« Getting Ready to Read | Main | Travel Activities in Science »
July 08, 2007
Travel Activities History/Social Studies
I’m always looking for fun things for parents to do with kids that create some learning. I just took a short vacation that provided all kinds of interesting activities especially in the science and history/social studies arenas.
Social studies is actually a large topic that includes such things as geography. In the last week, I’ve been in a lot of different geography, used a number of maps and GPS systems and tried not to get lost. Any trip out of your area can provide the same kinds of learning experiences for your child.
Here are a couple examples.
How do they know what direction they’re going? Some cars come equipped with a system that tells them North or Southeast. Let your child find the location on the car device, but who knows it could be wrong. Have them double check if you have a GPS. Most GPS systems have the ability to do directions. They may also give longitude and latitude position which could be an interesting discussion about what information those coordinates provide. Just to be triply sure have your child check on the map. Maps are the basic guideposts for direction, so be sure to do some location checking with the map. Besides finding your directions you’ve just saved yourself several hours of the inevitable question-“Are we there yet?”
Social studies also includes history. Did you know the little town of Tonopah in the Nevada desert boasts of two museums? Did you know Howard Hughes was married there? I found those things out just by staying overnight in a place where they had a notebook full of interesting facts about the area. Phoenix and Flagstaff also had all kinds of historic events to explore and poke around in.
It doesn’t mater if the town is big or small or way far away from home or pretty close. There’s always some history to be discovered. You and your child can uncover that history. Let your child look up where you’re going on the Internet. Find out what kinds of things happened in the area. What is he most interested in seeing? A few blog entries ago I talked about how excited the second graders were over the dinosaurs in the area. That’s really long ago history, but most kids love it. There are more recent historical events too-gold mines, shoot outs at the OK corral, and ammunition fields. All it takes is a little exploring.
Do a little Internet exploration then when you arrive in an area you’ll have some idea about what’s there to see. I missed Scotty’s Castle in Death Valley and I understand there’s a mine there that might be interesting. Guess I’ll have to go check it out.
Posted by Dr Joni at July 8, 2007 03:32 PM
Trackback Pings
TrackBack URL for this entry:
http://www.norcalblogs.com/MT/mt-tb.cgi/1701