Road Resources

After many requests for a cursive edition of the recently released ABCs of America’s National Parks product, Road Trip Teacher has released the first in a series of cursive copywork guides this week. The ABCs of America’s National Parks is designed to help your roadschooler practice cursive handwriting skills while writing facts about America’s national parks that take him or her through 26 key facts from A to Z. A short history of the National Park Service is also covered to introduce the government agency that maintains the 84 million acres of national park land in the United States. A short list of vocabulary words are included with the guide for spelling practice as well as a clear definition of words commonly associated with national park facts. Word puzzles are also included along with answer keys.

The Roadschool 101 crew uses copywork in many subjects to:

• Practice penmanship
• Reinforce facts and ideas while learning
• Improves spelling
• Expands vocabulary
• Teaches language structure and style
• Refines grammar skills
• Enhances memorization of simple facts

We printed the pages of The ABCs of America’s National Parks copywork guide and bound it together in a booklet. The book will be used in two ways for each of our roadschoolers. By dating the collection of handwriting, it will be kept with other such projects as a record of each student’s work. It’s fun to compare handwriting progress and can be reviewed for years to come. It is also used as reference material for future projects. The pages of the handwritten guide gives each roadschooler the freedom to learn what is interesting to him or her and enjoy the pursuit of knowledge. For example, someone in our rig was intrigued with the fact that Olympic marmots only live in one place in the whole wide world! An entire week was spent by that learner exploring the animal’s facts, the ecosystem it lives in, and the national park that it calls home.

The ABCs of America’s National Parks is available in a cursive edition as well as a print edition. A combination pack can be downloaded for both sets of copy work for roadschoolers who need both. Free sample pages can be viewed in the Learning Shop.  The cursive version is recommended for grades 4-6, the print version is recommended for grades 1-3, and either guide can be used for all ages.

Road Trip Teacher has released the first in a series of copywork guides this week. The ABCs of America’s National Parks is designed to help your roadschooler practice handwriting skills while writing facts about America’s national parks that take him or her through 26 key facts from A to Z. A short history of the National Park Service is also covered to introduce the government agency that maintains the 84 million acres of national park land in the United States. A short list of vocabulary words are included with the guide for spelling practice as well as a clear definition of words commonly associated with national park facts. Word puzzles are also included along with answer keys.

The Roadschool 101 crew uses copywork in many subjects to:

• Practice penmanship
• Reinforce facts and ideas while learning
• Improves spelling
• Expands vocabulary
• Teaches language structure and style
• Refines grammar skills
• Enhances memorization of simple facts

We printed the pages of The ABCs of America’s National Parks copywork guide and bound it together in a booklet. The book will be used in two ways for each of our roadschoolers. By dating the collection of handwriting, it will be kept with other such projects as a record of each student’s work. It’s fun to compare handwriting progress and can be reviewed for years to come. It is also used as reference material for future projects. The pages of the handwritten guide gives each roadschooler the freedom to learn what is interesting to him or her and enjoy the pursuit of knowledge. For example, someone in our rig was intrigued with the fact that Olympic marmots only live in one place in the whole wide world! An entire week was spent by that learner exploring the animal’s facts, the ecosystem it lives in, and the national park that it calls home.

The ABCs of America’s National Parks is available in a manuscript edition as well as a cursive edition. A combination pack can be downloaded for both sets of copywork. Free sample pages can be viewed in the Learning Shop.  The manuscript version is recommended for grades 1-3, the cursive version is recommended for grades 4-6, and either guide can be used for all ages.

Our latest favorite find for the Roadschool 101 crew is the Red Ted art book I found over at Amazon.

The best thing about it is that I downloaded it for my Kindle so it lives on my device and takes up no space in our rig.

The next best thing about it is the numerous art projects that we can complete with just a few things found around the house. We started out with an obsession for stick crafts which quickly moved to toilet paper rolls and then buttons. Currently we are wildy excited about the shell crafts that can be made with the way-too-many shells that we collected in SW Florida over the winter. Thought for the Day:

Our partners over at Diary of a Road Mom and RV Sales 4U put together their 20 tips for the RV Guide to Severe Weather. Since we just experienced a severe thunderstorm complete with tornado warnings and golf-ball sized hail earlier this week when traveling through Illinois, we are paying special attention to all the details. Check it out!

RV Guide for Severe Weather

The Road Trip Teacher has a bag of tricks. We do not go anywhere without the Road Trip Teacher bag. Because we love lapbooks, many of the items in our bag are geared toward this way of learning. We take this bag wherever we go and always have what we need on our roadtrip to learning.

The most important component in the bag is writing tools. To be creative, the Roadschool 101 crew has a large variety of different writing utensils in different textures and colors.  Currently, the Road Trip Teacher carries several sharpened pencils, mechanical pencils, black pens, several different colored pens, crayons, colored pencils, slim markers, fat markers, Papermate Flair markers, and our favorite:  Sharpie writing markers.

Our absolute must-have markers are a set of Sharpie fine-point markers. We keep the basic eight colors in the bag for journaling.

Adhesives are a big part of lapbooking. A variety of those are also essential to our roadschool bag including glue sticks, tape runner (and refill), Scotch tape, double-sided tape, packing tape, liquid glue, and adhesive squares.

We always keep a pair of scissors for each learner plus an extra in the bag.

Different fasteners are also needed when lapbooking so a stapler, hole punch, metal rings, rubber bands, and brads can be found in the bag.

Some other miscellaneous accessories we usually carry are a calculator, deck of cards, double dice, flash cards, and hand sanitizer.

At least one book that we are currently reading aloud is always in our roadschool bag along with a Kindle (for other reading projects going on) and an iPad for the many educational apps that we enjoy on the road. A few sets of headphones/ear buds are always available so audio can be enjoyed privately for electronic devices.

An assorted number of brightly colored file folders and cardstock are essential to lapbook making as well as notebook paper for journaling or list-making.

Of course, we always have at least four lapbooks in progress so those are kept in the bag for easy access wherever we are. The Ultimate Roadschool Guides are kept handy as well in case we run into someone who doesn’t have a copy of this free resource!

The Road Trip Teacher bag itself is a Thirty-One Zip Top Organizing Utility Tote with a Fold ‘n File insert. I absolutely love this bag. Besides my life learners, it’s my #1 favorite thing about my roadschool! I ordered mine from my nomadic buddy, Laura Hamilton, an on-the-road consultant for Thirty-one products.

Because space is always a priority aboard our rig, the “everything has a place” rule applies to all roadschool supplies. The Road Trip Teacher bag houses all the items above in one neat and tidy place.

This is the only thing we need to grab on the way out the door. Ready.. Set.. Roadschool!

If the beach is in your plans for your next road trip, take a few minutes to plan a scavenger hunt for your crew. If you want to involve your learners in the process, have them decorate a paper sack, jar or ziploc bag to collect their fabulous seaside finds. Or as an alternative, purchase an inexpensive waterproof camera for each hunter so a picture can be snapped when items on the list are found. After your beach day adventure, the pictures can be compiled along with journaling or creative writing for the perfect summer memory book.

Once you decide on how your gang will search, record, and collect the items discovered from the seashore, print out several copies of the Road Trip Teacher’s free printable for the Beach Scavenger Hunt. Don’t forget to gather enough pencils, crayons, or markers for everyone.

This is the Roadschool 101 crew’s favorite way to spend a day at the beach.  Here’s the waterproof cameras that we found to record our last adventure in Southwest Florida!

Let’s Go! Beach Scavenger Hunt

Road trips of any kind are one of the best ways to spend quality time with your family away from the distractions and stresses of everyday routines. The Roadschool 101 Crew is on the road for many roadschool days during the year. Although everyone in our rig plans for travel days by charging their electronics, my favorite part of this portion of our journey is anything with no batteries required! Here is a list of the Roadschool 101 Crew’s Top 10 Best Road Trip Games in the RV.

Imaginary Hide and Go Seek. Imagine you are in your house, as in your RV. Quick… find a place to hide! Because you can be any size in this game, you can hide wherever your imagination takes you! Inside the refrigerator or under a throw rug aren’t off limits in this version of an old favorite. The seeker(s) must ask yes or no questions to find the hider. Whoever guesses correctly first, wins the game.

Counting Cows. Are you driving through the country? Players count the number of cows they see on their side of the RV. If you pass a cemetery, that side loses all their cows and must start over. If you pass a red barn, that side doubles the number of cows spotted there. The side with the most cows at the end of the road trip wins. (In a different locale? Instead of cows, count horses, deer, dogs, or anything else that works in its place.)

I Spy. While everyone is confined to a smaller space, spy something that no one else sees. The player exclaims, “I spy with my little eye, something that…” Other players guess until someone spots it too. Remember, you can spy ANYthing and describe it by color, shape or even texture to make it more challenging. In the long version of I Spy, players keep track of how many each has spotted correctly. Whomever spots the most correctly, wins the game.

Categories. Pick a category such as places, vegetables, or even song titles. The first player names something in that category. The next player names something in the same category that starts with the last letter of the first player’s item. Players are eliminated if they cannot come up with a word until the winner remains.Repeat words are not allowed. For a fast paced version of the game, have someone be the official “timer” and set a number of seconds each player has to say their word.

Banana! This game doesn’t require much thought; however, keen observation is a necessary skill! First, someone assigns points for yellow vehicles. For example, cars might be 1 point, semi trucks might be 2 points, contruction equipment might be 5 points, and a school bus might be 10 points. If your roadschoolers are learning to count by 5s or 10s, use multiples of these numbers when assigning points. The first person to spot a passing yellow vehicle, gets the points. Set a time limit according to your players attention spans so that the person with the most “banana” points during the period wins the game.

Mad Libs. The first step in mad libs is to fill out a list of random words by the part of speech they represent. Next, you plug the words into a story for a ridiculously funny version. This word game is a great roadschool tool as it covers grammar, parts of speech, and vocabulary while getting lots of laughs along the way. Print the free mad libs story the Roadschool 101 Crew made up for patriotic craziness!

Alphabet Game.  Pick a category such as animals, food, or U.S. cities. Starting with the letter A, the first player must name an object from that category. The next player does the same with an object that begins with B, and so on until the letter Z. To make the game more challenging, each player can recite the objects before his letter so that as the game progressed, players have to recall all objects from A to Z. Keep playing until someone cannot think of a word!

Going on a Picnic. The first player recites “I’m going on a picnic and I’m bringing…” and adds something that starts with the letter A (such as apples.) The next player repeats the first object and adds his own that begins with the letter B (such as bologna) and recites “I’m going on a picnic and I’m bringing apples and bologna.” The game continues from A to Z. Players are eliminated if they cannot remember an item in the correct order. The last player to correctly recite the list of picnic items, wins. For a different variation of this game, use “I’m going to the grocery and I’m buying…” or “I’m going on a road trip so I’m bringing…”

Where Am I? Play this guessing game as a great way to recollect places visited on previous road trips. Think of a place everyone in the RV has visited together. Give clues about the location by revealing just a detail or two about the memory. Each person in the RV can ask only “yes” or “no” questions about the secret location. The goal is for the players to guess the answer in 20 questions or less. Variations of this game include Who Am I? by guessing family members, Disney characters, or historical figures.

 License Plate Game. This is a road trip game that will require some sort of planning. Each time someone spots the license plate from one of the fifty states, that state is crossed off the list. Get a free printable for the license plate game here. One of the very first items I purchased for our rig, was the Melissa & Doug License Plate Game. It is still a favorite in our family!

Don’t forget to keep a frisbee or football handy for rest stop exercise. It’s amazing what 15 minutes of leg stretching and random yelling can do for couped up kiddos. Unplug your family on your next road trip. You’ll be surprised at just how much good ‘ole-fashioned family fun everyone can enjoy.

       >>>This is the first article in the Unplug Your Family series from Road Trip Teacher and brought to you by

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A few months ago, I discovered When You Rise Up and the awesome classes available there. My boys, 10 & 12, have recently completed the Exploring Geometry (live) class and couldn’t be more thrilled with this new addition to their roadschool experience. Each has already checked out the other classes available through this great resource and have taken advantage of the SKrafty server that has gotten rave reviews across all the Minecrafters aboard our rig.

I’ll admit that I was not a big Minecraft fan in the beginning. Any video game that attracts that much attention from any one of my kids, let alone all four, makes me just plain irritated. In my quest to listen more and judge less in the realm of our roadschool, I gave it a chance. Over the past months, I have been pleasantly surprised at how many opportunities I have found to use the Minecraft obsession in our rig to engage and educate my learners, ages 5-12. Whether it’s a specific project, a writing prompt, or a reward for creative play, Minecraft has a definite place in our homeschool curriculum. I find that this video game promotes teamwork and creativity while honing in on problem solving and survivalist skills.

If you are looking for something new to recharge your roadschool day, check out When You Rise Up and see how this educational resource can benefit your learners, too.

(This post may contain affiliate links.)

We love our Newmar Ventana coach, but as our lifestyle has changed we have found ourselves looking at units with bunks. Our lifestyle has taken a turn for fulltime living on the road and the kid’s personal space when we are inside exists at a premium. The Ventana #4335 we own is super spacious, has great storage, and sleeps our family of six very comfortably. However, our boys are older (10 & 12) and having bunks would be a plus for their experience.

We are lucky to have an RV expert in our family. RV Sales 4U is my husband’s company that brings buyers and sellers together, specifically in diesel pusher and gas motorhome designs. With access to the gigantic inventory at North Trail RV Center in Ft. Myers and Ft. Lauderdale, RV Sale 4U has shown us numerous models that might fit our needs.. He specializes in what he knows and is committed to bring the best fit at the best price to his customers across the country.

This week, I took the Roadschool 101 crew over to North Trail to check out the Fleetwood Discovery 40G  that is in stock in two different exterior floor plans.  Here’s a virtual tour and what we thought of this super comfortable motorcoach made right in our home state of Indiana at Fleetwood RV. Check it out!

For more information on this coach or details on a different model you are looking for, visit RV Sales 4U. Subscribe NOW to the newsletter here at Road Trip Teacher so you won’t miss the next video in the Looking for a Bunkhouse series.

The Road Trip Teacher crew along with Fulltime Families have come together to bring the traveling community The Ultimate Roadschool Guide. This magazine is a comprehensive resource for traveling families who blend their location with the educational opportunities it provides.  The Roadschool Guide provides the information, supplies, and support needed by today’s roadschooler.

A link to the April/May digital issue of the publication will be sent to all subscribers of Road Trip Teacher and Fulltimes Families as well as direct subscribers to the magazine itself. A print copy can also be requested from info@roadtripteacher.com