New Mexico roadschooling notebook deconstructed

One of the perks of homeschooling is that we get to visit places when everyone else is at school and work.  So, in the middle of last March we packed up the kids and drove from Texas to New Mexico to try snow skiing for the first time.

Our goal was to get to Roswell, approximately 8 hours away with a nursing baby in tow.  Although our trip took a little longer, we made it to the little city by dark & then enjoyed all the aliens and UFO's it had to offer the next morning. Our final destination to Sipapu was only 4 hours further.

The boys did not rely on a bunch of movies or video games for entertainment.  In fact, we did a little prep before hitting the road & made some roadschooling notebooks to keep occupied. We included items like tape, pencils, map pencils, glue, sketch books, & magnifying glasses. They also brought along books to read and we played car games.

Here's our notebooks at a glance: 

Little T's notebook

I put together some facts and pictures regarding New Mexico, so the boys could familiarize themselves with their new surroundings. Even though we have things like Yucca plants in Texas, they still had fun pointing various ones out on the trip. 

I also mapquest our destination and printed out the map for them, along with the Sipapu trails they would encounter later.

Little T had "The Snowman" and "The Snow Queen" stories in his binder. I read them aloud to him, so he could close his eyes and visualize the stories. This helped him to unwind and relax. You can find these short stories on OMazing Kids.

Large manila envelopes are wonderful to punch holes into and add to 3 ring binders. They not only hold stuff (wonderful stuff), but add a sense of mystery and excitement. I found these neat little puzzles that I added into one pouch, along with a design your own snowflake worksheet.  The other envelope housed a design your own alien comic strip with crazy clipart included.

Building upon the skiing excitement, a short story called "Learning to Ski" from Have Fun Teaching was an attention grabber for Little T. Big T had ski slang definitions added to his book and we all had a great laugh. Plus they acquainted themselves with various parts of the ski gear they would soon be using from a simple Google search. 

Another resource I liked using and will be using again is called Printable Paper. They have every type of paper form imaginable that you get to print for free. I used some of the storyboard templates for the loose comic strip designs.  The snow globe worksheet came from OMazing Kids.

Our last secret manila envelope consisted of the "Pipe-cleaner Masterpiece." My handwritten instructions: Design a buddy, sculpture, or work of art! You can hang them around for fun. 

We had tons of "art" that was made and then scrapped and then made again.

My God-daughter and Little T with their pipecleaner art crowns.

Other items that lived in the binders were gallon sized bags with holes punched into the bottoms. A hand written index card let the boys know to collect items like pamphlets and post cards along the way. We even found some cotton in a field that made its way into one of the bags.

The favorites out of the notebooks were probably the games. We had two that kept all the kids and adults busy both ways on the trip. We played the license plate game, collecting one from each state and had a pretty decent travel scavenger list going.

The boys also worked on Boy Scout and Cub Scout badges and pins.  Little T was able to complete his Snow Ski and Board Sports activities, so earned the pin.  Big T worked really hard on his, but still needs to master those moguls. He'll have another opportunity at the beginning of the year. 

I don't think that TnT even finished everything in their notebooks, and that's okay with me. They learned a ton and were active participants in family discussions and knew what was going on around them at any given time. The important thing is that they were connected with us and the world around them and not buried in a video game or other electronic device.