Short Trip

We are supposed to be on a trip right now. We drove 12 hours to our first stop – camping with some of my darling husband’s relations. The first night was cool and somewhat windy. The heat and humidity we left were but memories as we enjoyed high 70 degree F temperatures with occasional sprinkles.

The second night was much colder. I did not pack jackets, so we made do with blankets and improvised chilly weather gear as we sat by the campfire. Our sleeping bags are all rated for “below zero” temperatures, so we were cozy in the night. Regardless, the two smallest members of the family showed signs of illness during the long and windy second night camping. The baby started wheezing and woke up screaming every 30 minutes (on average). Starting around 3:30 a.m., he wouldn’t go back to sleep no matter what I tried.

He finally started to drift off about 5 a.m. when the second youngest woke up coughing and crying. It wasn’t just any cough – it was a croup cough. The baby was back up. The toddler was up. I poke my husband to join my waking vigil and we both attempted to get the kids back down. Sometime after 5, we decided that we had better head back home that day instead of pushing on to our second destination.

We broke camp and began our “quick” trip back home. (We cut 1 1/2 hrs off our drive time going up.) While on the road, we called to cancel reservations and let another relative know we would not be visiting after all.

We arrived home tired, dirty, and disappointed.

On a positive note, the humidifier helped quite a bit to keep the croup symptoms manageable. The baby was obviously relieved to see his room as he put his head down on my shoulder and popped his thumb in his mouth. He went down without a cry, although he was up several times during the night.

Two full days of driving for one day (and two nights) of camping was not my idea of fun. Sometimes, though, it is all turns out for the best. It remains to be seen if this is one of those times.

Camping Out

My husband didn’t do any camping out as a kid. I did some and I was the one who came into the relationship with a 2-3 person tent, a good “mummy bag”, and some experience.

That said, I dislike the true “roughing it” that comes with camping out. I learned to bring along my inflatable mattress that fits nicely into my tent (and even has room for my spouse on it). I learned to cook fairly decently over a campfire, although I lack all the specialty tools that true outdoors types have. I just can’t abide with the whole no-toilet-facilities thing.

The kids enjoy camping out. The husband enjoys camping out. So, I grin and bear the experience when it is proposed.

We have been borrowing another tent the last few of years since we can no longer fit all of us into my 2-3 man. We put the older children in my tent and use the borrowed tent for the rest of us. We picked up a new BIG tent on clearance earlier this year, but haven’t tried it out yet. By the time this post appears, we will be mostly through our “roughing it” experience this year. When I recover, I’ll tell you how it went. Maybe.

Until then, enjoy all the comforts of home and cross your fingers for not much rain and mosquitos for us.

Field Trip Ideas

Many homeschoolers think “outside the box” when taking field trips with their kids. The following is just a sampling of ideas about how to continue the learning experience outside the home and not break your budget in the meantime.

Many field trips are enriched by preparation, pre reading, and related activities as part of your curriculum. However, if you don’t have time for these, don’t let that keep you from going. Sometimes the trip itself will spark interest in further research or a follow-up activity. It could even set the stage for a career choice down the road!

Opportunities for Learning in Your Community
- Check out the neighborhood fire station, post office, city hall, or the county courthouse.
- Go to the library – Obviously, there is story time and sometimes there are free or low-cost classes, but don’t forget to check the bulletin board for listings of other activities in your area.
- See if a local bank, grocery store, TV station, or newspaper office gives tours.
- Hobby and craft stores sometimes offer low price craft time or projects on weekends or during the summer for the general public.
- Doctors, dentists, optometrists, chiropractors, dermatologists, and hospitals might let you go through their office during a less busy time. These places are a lot less scary when the children are not going for an appointment at the same time.
- Check with the fast food places nearby. Some places will give a tour and then a discount on lunch.

How Do They Do That?
- Find out if the local electric company or water treatment plant will explain how what they do there lets stuff be done at home.
- See if the local convention center venue will allow you to watch while they transform the arena into a hockey floor or set up for a concert. This can be a fascinating engineering or science field trip opportunity.
- Is there a planetarium at your local college/university? Call to see about behind-the-scenes tours with or without a short show for your homeschooling group.
- Contact your local Chamber of Commerce or Rotary to see if they know of local businesses or manufacturers that will open their doors to a small group. Sometimes manufacturers cannot let you out on the production floor, but they have a viewing window where the children can see the machines operating.

Helping Others
- Learn about the inner workings of a soup kitchen, homeless shelter, or thrift shop (Catholic Social Services, Salvation Army, etc.)
- Visit a pregnancy crisis center.
- Consider volunteering your family for a couple hours to help out someone running for office. This type of political work could be stuffing envelopes, knocking on doors to distribute flyers, or holding signs for a candidate.
- Habitat for Humanity and other service groups will take volunteers over a certain age to help with everything from mailings to actual construction.

Food, Fish, and Animals, Oh My!
- Make some connections at the local Farmer’s Market to see if anyone is open to a tour of their operations
- Contact your local office of the game & fish department. They usually have activities for children to participate in while learning about the outdoors or different types of animals or plants. Many are free or low cost.
- Visit a veterinarian office to learn more about what they do there, the variety of animals they see, and about taking care of a pet.
- Many state parks offer a great opportunity for nature walks, camping, backpacking, hiking, and sometimes horseback riding.

Museums & Zoos
- Some museums offer free or reduced admission during certain times of the week or year.
- Some science museums, children’s museums, and zoos provide reciprocal free or reduced admission to other museums within their associations. These are a great deal if you plan to travel or visit certain types of museums on a regular basis. The Association of Children’s Museums, Association of Science-Technology Centers, and American Zoo Association are examples. Membership rates vary greatly from museum to museum. Some have discounts for “educators” including homeschoolers. Doing some research ahead of time on the best rate can really pay off. Make sure to look at the fine print, because some museums will not allow you the discounted member rate if you live within a certain distance of the associated museum.

Theater and Music Performances
- Some theaters offer behind-the-scenes tours, activities for children, or special pricing on shorter/during-the-day performances for educational groups.

Try these websites for a few other jumping off points to find field trip ideas:
http://www.homeschool.com/Homeschool_Field_Trips/default.asp
http://gocitykids.parentsconnect.com/
http://homeschooling.gomilpitas.com/trips/FieldTrips.htm
Traveling With Children

New Carseat: Graco Nautilus

Before our trip, I decided we really needed to replace Child #4′s car seat. It is due to “expire” in December 2008 and we had budgeted to replace it this fall. The one we are replacing is a convertible seat that was made by a company no longer in business (Century). It caused quite an episode at a car-seat-check event about two months ago because the seat technicians were unable to get it installed “tight enough” with the vehicle seat belt and it was made before LATCH belts were on every seat. While my install of the seat allowed it to move less than 1/2″ at the belt path, that wasn’t good enough for them. Two seat techs worked together to get it “rock solid.” Just short of high-fiving each other, they realized that the seat was so tight at the belt path that over half of the car seat was not touching the vehicle seat. The angle of the seat in rear facing mode was also not acceptable. They undid the seat belt and started over.

The old car seat

On try #2, they were able to achieve less than 1/4″ movement at the belt path while the seat was at an acceptable angle and completely touching the vehicle seat. This was still not to their liking. They consulted their recall list and found that the same model (Smart Move SE) but of a different manufacture date had had a recall for a problem only when in front facing position. Since we practice extended rear facing and were not planning to turn the seat around during its remaining useful life, I wasn’t concerned. But the technicians were. The pressure to buy another seat during the seat-check-event made me feel like I was at a car lot! Thankfully, I kept my sense of humor and that was the only sticking point they had with my four seats.

The seat has always been hard to buckle, usually had uneven straps causing much consternation, and I wanted our kids in good car seats for the long road trip we were taking. Knowing I was contemplating car-seat-swapping, a friend had suggested that I might want to look into the new Graco Nautilus for one of my older children. (Child #2 just turned five years old and was in a Britax Marathon in order to stay harnessed at current height/weights.) The Nautilus would allow us to continue keeping that child in a five-point harness for quite awhile longer and was cheaper than buying another Britax Marathon. So, I looked around the internet and found a fairly decent deal. It arrived in two days (instead of the 3-5 stated) – a whole day ahead of when we were scheduled to leave town.

I was able to rearrange the car seats, install the Nautilus, change the Marathon to RF from FF. I almost forgot to move the Marathon’s harness straps down for Child #4, but was able to do so after the seat was installed.

Third Row in our Sienna - two Graco seats

Just a run down for the car seat fanatics – I installed the Nautilus using LATCH (and tether) because I couldn’t get a good install in 3rd row, passenger side with the vehicle seat belt (and tether). I haven’t tried it in any other positions. I have a Graco Turbo high-back booster in the 3rd row, driver’s side position. In the second row of our Toyota Sienna (8-passenger) LE, I installed the Britax Marathon with LATCH and the RF tether attached to a seat post with the little do-hickey they give you. The next-car-seat-to-expire Eddie Bauer (can’t remember the style name) harness/booster seat is installed tightly using the vehicle seat belt with tether.

Second row – Britax Marathon & Eddie Bauer ??

Home from Camping Out

We are home from about a week away camping out on a relative’s farm a couple of states away. We took off with two coolers full of drinks and food, two tents (one ours, one borrowed), a mountain of bedding, and plenty of snacks and things for the kids to do on the long van ride. Unfortunately, I forgot to pack the bag that included three-fifths (3/5) of the clothing changes for us parents. It was sitting on our bed when we returned. I begged a trip to “civilization” when my clean clothes ran out and we were able to do a load of laundry in a nearby town’s laundromat. The real pleasure of the trip, however, was the evening before we headed back, when we checked into a hotel so we could all shower, swim, and sleep soundly on soft beds. The luxury!

I am not yet sophisticated enough to schedule posts and I am never far enough ahead to write them anyway! In between loads of laundry and unpacking, I will attempt to update you on happenings and get something interesting up for you to read. Stay tuned!

Welcome readers of Travels with Children!

Welcome to those  who made it here through minnemom’s Travels with Children blog. She was gracious enough to allow me to write some guest posts on our recent Railroad Days adventure. If you got here independently, go check out my guest posts. Thanks, Minnemom, for the opportunity!

Road Trip! Germanfest

When I just had one child, we went everywhere together. I wasn’t fearless, but we set off on many a trek and road trip that would daunt weaker souls. Once there were two, I can only think of once that I did something crazy with them alone (five hour road trip to a Pampered Chef party at the home of a friend I hadn’t seen in awhile, stayed overnight, then back home). Then, there were three kids. We ventured out, but only when there were two adults to herd the children.

Now, with four under the age of seven, I find that I am not nearly as daunted by the thought of taking them out alone as I used to be. Take, for example, an annual festival in a town less than an hour away. We have lived here for five years, but have never been. Some years it was the weather. Others, it was that I would have to take the kids by myself because of my spouse’s work schedule. This year, it was another one of those years where my spouse had to work.

Did that mean we wouldn’t go? NO! By golly, this year we were going!

The local businesses had signs in their windows welcoming the crowd. It wasn’t a big crowd. It was a very hot day. We came armed with an ice-cold one-liter bottle of water, a stroller for the baby, and small change in the pocket just in case. I brought the camera and an activities list.

First stop? The free watermelon, of course! Sponsored by the local chamber of commerce, they had several slices of watermelon on each plate. It was sweet, seedless, and only slightly messy. It definitely hit the spot on a hot summer day. And who could beat the price?

The free watermelon stand happened to be in the beer garden area. We had a good view of the keg tapping that happened while we were cleaning up after the watermelon. Apparently, they have this one free keg of beer. Once it is gone, you have to pay once again for your beverages. As I was the sole guardian in charge of four children and going to be driving home, I did not have any. (Besides, I have to admit not liking the taste or smell of beer.)

We were soon on our way to see the firefighters water fight. I haven’t seen one of these since I was a small child. The kids weren’t too sure when we got there that they were interested. We had passed the “bouncy house” and hadn’t stopped. That looked like a lot more fun than watching guys put on fire fighting gear.

 

Once the water started, though, they were much more interested. We watched at least six or seven match-ups between area volunteer fire departments. One set was even made up of women. (They tied with the all-male team they were up against.)  

When the wind was just right, we got misted with the water and it felt GREAT. The crowd would roar appreciatively at the slight wetness, irrespective of how the actual water battle was going. There was a small group of children who sat on the ground, pretty close to the action. They were soaked before the end of the first match. But my kids weren’t quite sure they wanted to be that wet. And I wasn’t sure I wanted them to be that wet – so far from home and with an emergency change of clothes only for the two younger ones.

 

Soon, however, even the water fights had stopped being able to hold their interest. They were asking to go back to the jump house we passed. We only had to wait a few minutes for our turn. Soon, however, #3 child was stepped on by another child and #1 child let #3 out to rejoin #4 and mother on the outside.

After this little bit of fun, we ambled over to watch the children’s pedal tractor pull. My kids had not expressed interest in entering, so we watched other children pedal the box up the ramp. I had never seen one of these and still don’t know quite how it works.

After a few more less-exciting activities, we headed back to the vehicle to drive home. Our water was now almost gone and had that hot plastic-y taste to it. The fireworks weren’t going to be until dusk and there wasn’t much else to keep the children’s (or my) interest until then. We had missed the children’s and regular parade along with bed races, the run/walk, and the poker run.

We did stop at a Baskin-Robbins for a few of their 31 flavors to help cool us down on the long ride home. (We had pink bubblegum, chocolate Oreo, jamoca Oreo, and chocolate chip cookie dough.) We finally made it to Germanfest and perhaps next year, there will be some free beer imbibing and one of the children will want to take part in the pedal tractor pull.