Upcoming...

 

Those that know us, know that we are always on the road, we love to explore and visit and learn about new people and place. I truly believe that I have ants in my pants...I cannot sit still and I must always be on the move, this must be why homeschooling works so well for me. We have been planning out east coast trip for so long, I feel as though we are expecting to do too much on this trip, but I would rather have too much planned, than not enough! We plan on hitting up 7 states along with a jaunt in Canada, this should definitely be quite the learning experience! I am still finishing up the Learning While Away series I started, but wanted to let you know about this trip as well. These are both segments of the blog that will be taking up quite a bit of time and most likely be intersecting. The first series will touch about how we learn while on vacation and the second will take place on the road with more live action shots out of the classroom, not so much of the preparing portion. The second series will be called On the Road to Learning: A homeschoolers guide to hands on learning.

Last week was a total wash as we were busy from sun up to sun down, it was FAIR WEEK! As 4-H kids, they were plenty busy! I am proud to say that  of 7 projects entered into the fair, we had 7 blue ribbons and even 1 class winner! Not bad for 3 kids in their first 6 months of being 4-H members! They have high hopes for this year and I am very excited for this new branch of our life that we have fallen in love with. I plan to share more about our 4H life, but if you are interested, PLEASE message me or contact your local branch, you do NOT have to be a farm kid to join 4H!!! I was always so wrong about this group and only wish that I hadn't missed out on the previous years of this. Some parents in our group are former 4H members themselves, it's awesome!! The fair has packed up and left town yesterday, so now I am ready to get back on focus!

 

These travel segments take a lot of time, planning and research and I really want to share so much of them with you, I only hope you can bear with me as I get everything organized and try not to mix up the 2 segments I will be sharing. There are countless trips to the library, so many that our lack of presence was actually noticed in the library while in Mexico! I try not to buy what I can find at the library, and that has helped me save plenty of pretty travel pennies! This upcoming trip promises to be quite the undertaking! Not only are we driving, but we plan on stopping and seeing things in each state, from Illinois to New York with plenty of stops in between! From Philadelphia to Niagara Falls in Canada and then going home through Canada and down Michigan and back home again...oh the excitement is unbearable, but I can even admit that we are NOT ready to leave yet, too many loose ends to tie up and too many things left to plan!!

Enjoy every minute of it my friends! My notebooks are bursting and my pencil tips keep breaking, I have too much to write and not enough time to plan...oh how will I ever be able to properly plan a month in Mexico? A month in Europe with 12 countries to hit up? Ahhh..the life of an adventurer...

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Learning While Away...Part 1

Recently I shared with you all about a trip I had to take out of the country. My grandmother had fallen ill and we were just not sure if she was going to make it. I flew out with barely any notice and definitely no time to leave behind a detailed lesson plan. This would be learning on a whim! A laminated map of the USA and Mexico, a ruler, some pencils and we were ready for lesson one. For this lesson we would map out the trip from Rockford, IL to Aguascalientes, Mexico, the final destination.

The first task was to map the trip as it was taken from start to finish, the departure in one color and the arrival in another color. Next, was to find the key on the map and find out how many miles each inch was, then they had to begin calculating distances. Needless to say that flying out of the country will less than 48 hours notice, often times is in the thousands of dollars, I had to keep that fee as low as possible. We ended up having to drive 5 hours to Des Moines, Iowa for a better fare.

1. The children had to calculate the driving distance from our home to the airport.
2. They had to find out how many miles per gallon our car got and how much we spent on gas.
3. They had to find out how much we spent on gas & how many miles we drove to get to the airport.

The math for this leg of the assignment was difficult for the youngest, but it gave an opportunity for the 2 oldest to teach him and show him how to do it in different forms.  Next, it was time to board the plane and travel from Des. Moines, IA on to Dallas, TX. For this part of the assignment, they had to do a little Math, Geography and Research.

1. Calculate the amount of miles I would earn on my credit card from this flight for Math.
2. Fill in a blank USA map on the states that were travelled through to get to Dallas. During this point, they also had to fill in the capitals of each state.
3. Do a little research on what is one thing that state is famous for and or what they export.
Finally it was time to head into Mexico from Dallas and Mexico too is divided into states, so this portion of the trip was an interesting learning experience.

1. Calculate the amount of miles from Dallas, TX to Aguascalientes, MX.
2. Fill in a blank MEXICO map on the states that were travelled through to get to Aguascalientes and also list their capitals. This would have to be done through teamwork and research as I knew they did not know much about the country as a whole.
3. Do some research as to one thing each state is famous for and or what they export.

After a very long 26 + hours of flying and travelling there was plenty of learning going on too. At the end of this lesson, they had to total up the miles travelled all together and all states both American and Mexican that were passed through. The states were put on flashcards for future reference and the miles were kept written on the map on each leg of the trip with the total at the bottom.

Next up in this series is a lesson in changing money and buying things. Having the ability to do the math on vacation for exchange rates is such a necessary thing, that they must test their mental math abilities.
MAPS USED IN THIS LESSON:
Blank USA HERE
Blank MEXICO HERE
Filled MEXICO HERE

Enjoy every minute my friends!

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How to Prepare for your Disney Trip!

You're going to Disney!!! Congrats and be prepared for the trip of a lifetime. In order to make Disney affordable, we book a year in advance (in fact we book while we are still on Disney Property!!) and pay it off monthly. Doing this means our trip is SO FAR AWAY, but it also makes for some awesome things we can do as a countdown!! Disney sends you packets of information from booking all the way up to your trip, which is awesome when you have little ones! We love yelling DISNEY MAIL!!! Then everyone gathers and we open it all together. This is a fun way to count down to Disney, not the mundane 'what to pack' type of posts. You can find those anywhere and for us, packing is the least of our worries! LOL!

Once you book your trip, QUICKLY order the current DVD planning video. Yes, you have already booked your vacation, but this video is PERFECT for getting you all in the Disney mood and you can watch it often. It's important to arrange for Disney Mail to arrive at least once every 3 weeks or so, so that the countdown seems real. If a few things arrive at once, save some for another week to keep the suspense. Onve we get down to 2 months before we head out, I usually have enough for once a week DISNEY MAIL packages!

Head on over to Your Disney Side and create your own decal! Let your children each create themselves, so that it becomes a fun fun family activity and once again more Disney Mail to look forward to!

Get your guide book on! Many libraries carry these guide books, but we like to buy our own so that we can write in them, fold pages and constantly refer to them. We usually pick one up every month as a countdown to our trip. Many can be used year after year and others that are dated, we just cut out for our scrapbooks when we get back or hand them over to friends that are headed there next. Some of these books like Hidden Mickey's are AWESOME for bringing with you on vacation, because they will keep you and kids occupied while in lines and during down times. Order them online and you have more Disney mail arriving at your house. Start with planning guides far in advance and work your way towards dining guides when it's time to book your dining reservations (180 days). Work your way to Trivia, Engineering and specialty guides as you get closer and then be sure you have your Planning Guide ready and marked up to book your Fastpass + reservations (60 days).

Next, head on over to the WDW website and it's time to create your own park maps. Be sure to have your park guides with you so that you all can discuss rides and you can be sure that everyone meets the height requirements. This part is a lot of fun, we usually do this with dessert one evening around the dining room table. These usually arrive within 3-4 weeks but have sometimes arrived in 2 weeks, I guess it all depends on how much they have going on at that time!

Now it's time to head on over to EBAY and order your pin trading lanyards. No only are you saving money by doing this on Ebay and NOT at the parks, but you are adding to the fun of the trip. Disney sends awesome luggage tags with your Magical Express information, but if you don't need that many,  let the kids put those on the bottom of the lanyard and they will also have your cell phone # on them in case of a worst case scenario. Another option is to let your children put their spending money on a Disney gift card and put that on the bottom of the lanyard, that way it is always with them. Now it's time to begin buying a handful of pins for each lanyard. Keep these pins to hand out on weeks that you have no Disney Mail coming and don't do them all at once, it makes it more fun for them to add as they go.

When it comes to Disney Pins, why spend top dollar on ones your children are just going to trade anyway, especially when you don't want to influence what they trade for.  When buying from Ebay, be sure they are OFFICIAL Disney Trading pins ONLY! They will be marked on the back that way, you don't want cheap pins that the cast members will NOT trade for as it is. Pin trading keeps the kids engaged and having fun, without any additional monies being spent while in the parks. We usually then let the kids pick out one special non-tradeable pin in the parks. All the pins hit our shadow boxes at home once we get back from our trip.

Before you know it, it's time to go and THE DISNEY PACKAGE arrives. This is the one with your Magic Bands and you are now READY TO GO! Before these arrive, there are a few more things you can do to prepare for them! On Ebay, you can find a plethora of Bandits and Coverbands. These are things to decorate your Magic Band with. Let me inform you that if you WANT these items, to get them through Ebay and do not pay a lot for them. We lost so many bandits, I am glad I didn't pay full price for all of them. They pop off easily, so be sure to use E-6000 glue to glue them in place once you have sized the bands. This will go towards saving your sanity. The coverbands are a complete waste of money, the bands slide around non-stop and you can't always get a good connection with the wand when you are entering the park or using a fast pass. Of course, you are then holding up the line while you try and fish the band around. Disney claims that they can read through the material and for the most part they can but every now and then (usually with the longest line behind you), they don't. All of these fun little gadgets and do-dads help the time go by so much faster and add more levels of excitement that also lead you to save money when in the parks. You aren't spending on extras and your trivia guides give you something to do instead of wandering into the shops! We attempt to do Disney once a year and follow this plan as much as we can. Our break in our streak came when we bought the house and we had to put 2 years on hold and now we are preparing for a 3 week stint in Mexico next year and Europe the year after. 

While waiting for that last week to DRAG BY....head on over to your local drug store and pick up some glow in the dark polish, glitter polish, favorite color and then a base and topcoat. Now you are ready to decorate your magic bands! We kept it simple by just painting the mickey head (this does not affect how it works AT ALL) with glitter polish and then the entire thing in glow in the dark polish. This is awesome in the evening and even better in dark rides and shows. The kids loved this part the most. You will need around 4-5 coats to get the most out of the glow polish.

How true! I always hear about how people think their children are too old or too young for Disney but this is just not true. My kids have gone as young as 2 months old and I was still going with my parents through college! Disney has no age restrictions on Magic and that is exactly what a trip to Disney is!

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Virtual Vacation Update! 3

 

We are getting so close to the end of the school year and I have been gathering more and more for our Virtual Vacation. As some of you may have read, I had an idea for the map we last purchased and here is the finished product! I modpodged it on a bulletin board and used our dollar store borders to make our trip board! On this, we will use the pins to mark each country we have been to and we will also use string to mark our path of how we got there. We will chart mileage and hours in flight/boat/train on the above map so that we will always have it as our memory board!

In the above 2 photos you will also see some new guidebooks we picked up at the charity shops for .58 each! They are perfect for going into detail on certain aspects of the places we will vacation too! We can cut out the photos and the maps too! I'm really loving this!

Please join us on our virtual vacation!!

VIRTUAL VACATION

UPDATE 1

UPDATE 2

Zoo Day!

The day started out bright and sunny, but by the time we pulled up to the zoo, it was rainy and gloomy! Did we turn around? NO WAY! We had a blast! As you can tell by our Flip Flops and Ice Cream post, we know how to enjoy the gloomiest of days! We pulled into the FIRST parking spot at Brookfield and were thrilled with our luck of having an empty zoo! 

First stop, the reptile house, so that we could sit in a boat and map out what to do next! The kids love to write on their laminated maps (we are members and don't like to waste maps, so we laminate them and the kids can write on them with dry erase markers) and each write where they wanted to go!

We lucked out and got to see almost ALL of the animals being fed! The kids thought this was just AMAZING and just wanted to sit and watch. They asked questions and got really into everything.

We make everything a learning experience, even while having fun! At doors, I would say:

'open the door that says PUSH please' or we would take turns reading what the informational signs at each animal would say.

Enjoying their maps AND a brief moment of no rain in the sky! It was so rare to get them to all stand still, that I didn't even bother with the smiling! hahaha!!!

My oldest son is really into Giraffes right now and I put together a little field pack for him to enjoy! I try to give each child a little something on their own day every now and then. It's a way to individualize them in their own way! The blanket and bag are from Target (1.25 each!!), the book was from the zoo and the Bus Notebook is perfect for his field notes!

Their favorite part of the day! This was 25 minutes to closing and we got to see this all up close and so personal!!! We were squealing like crazy! haha! 

For us, a trip to the suburbs isn't complete without stopping at Hamburger University! hhaha! Yes, there is such a thing and my mother happens to work there as a corporate employee for McDonald's. The kids love to stop and visit with Nana for a brief moment and learn any secrets. To them, Nana has the ultimate dream job, second only to Grandpa who gets to work from HOME in his PAJAMAS! hahaha!! You have to love kids!

Do you have any MUST STOP places?

~Michelle!~

Virtual Vacation Update!

As you all know from my previous post, we are off on a trip around the World this Summer! Alright, it's a virtual vacation, but we are excited none-the-less! I have had 8 people message me and want to join us on our trip! How fun!! I've even sold 6 of the above kits to help others join our trip! I wanted to update everyone on what we have been getting ready, since take off is a little over a month away!!
Our Itinerary is ready and posted! The kids have been asking so many questions and keep looking through our 'suitcase' of stuff!!

 

I have also purchased this book as a guide to some of our stops! I have been on the internet and the library like crazy, readying myself for all that is to come. Every single time I stop in a charity shop, my eyes are open for maps or guidebooks that will help in some way or another!

The 2 Japan for Kids and Kids Trips in Tokyo books came from a charity shop for .59 each! The Geo Cards are awesome reference cards that I found at Barnes and Noble.

I found these fantastic post cards at Michaels for .98! I love that they are plain on 1 side and will allow the kids to design them from each Country we are in and then they can send them to family members! They are really excited about this part!!

At the moment, the plan is to post on Monday with:
1. Country we are landing in
2. Craft we will make that week
3. Sights we will see
4. Recipe of what we will cook
5. Other activities we will do while in that Country
6. Links to any print outs you may need (for example: Orient Express train ticket)
7. Photos from the previous week of things that we did and any other notes!

Please feel free to link up your blog if you are joining us!!

Virtual Vacation Post (Original Post)
Virtual Vacation Update 1 
Virtual Vacation Update 2
Virtual Vacation Update 3 (not yet posted)

~Michelle!~

Join Us on a Virtual Vacation Around the World!

This Summer Break, join us on a Virtual Trip around the World!!! We are so excited, I hope you are too!! We will visit 1 or 2 big cities around the world every week of Summer Vacation and will learn what we can about that city! The language they speak, the food they eat (we will eat it too!), what there is to see! Join us up the Eiffel Tower, on a Safari in Africa, to see the Mayan Pyramids and so much more!
Grab your passports and be ready to get them stamped and don't forget your tickets and suitcases and maps! We are so excited that we've already started to prepare! We've made our luggage tag, decorated our suitcase and purchased some of our guidebooks!
Care to join us? Please do! I will have an itinerary soon, so you too can prepare! Remember that old guide books can be purchase for less than 1.00 at most thrift shops and you can download so much for the internet! Have any questions? Please ask in the comments! If you want to join, we can start a blog ring and link to each other! I have so much planned, so just ask and I will answer!!

Our Plane Tickets!!

Vacation Update 1
Vacation Update 2

~Michelle!~