Get Ready to ROAD TRIP!

by Mary Kay Carson

School's almost out and summer is nearly here! What better time for a road trip? No matter if you're headed off on a grand tour of America's national parks, or simply visiting relatives in a nearby town, allow students and children the opportunity to help with trip planning.


MAP IT
A fun way to get kids involved and excited about traveling is to map your route and work on an itinerary together. The map above was generated online, but a paper map works great, too. If you'd like to go high-tech, Google maps lets you plan routes and save places and there are many other apps, too. Just search for "route planner."

PLAN IT
Once you've roughed-out a route, start adding sites to see and places to stay. Perhaps let one student or child choose a single day to completely plan his or herself. 


Not going to make it anywhere this summer? You can always take a mini-trip inside the pages of a book! Try Park Scientists: Gila Monsters, Geysers, and Grizzly Bears in America's Own Backyard, a book for young readers in Houghton Mifflin Harcourt’s Scientists in the Field series. 

Happy Trails!