1.  Help your child make his/her own packing list for the trip.
Have him/her anticipate the weather and activities that
s/he will be involved in while on the trip. 
Name a category for your child (such as clothes, toys)
and have him/her generate items in that category. 
Develop the list and have the child use the list to gather
his/her things for the trip.  List-making prepares
children for the upper grades when teachers expect
children to accept more responsibility in the
completion of assignments, projects, etc.

2.  Prepare a travel pack of favorite books, markers, pencils,
blank paper, magnetic games, word search puzzles,
crossword puzzles, etc.  Include books
about the plants and animals that they'll see on their
vacation.  Older children might enjoy folklore from the
area and books about the history of the area.  The
child's school backpack provides an ideal container for
carrying these materials.  Science, history, and
folklore are more meaningful when children
see how they relate to the lives of real people.
Reading from interesting books can help children
continue to develop as readers over the summer months.

3.  Supply your child with a travel journal.   This can be a
purchased blank book, a spiral notebook, or pages
stapled together and decorated by the child.
Encourage him/her to write in his/her travel journal every
evening/day.  Have him/her record where s/he is/was, who
s/he saw, what s/he did, and what their favorite activity
of the day was.  Encourage him/her to use markers
or crayons to illustrate the page.  Transition from
one school year to the next is much easier when children
write over the the summer months.

4.  Make a vacation scrapbook.  An instant-print camera
can be used to produce immediate pictures of the family
vacation. (Pictures that require film processing also work.) 
The pictures can be mounted on paper or in a scrapbook.
The children can then use markers to label the pictures and
decorate the pages.  This fun and memorable record of the
trip will be enjoyable to look at for many years.  Metal
rings or colorful yarn can be used to bind paper
together to make a scrapbook.

5.  For car trips, use a map to plot the vacation route. 
Mark where you will begin the trip and the final
destination.  Then use a highlighter to mark the travel route. 
Identify states, cities, highways, rivers, lakes, monuments, and
other markers along the way.  Use this map to answer the
question, "How much longer until we get there?" 
Use the map to show where you are as your trip
progresses.  Older children can also learn how the scale
and key can be used in reading maps. 
This will make map-reading easier and more relevant
when they learn about it at school.

6.  Compare the advantages of different modes of trans-
portation.  What are the advantages of traveling by car?  By
bus?  By plane?  What are the disadvantages of each? 
This kind of discussion can promote higher level
thinking.

7.  Save receipts from the vacation.  After the trip, classify the
receipts by category:  transportation/gas, meals,
accomodations/hotel, entertainment, etc.  Add up the
receipts by category.  Older children would benefit from
putting this information on a bar graph. 
Older children can also calculate percentages and
construct a circle/pie graph to show where most
of the vacation resources were spent.
Using mathematics and graphic aids in real, meaningful
ways makes the learning of mathematics at school
more interesting and relevant.