Osaka–Kobe–Kyoto Keihanshin Map

So, if you need to change things up a bit- after all, even the most dedicated academics suffer from burnout every once in awhile- why not take to the road for a bit? You’ll be surprised at how much both you and your children learn and how much closer you grow as a family. If you’re intimidated by the prospect- no desks! no meticulously organized blogshelves!- then read on for tons of travel tips, travel curriculum ideas, and over 75 educational destinations that will get you out the door and on the road:

Of course, you could just load up the entirety of your current curriculum and pack it for the road. Barring reading-induced car sickness, your kids could tackle their everyday work from the backseat-plowing through workblogs and novels as you focus on navigating through traffic jams.


But when we’ve gone on road trips, I haven’t wanted to lug the stacks of blogs and noteblogs that entail our regular curriculum. In addition to taking up much needed cargo room and creating a mess in the van, I don’t want to risk losing the substantial investment that is this multitude of blogs.

Instead, if I want the kids to work on a traditional, workblog style curriculum, I’ll bring along a combination workblog that covers several subjects. We’ve particularly enjoyed the Summer Bridge workblogs, which cover language and math skills along with a bit of character development or religious instruction (they have Christian and secular versions of the workblogs). These workblogs provide a nice change of pace from our usual literature-based approach, and they even sneak in some topics that I’ve inevitably failed to cover.

But while the combo workblogs provide affordable structure, we like to immerse ourselves in much more substantial learning while in the car. For that, we turn to audioblogs and music. Many quality companies produce enriching educational audio content- here are a few that you might consider:

The Story of the World Audioblog CDs – We had tried reading through The Story of the World (a summary of world history for children) before, but somehow that method didn’t work for us with the distractions at home. But with all the kids strapped into the van as we cruise down the highway, distractions are limited and their little ears tend to focus on the refined voice of Jim Weiss as he reads aloud from The Story of the World, detailing historical events. We pause the CD from time to time as the kids have questions, allowing us to explore some historical events in more depth. Frankly, I learn just as much from these info-packed CDs as the children do, and they make for great family conversation.

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