Some of you know about our trip out west a few years ago. It was the BEST time of my entire life. I think the children concur (about their own lives of course!). It was such an amazing, special time. We would like to do this again before Sarah graduates.
Anyway, we're trying to plan ahead and prepare for some wonderful activities as we would want to make the most of our trip if we get to go again. I think Sarah is particularly excited now that she is old enough to do most of the planning. I think it will be a great skill for her to help with the itinerary, navigation, activities, etc. Last time we also took an activity book with us that we made just for the trip. It highlighted locations we would visit, had information about historic sites along our route, etc. This time we're planning to do more advance planning - with Sarah's help. Last time we wanted to do that, but everyone was just too young and I was overwhelmed with planning it all, much less trying to do everything before the trip. This time, since the children will be helping a lot more, we will be able to do more advance work - studying about the places we plan to go, etc. I can't wait!
This past week, Sarah has been looking through the National Park Service website and other related websites. We already knew that the National Park Service had great activities for children, but we didn't realize how neat their internet activities were. The in-park activities are called "The Junior Ranger Program." On the internet, they basically have it set up so that you can do TONS of activities online to prepare for visits to national parks, learn more about what rangers do, learn about park and animal safety, etc. It's really neat.
I would encourage anyone to consider integrating this really neat website into your child's educational time. We always try to make "computer time" at least somewhat educational and this definitely meets the requirements! There are over 50 games ranging from easy to difficult and all of them are educational in some manner.
Here's the link: http://www.webrangers.us/index.cfm
I hope you find it as fun as we have!
If you haven't read about our trip out west, you can read about it on my website. There are a lots of interesting stories, tons of photos, etc. It's fun to read for anyone, but if you're planning to travel out west, we have lots of great tips on what we really enjoyed and what didn't work so well - for our family at least. :) Here's the link: http://www.sonyahaskins.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=95:our-trip-out-west-part-1&catid=60:traveling-with-children&Itemid=50
Enjoy!
Sonya :)
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