Now that we are officially on the road full time, I thought an update about our current homeschool activities was appropriate. If you recall, our beginning was a little rocky, but I feel like the kids have now gotten into a routine. Some days Andrew will wake up and be done with his workbooks before breakfast, other days they are both still stumbling along well after lunch. For the most part though, we get through their workbooks and assignments fairly quickly and move on to the more exciting aspect of schooling while on the road; the field trips. Remember how as kid you had maybe 1-3 field trips per year? Field trip days were the most exciting, the most anticipated days of the year (for most I suppose, I’m sure there was the student in every class that would rather stay at a desk all day. That was definitely not me). We probably do 1-3 field trips per WEEK. I love it. I feel like my kids get so much more hands on experience, and while I feel sometimes that I’m not doing enough, or that I’m not doing the right things, we have moments where I feel like this, this is exactly perfect for them.
For instance, we were at the Museum of Life and Science in Durham, North Carolina and I had a moment with Andrew. We desperately wanted to get to the butterfly hall in order to see the release of new butterflies (occurs at set times once or twice daily) so we raced past an old train caboose that you could go inside and explore. It was bright red and looked really old. Andrew turned to me and said, “Mom? I really want to come back and go in there.”
“Why?” I said.
“Because the kids that are coming out of there are smiling. So it must be fun and I want to go inside and check it out.”
I about died of happiness right there. My cute little 6 year old had made the cognitive link between smiling children exiting a play structure and that because they were smiling it was probably a really cool place. Not only had he made the link in his brain, but he verbally expressed it to me quite clearly.
Maybe these types of moments happen all the time in public school? I’m not sure, because I’m not there to see them. It makes me happy to see my kids make connections between various places we visited or talked about in books. I feel in a small way, maybe we are doing okay. Our learning opportunities are different from what a regular school provides, but I feel like it better fits what my kids need.
We played. We rode bikes. We built secret forts among the palm trees and Spanish Moss. We didn’t work enough because we were too busy swapping stories at the playground. We love to hear the background and details behind other traveling families. Everyone has their reasons and goals but almost always you can find similarities.
On this holiday of Thanksgiving, we have much to be grateful for. We love our family, our faith, and our friends. We also feel very grateful for this opportunity to restructure and re-prioritize our activities and circumstances in pursuit of a simpler life.
Peak Design offers two different camera clip systems: The Capture and The Capture Pro. I’ve used both and like them equally. I’m not known to carry around a tripod, but the Pro version does have a solid aluminum construction that makes it more durable for carrying around heavy equipment. If you do a lot of tripod work, you actually have different options for the PROplate that can work directly with your tripod system. Peak Design also has a Lens Capture if you switch out your lenses frequently and one for binoculars as well.
At the park today, there are 3 viewing platforms a short walk from the visitors center where you can see the majestic falls. There are picnic areas, exhibits, and nature trails to explore the ruins of both Matildaville (the town that grew up to support the Potowmac Canal company who was building the locks), and the locks themselves.
When we arrived, we picked up our Junior Ranger Books at the Visitor Center Front desk and were off! One of my favorite things about the Junior Ranger program is the direction it gives to your visit. You are not aimlessly wandering around, but have a purpose and even as an adult, I learn so much while helping my kids with their activities. This Junior Ranger booklet is perfect. It is designed to be completed in about an hour, is very laid out in order if you follow their map, and was not too difficult even for my 5 year old. Just be careful. The map inside the Jr. Ranger book is not quite to scale and we ended up hiking an extra mile or so along a path until we realized we had to backtrack. Luckily it was beautiful, so it wasn’t all bad. We were just hungry as this was pre-lunch. Make sure to grab a “real” map from the Visitor Center as well. 🙂
We had packed in a picnic lunch and enjoyed a break from our booklet while we ate on one of the many picnic tables provided. The time of year was also perfect. Fall had just started to come to Virginia, the leaves were turning, the air was crisp, and our day couldn’t have been more perfect. We spent about 2.5 hours at the park from 10:30am until about 1pm.