I’m returning to the Afterschool linky after a break! Since we are still en route to our new home in California (and will be for the next few weeks), my kids aren’t actually in school at the moment – so we are temporarily full time homeschoolers / afterschoolers!
Luckily, road trips are very educational, as well as providing great family time and memory building! We are staying in Utah for a few weeks before completing our trek to California; but so far Niagara Falls is the clear sight seeing highlight of the trip – and I don’t expect that to change! Well worth the four hours it took us to get across the border to see all three falls from the Canadian side!
I have always loved bridges, and this one that we drove over crossing from Canada into Michigan was a neat one! Our traffic jam border crossing the night before led to our changing our route to spend more time in Canada, and the kids had a great Canadian dining experience at Moose Winooski’s in Brantford.
We also got to see some unplanned landmarks, most notably the American Gothic house. We did not go inside – the center was closed, and we were already running well behind schedule for the day!
Mike and I learned that bathroom breaks with four kids take at least half an hour – and that meant that five-6 hours of driving planned per day stretched out to much longer days! The best advice I got in response to this post about planning our road trip was to bring pillows and blankets for each kid – this made it much easier for them to fall asleep in the car, which made late/early morning hotel arrivals (we got to our hotel in Canada at around 2:30am!) less painful. And we did get to enjoy some incredible sunsets, particularly this one in Nebraska!
We all enjoyed seeing some LONG trains on our trip! I want to use that experience as a jumping-off point to teach the kids about the Transcontinental Railroad.
2013 After School Party HOSTS
The Educators’ Spin On It
Afterschool for Smarty Pants
Boy Mama Teacher Mama
Coffee Cups and Crayons
Little Wonders’ Days
Mama Smiles
Relentlessly Fun, Deceptively Educational
The Measured Mom
This Reading Mama
What Do We Do All Day
What afterschool activities has your family been enjoying? Since my family is moving to California, I especially loved these California poppy magnets from Buggy and Buddy !
Link up your activities below!
MaryAnne is a craft loving educator, musician, photographer, and writer who lives in Silicon Valley with her husband Mike and their four children.
Great post and loved the pictures!
I would love to take this trip even though I know it would be a little crazy with kids! Great photos, MaryAnne!
I’m SO glad we did it – it has been a wonderful trip!
Beautiful photos! I bet this is a trip that will be remembered for years.
I would love to do a cross country trip with my kids. Tom would have zero interest in that though!!!!!!!!
Mike never would have considered it if the alternative hadn’t been paying to ship our minivan! I’m really glad it worked out – we have all made some great memories!
I recognized your photo of the Bluewater Bridge(s) between Sarnia and Port Huron. Glad you found them interesting. I grew up in Sarnia and have fond memories of eating french fries under the bridge (there was just one when I was young). And long lineups on them too. Enjoy the rest of your trip.
What a great place to eat! Thank you for sharing your memories.
What an adventure you are on! I’ve been thinking of you and it’s so nice to hear from you while you’re on the road!
Thanks, Jody! It is definitely a big adventure!
I love all your pictures and that your kids and you are enjoying hands-on learning and sightseeing. What a wonderful adventure to have as a transition to the West coast.
I am really glad we decided to drive. I think it is helping the kids understand the move a bit better, and we have had some great family time (even if Mike is now back in MA).
How wonderful! I love the activities on the road/trip. We did the same for the past three-month. It was great!
A three month road trip would be amazing!!!
I LOVE education on the road. Looks like you guys have had some great moments so far!
Definitely! This has been education on the road at its best! I only wish we could have driven through the states a little more slowly so that we could explore each one more thoroughly.
You know I love road trips. I agree about the bathroom breaks, they can take forever at times.
Somehow I had underestimated that. It is good to take the time to decompress from being in the car, tough. In one of the states (Nebraska, I think?) we stopped at a rest stop that was touted the state’s cleanest rest stop – and I believe it! There were two people cleaning when we got there, and everything sparkled. Definitely made for a more pleasant stop!
Sounds like your trip is going well. We loved the Canadian side of Niagra Falls too but we caught lice at the Hyatt hotel so just be careful!
I guess it’s a good thing we did not stay at the Hyatt! Our Niagara Falls hotel was one of two that were not as clean as I would like, actually. The Niagara Falls hotel just had crumbs on the floor; the other hotel (in Illinois) had fleas living in the couch! Every time we sat on it we started getting bitten!
What an amazing learning experience for your kids. Emma, at least, should remember this road trip very well, and you are certainly taking enough pictures to help others remember :) I hope you will be in California soon!
I hope Emma remembers most of it! We should be in California at the end of this month!
Just discovered your blog. LOVE IT. What an amazing resource. Thanks for the great posts :)
Thanks for dropping by!
Wow 4 hours at the border. I was just at Niagara with my 2 older girls at the end of August and I thought we waited long at about an hour and a half to get out of Canada, but 4 hours!!
We hadn’t thought about it being Memorial Day weekend when we planned the trip…
You should just keep homeschooling when you get to CA :) It sounds like you are having a great road trip. Sightseeing is always fun. The kids are learning so much!
We may at the beginning, at least – right now it looks like the school our kids are supposed to go to is full!