A few years ago my husband and I took a 3 week road trip to see the fall leaves in New England. We would loved to have had our grand children travel with us but they couldn’t miss school. We knew we would miss them and wanted to share our trip some how. It needed to be fun and a learning experience. So we thought of a way for them to sort of travel with us. We could “Travel Together Via Text”. They could follow our journey and learn about following a map, the states and see the different places we were seeing.
Following the journey–How to make it work.
In order to make this happen, I took a picture of our car and so they could always have the car facing the right direction on the map, I made mirror images. I bought and laminated 2 United States maps. Each family received a laminated map, 2 laminated cars, and 2 markers. The idea was to mark the route and move the car to each stop.
The Process
We wanted them to be able to follow along and mark the route on the map so our goal was to send a text and picture every day and send a post card from each place we visited. (Do you know how hard it is to find post cards?) We even sent a post card before we left so they would receive one on the first day. We knew the post cards would always be behind.
The Outcome–Did It Work
We loved the reaction from the kids when they received a text. Always cheerful and excited to hear where we were. It was fun to see the maps when we came home. both families pinned the map on the kitchen wall and marked the route. One pinned string across their map and hung the postcards close to the places they came from. The other family taped their post cards around the map.
Success
We all had a wonderful time. Our great travels together via text was a success. After arriving home a photo book was made using the pictures taken and the grandchildren still enjoy looking through the book when they come to visit.
