Travelschool with The Berger Family

The Land Sailors:
Alex, Jo, Nate, and Ed



Areas Visited:

EUROPE:
  • Holland
  • France
  • Spain
  • Portugal
  • Italy
  • Greece
  • Germany
  • Switzerland
MEXICO:
  • Gulf of California
  • Baja
USA:
  • Great Plains
  • North Central
  • Northeast
  • East Coast
  • Southeast
  • Gulf Coast
  • Texas
  • Southwest
  • West Coast


A BIT OF HISTORY

     Working with Southwest Research and Education Service, Inc., we have had the opportunity to pioneer, for our own family, and other families, experiential, enrichment learning activities.  When our boys were 8 and 11, we wanted to immerse our family in 'real-world' educational experiences woven from a rich tapestry of sights, smells, sounds, anecdotes, and incidents ... we wanted to learn about cultures, languages, philosophies, geography, budgeting, habitats, ourselves, and more.

     Our first year, we traveled in Europe for 11 months. We were hooked! We came home for a year, planned our next family learning adventure, and took off in our RV to travel around the United States for a year.  

      As a result of these trips, our family is deeply bonded. We are a tight unit.  As we continue to travel, even on short trips, we add to our rich base of shared experiences.  Yes, at times, we get on each others' nerves and the creation of personal space is an on-going challenge.  We also find that we have to re-define our roles a bit and begin to look at each other less as "parents" and "children", and more as individuals.

     Does traditional education seem a bit confining? Try travelschooling. Sure it takes a conscious bit of organizing.  Setting up some semblance of a routine really helps us bring closure to tasks. When there are so many interesting diversions, it takes a strong resolve to write the journal every evening.  During our Europe trip, we had our boys keep track of our expenses, total the cost daily, and convert that total from the local currency to American dollars.  It was a great opportunity to work on basic math functions and pre-algebra.  For the rest, we threw ourselves into our selected experiences and inhaled the history of Europe.

     When we planned our second trip, we took a rigorous approach to the boy's educational program.  Alex was a 7th grader and Nate was a 4th grader.  After a review of an overwhelming amount of curriculum materials, and pre-packaged correspondence programs, we selected various tools to help us with a more comprehensive learning program.  If you select this Travel School link on the button at the bottom of the page you will find a review of the materials we used throughout the year.

     Packing has been an additional learning experience.  For our Europe trip we traveled via trains, buses, and eventually procured an automobile. We were interested in flexibility ... so we each packed a backpack.  The boys carried their own stuff, while Ed and I carried our clothes, assorted books, and cooking gear.  It worked out really well once we adjusted to the weight.  It's not such a bad thing living like a snail with your house on your back.  It really forces you to get down to essentials.  On our US trip, however, we traveled in our 32 foot long fifth-wheel trailer.  Okay, okay, it's true we had a ton of stuff ... all essential of course!  Our favorite indulgence was our computer system. This enabled us to link electronically to the rest of the world. If you want to know what we took along, our Packing List breaks down our "essentials" by category.

     The Family Album is a collection of snapshots we captured from our video camera and downloaded into our computer.  

     We became quite dependent on e-mail. Once we figured out how to connect and transfer files, it was a snap.  E-mail communication is a marvel and the intricacies of the Internet continue to be an interesting learning experience for us all.      Hope you enjoy our page.  Maybe we'll see you on the road!        

Experiential education ... travelschooling ... family adventures sponsored by Southwest Research and Education Services(SRES)



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