On The Road Again...

In the spirit of summer vacation, Little Guy and I will be taking what has turned into an annual Mommy/Son road trip.  Our destination is always the same- my Grandparent's place in the Carolina Mountains.  We really enjoy our time up there, breathing in all that fresh mountain air.  Little Guy has turned into quite the traveling companion!  He wasn't always so good in the car {visions of a screaming baby come to mind} but as he gets older, he seems to be content with entertaining himself, especially when it's just the two of us.  I have a Facebook friend from high school who will also be taking a road trip with her little this summer, and she made a car trip binder that she'll fill with all kinds of activities for her little to keep busy with while on the road.  I swiped her idea and made Little Guy a car book of his own!  We've been working on Kindergarten workbook pages anyway, so I thought he'd get a kick out of doing his pages in dry-erase format!  Thank you Lacey!!

Little Guy's Car Book (name removed)

Side View (it looks like a road, right?)

Little Guy needs a lot of practice writing his letters and numbers.  His letter/number recognition is spot on, but when it comes time to write the letter independently, he freezes and needs lots of encouragement to not give up.  I'm hoping that this project will make it more appealing to learn.  Plus it's so darn cute, who could resist?

Want to make your own?  You will need:
1 binder {preferably with a showcase cover to display your awesome handiwork :) }
Clear page inserts (ours are made by Avery- found at any office supply store or Walmart)
Several workbook pages (ours are from here and here, I found both at Target)
Dividers (optional)
Dry erase markers of your choice
A cloth or eraser for reusability of your pages

Here's a peek at the inside of Little Guy's Car Book:

Letter Tracing

Dot-to-Dot (Little Guy's favorite)

Number Tracing

Shape Tracing

Pattern Recognition

A close up of the page protector

Easy to "read" dividers

In hindsight, I decided to add some dividers (seen above) to make things easier for Little Guy to find.  In order from top to bottom: ABC's, 123's, shapes, colors, patterns.  Easy peasy!  He gets finicky about what/when he learns, so I thought this way he would think he had a choice in the matter.  Win, win! (at least I hope so!)

I am also including a little game of sorts in his binder.  Once upon a time I thought I could homeschool Little Guy (might still happen for middle school), but since we just LOVE his elementary school, we are staying put as long as possible!  I have a file on the computer full of all kinds of learning-at-home projects that were long forgotten, until now.  One of my favorite sources for anything home-learning is this blog, which sadly has not been posted on in a while.  She also has all kinds of printables posted!  I'm pretty sure I got my inspiration for Little Guy's calendar (a post on that later) from this site as well.
Anyway, back to that game I mentioned.... (sorry, I get a little scattered)
It's a number, word, letter recognition game all rolled into one!  Little Guy has cut outs of letters, which he can match on the cards, which spells out the number's name and also has pictures representing how many each number is.  Confusing?  Here's a picture to make it easier:

I didn't take a picture of the various letters, but they are safe in their little food storage container, don't you worry... (in case you haven't figured it out, we find all sorts of uses for food storage containers!)

So, this will be the last post from me for about a week, since I won't have internet access (oh, the shame!).  I will be sure to take all kinds of pictures so I can update you on our adventures in the mountains upon our return!  Have a great week!