Teachers

As the pioneers moved in covered wagons across the U.S., they taught their children to read and write and do math around the campfire. On the way, their parents also taught them many other essential skills such as hunting, fishing, cooking and sewing. Eight year old Yvonne and eleven year old Anya will be learning very much like these pioneer children of long ago. But there will be one enormous difference. Unlike the pioneers, Anya and Yvonne live in the computer age. And each time they arrive at a major city they will be downloading their homework assignments from a computer at an Internet cafe!!.

We are putting all of their class work onto the computer. As our family arrives in a new city with an Internet cafe, we will print out the pages that they will study along the next few hundred miles. Then we’ll throw away pages as they finish them, so that we never have to carry too much weight. Yvonne and Anya’s Dad is a engineer. So he will be their math and science teacher. Their Mom is a professor of anthropology. (Anthropologists study the peoples and cultures of other countries). As a professor, she has lots of experience reading and writing. So she will teach the girls Language Arts and Geography.

Of course a lot of what they learn will come naturally on the route. Anya and Yvonne will read guidebooks and tales of the countries they travel through. They will visit very ancient places such as the Great Wall of China, and appreciate history by being there. They will have to be able to read maps in order to understand where they are going. And while most children study about different countries by reading books, they will especially appreciate how people live around the world by eating their food, visiting their homes, and joining in their celebrations. And think of all the languages they will be able to say hello and thank-you in when they return!

The girls will have plenty of math practice by calculating the distances they have traveled and figuring out how much a Russian ruble is worth in American dollars. They will learn about nature by watching real live kangaroos and penguins in their natural habitats. And they will have very practical lessons in geology (how the earth is made) and P.E. by cycling over the glacier covered mountains of Austria, hiking up the volcanoes of Japan, and swimming in the coral reefs of Australia.

Perhaps most exciting for everybody will be Yvonne and Anya’s Language Arts lessons. For homework the girls will write and draw pictures about the countries they have visited and their adventures there. When we get to an Internet cafe we will e-mail you their stories and pictures in newsletters. You will get to hear about what they think of bargaining in the markets of Turkey, sleeping in a yurt in Mongolia, climbing the Eiffel tower in France, and walking the Freedom Trail in Boston. It’s going to be a wonderful adventure, and we’re excited to have you along!!!!

Last Updated: May 8, 2004

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