student is learning a lot.  You gotta love it when learning is so natural!

My blog friend Vee introduced me to Tagxedo, a "word cloud" web site.  What fun!  So I typed in my blog's url, and (of course) I made a word cloud to accompany the theme of our thoughts this week.  

Our armchair traveling is easy peasy!  

I only wish it was so for our real travelers.  But the Lord is going before them, and we continue to pray for His mercy.