Schooling on the Road: Making our Move Educational

Cor Iesu Academy is moving!  We are physically moving from the South to the North East!  We will be saying our good-byes to North Carolina next Monday and hello to Pennsylvania by Wednesday.  In those three short days we are going to travel through Virginia, West Virginia, and Maryland!  So in three days we would have been in five different states!  How awesome is that?

In preparation for this journey, I asked some Facebook friends on various groups such as Catholic Homeschoolers, Mustard Seed Catholic Moms, and, of course, Raising Little Saints for some great ideas!  I thought I'd share with everyone since they really were so fantastic.  Some of the great ideas we won't be able to do this time because of time constraints with getting into our new home and starting to set up just in time for Todd to start his wonderful new job.

So the to ideas.  I'm creating lapbook/folders per child (yep even the 22 month old, so he doesn't feel left out) with the following printables:

1.  Map of the entire USA with Postal abbreviations (on this one I plan to have them color in all the states we have traveled through since moving out of Florida back in 2008):

My friend, Heather, suggested this for my 3 year old and the 22m: "I would highly consider making a "Dora" type map showing them the stopping points that you will go to. Have one of the older kids help them navigate it. This was a huge hit when my son was in that age bracket. Your 5 year old might enjoy it too."  (I'm working on these for the little ones, thanks my friend!
2.  Fun Facts of each state (these maps which I found on crayola.com - thanks to Cristina! - have the state flower, state insect, when statehood occurred, state capital, bird, and the flag with details on how to color it):

• North Carolina
• Virginia
• West Virginia
• Maryland
• Pennsylvania

3.  Create a Travel "Passport" for the journey. (I made this into a Google Document to share with you). It was easy to create using MicroSoft Publisher, all images are from there.)  Feel free to recreate for your use.  :)

4.  Scrapbook Collecting: We plan to scrapbook the trip. Each kid has a shoe box to collect free maps/pamplets at rest stops. Also in their shoe box is a pen, scissors, glue stick, slips of paper for descriptions & mini-photo album. They can use this as a springboard for their journal or collect leaves, map their journey, ticket stubs, etc. Since we are crossing state borders, we are going to stop at the informational point as you leave YOUR state (for memorabilia - a last map, etc) and then at each new state as you enter. You can get great info about the state there and often free booklets on local attractions, etc. Also doing "I-Spy" picture taking of signs. {Thanks Jennifer for this great idea!)

That's it!  For now at least.  As I keep packing, I'm sure I'll think of more ideas.  :)  If you have more ideas for me, please fell free to leave a comment.  If you loved these ideas, also tell me how much you liked them or if you can think of another way to do it, please share!  Thanks for looking.