I know “Vacation Season” is coming up, though many of us homeschoolers tend to vacation Off-Season! We did this last fall, with a trip to the Dominican Republic (where my husband’s family is from)! While there, I brainstormed this series, though I’m just now getting around to sharing it with you!

Part 5 of this post can be found here.

Here are some of the educational aspects we incorporated into our trip to the Dominican Republic.

After Your Trip:

1. Laundry – I’ve never returned from a trip without a mountain of laundry to do. Might as well use the opportunity to learn a life skill, right?

2. Sleep – Reentry is never easy on anyone. Getting back on a regular sleep schedule right away is the only thing I’ve known to help. Use this as an opportunity to talk to your kids about the importance of sleep, but also giving each other grace as you all get through this time.

3. Technical skills – If your kids are old enough, this might be a great time to show them how to upload and edit pictures from your trip. Won’t it be great when they can do this for you in the future?

4. Journaling – Let the kids decorate cute journals or scrapbooks and then make sure they write their memories down!

5. Follow up on any new interests you discovered on your trip!

What other suggestions would you share?

Other posts in this series are able to be found here.

I know “Vacation Season” is coming up, though many of us homeschoolers tend to vacation Off-Season! We did this last fall, with a trip to the Dominican Republic (where my husband’s family is from)! While there, I brainstormed this series, though I’m just now getting around to sharing it with you!

Part 3 of this post can be found here.

Here are some of the educational aspects we incorporated into our trip to the Dominican Republic.

During Your Trip:

7. Are you visiting family, or staying in an area of importance to your family? Ask for suggestions and see things off the beaten path. Where did your grandparents grew up and so on. This can give your kids a personal connection to your trip. Inviting family along can provide you unique touch guides and instant kid entertainment. (Have you ever noticed how kids listen so much better to someone else besides mom? Use it to your advantage!!)

8. Focus on cultural and artistic sightseeing! Let’s face it, most places you go are going to look the same. Pretty much every city is going to have the same chain restaurants wherever you go, and so on. Focus on the activities and sights you CAN’T do anywhere else. Biggest ball of yarn nearby? Go for it. Another McDonalds? Not so much. Teach your children to look for adventures everywhere.

9. Let your kids follow their own interests. Keep an eye out for new interests to form and let those opportunities take flight. Collect the shells. Answer the 50,000 questions. (Google is your friend!) Teach your kids to talk to the tour guides to ask those questions from the experts.

Who knew this kid is a natural on a horse??

10. Throw the list away! Sometimes it’s better to just throw out all the to-do lists and just live in the moment. Isn’t that what a vacation is really all about?

Yes, we found a playground. Every single trip – our family tradition!

When we lived overseas, our “local” friends would tell us they could always tell who the Americans were – they were the tourists who were more concerned with checking off a long list with an “I was here” selfie in as short amount of time as possible; instead of truly experiencing the place.

So, consider slowing down. Experiencing real life wherever you go. Watch a sunset. Feed the birds. Carry on a conversation with a local, and learn about their life.

Be sure to check out the Part 5 in this series here! What other suggestions would you share for during your trip?

Other posts in this series be able to be found here.

I know “Vacation Season” is coming up, though many of us homeschoolers tend to vacation Off-Season! We did this last fall, with a trip to the Dominican Republic (where my husband’s family is from)! While there, I brainstormed this series, though I’m just now getting around to sharing it with you!

Part 2 of this post can be found here.

Here are some of the educational aspects we incorporated into our trip to the Dominican Republic.

During Your Trip:

1. How to haggle decent deals on souvenirs with the locals. I don’t like buying much clutter, but we did need new beach hats for the sun! First, teach your kids to purchase souvenirs off of the main tourist area to get better deals. For those hats, I haggled us down to a decent rate but realized I probably should have done even more when I later mentally converted the money to US dollars. Or, I also recommend having a hubby that is a native speaker of the language, because after that I had him do all the haggling and he was able to get much better deals!

Trust me, prices are always ramped up for tourists, but if they see you as a local, they will give you a better rate – though my husband disagrees with this. He believes that they worked him harder than they would have me (if I spoke better Spanish and could haggle more) because they saw him as a “returning successful son”  and expected him to share the wealth, in a sense. Luckily, he caught on to that fairly quickly.

2. Teach your kids the money conversion! It’s not just basic shopping and money lessons, but the addition of converting local currency prices to another in your head! That’s like Super Math, folks!

3. The proper way to bodysurf and jump a wave. I mean, that’s an important life skill! Along with sand castle making.

4. Did your kids earn spending money for the trip? Help them practice budgeting it throughout the trip.

5. Reading menu and ordering food. Also, perhaps add in a discussion about well-meal when they decide to order pasta and french fries in the same meal.

Traditional Dish – La Bandera (rice, beans, and meat) – like the Dominican Flag

6. Try the local cuisine! Our favorite way to learn about a culture is through its food!

Our family favorite is tostones – fried plantains!

Be sure to check out the Part 4 in this series here! What other suggestions would you share for during your trip?

Other posts in this series are able to be found here.

I know “Vacation Season” is coming up, though many of us homeschoolers tend to vacation Off-Season! We did this last fall, with a trip to the Dominican Republic (where my husband’s family is from)! While there, I brainstormed this series, though I’m just now getting around to sharing it with you!

Part 1 of this post can be found here.

Before Your Trip:

4. Discuss the trip with your kids. Open up the map and point out where you are going, routes you are planning to take, deals you’ve found and how you found them. Ge them involved in all of this research.

Teach them how to pack. How to make the to-do list of what to pack, what needs to be done before you go, and so on.

5. Check out books from the library! Look for local authors, books that take place where you are going, authors/books that your destination is known for, biographies of famous people from that area, or local history. Knowing some of this in advance will make going on tours/museums much more exciting and relevant to kids. Don’t forget to explore art/science topics related to the area as well!

6. When you are thinking of packing stuff to entertain the kids on the trip, look at #5 above and bring those books with you! Now, I’m not a fan of taking library books on a vacation where they could be lost or damaged, so what I do instead is search for deals on them.

This most recent trip I used PaperbackSwap.com with a lot of success. I was able to “trade” for several books I specifically wanted for this trip. Some for the kids, and some for me! We’re a big fan of beach reading!

Be sure to check out the Part 3 in this series here! What other suggestions do you have to prep before a trip?

Other posts in this series be able to be found here.

I know “Vacation Season” is coming up, though many of us homeschoolers tend to vacation Off-Season! We did this last fall, with a trip to the Dominican Republic (where my husband’s family is from)! While there, I brainstormed this series, though I’m just now getting around to sharing it with you!

Previous posts can be found here.

Before Your Trip:

1) Langauge? – If your trip involves going to where a different language is spoken, then consider checking phrase books out of the library. Also, see if the library might have videos, books, music, that can be used in advance. Make sure your children know at least a few phrases in the local language. “Please,” “Thank You,” “Hello,” “Goodbye,” and “Where is the Bathroom?” are very good places to start.

2. Check out tourist videos to watch, read through tourist websites together, and check out tourist guides from the library. Be sure to look on YouTube as well – I found some great videos on local history, etc.

Knowing what is available in the area can help you decide what you want to do in advance, and also help you to investigate good deals and rates. For us, it also helped us determine where we wanted to stay – we chose areas that would be convenient to all the things we wanted to do.

Tip: Check out AirBnB, Groupon, and similar sites! These have always served us very well in our travels!

3. I have found Facebook to be a fabulous font of information. I follow local tourism pages. I also follow pages of any sightseeing location we are interested in. And check out the local Facebook groups to an area. These have been my best resources to amazing opportunities that only locals seem to know.

Stay tuned for more in the Part 2 of this article! What other tips would you share?

Other posts in this series are able to be found here.

I know “Vacation Season” is coming up, though many of us homeschoolers tend to vacation Off-Season! We did this last fall, with a trip to the Dominican Republic (where my husband’s family is from)! While there, I brainstormed this series, though I’m just now getting around to sharing it with you!

If you are in a state where you must count homeschooling days, or if you subscribe to more of a “Life is School” philosophy, or if you’ve drunk the homeschool Kool-Aid so that everything turns into a homeschool experience — I’m sure you are just like us- looking at even vacations with the thought of “How can I turn our vacation into homeschool?”

Now, first off, let’s put a dose of reality in here. Not every single moment of every single day needs to be about homeschool. Sometimes you just need to live your life, and sometimes you just need to enjoy your vacation! Relax for once, HomeSchool Mama!

See? I follow my own advice!

This particular trip of ours came to us unexpectedly. My hubby’s grandmother started to do poorly, and we could no longer put off the trip to visit her. Getting us all down to the Dominican Republic was no small feat, but after a month of scrambling, we finally made it.

So, for this series, I thought I’d share some easy ideas on how to incorporate learning and educational experiences into any trip, and in the future, I hope to talk about our Dominican Republic educational experience in particular.

What tips would you share?

Other posts in this series be able to be found here.