Hello everyone,

Sue's brainstorming idea collected the following (with one or two additions from the personal experience I have had with my own children on vacation).

SEASON: summer, weather, sun, thunder storms, tornadoes, lightening, fires...
PLACES WE WENT: beach, sand, mountains, water, river, lake, mountain crags, ocean...
EXPLORING: streams, bluffs, prairie, woods, ponds, sea shore, tide pools...
SPORTS ACTIVITIES: swimming, biking, boating, hiking, fishing, crabbing, sailing, riding, baseball, T-Ball, camping, surfing, tennis, water skiing, gymnastics, canoeing...
QUIET ACTIVITIES: reading, watching videos, finding things out in the encyclopedia or on the computer, writing stories or letters, keeping a journal, playing table games, playing cards, making books, drawing...
PEOPLE: grandparents, aunts, uncles, cousins, brothers, sisters, friends, baby-sitter, neighbors...
GOING AWAY: cottage, traveling, airplane, bus, train, ferry, ship, hot air balloon...
MORE TIME AT HOME FOR: gardening, pool, garden play equipment, computer games, treehouse, play house, walk the dog, teach pets new tricks, making interesting collections (rocks, leaves, coins, stamps, car registrations, etc.), starting a club, making up plays or skits or comedy acts, playing in a tent, play in the sprinklers...
MAKING THINGS: model airplane, model boat, construction play, inventing things, sand castles, puppets...
WITHIN EASY REACH OF HOME: pool time, movies, library, museum, parks, play areas...
ORDINARY THINGS DONE DIFFERENTLY: picnics, serving, camp fires, singing and telling stories, sleeping on floors with teens, giving, playing, talking, sending postcards, playing with toys, watching TV with friends...
LESSONS: swimming lessons, tennis lessons, computer camp, gymnastics or dance lessons...
SPECIAL OCCASIONS: Disneyland, county fair, family reunions, Olympics (in case they went or watched for two weeks!), birthday parties...

(Six Flags... Not sure what to do with this one as I have not heard of it before!)

I categorized the ideas submitted so as to show the scope of the topic. You can collect and display children's work in any of these areas on bulletin boards headed with these titles.

Cate asked a really good question:

"If you do a project on vacations, is it relevant to ALL children or just the child who went on the trip?"

I was originally meaning (and taking Sue to mean) the 'vacation time' i.e. not being in school. All school children have experience of this change in their living routines. I think children are interested in other children's lives and experiences when not in school. I also think the topic encourages question asking and empathy with alternative points of view and a valuing of diversity as well as offering reassurance about common experiences.

What the children learn from this kind of project (a survey of the different experiences the different individual children have had) is that...

1. Many people do many of the same things.
2. Not everyone does the same things.
3. Some people do very unusual things.
4. Unusual things for some children are common experiences for others
5. What you do not usually like doing may be enjoyed very much by others & vice versa
6. You can't always do what you want to, even if it is vacation
7. Everybody has to things they don't want to do sometimes

The project answers questions the children might have such as:

1. How is leisure time is spent by other people?
2. What is interesting about experiences you have not had and what are these experiences like?
3. How can you enjoy yourself with others?
4. How can you enjoy yourself on your own?
5. What kinds of things do people do to remind themselves of good times they had?

Exchanges of photos, momentos (keepsakes, souvenirs...), journal entries, letters, help children to learn about similarity and diversity among the classroom community. One advantage of a project on a real life topic is that everyone has something to contribute. Even a child who may seem to have a very restricted experience (in our view)will have some things he or she enjoys doing more than other things...

By the way, during the vacation many children have a few household chores to do. Some may not. An interesting survey and discussion here among the children about responsibility in the home and family...

None of these surveys needs to be completed by everyone in the class. Children could survey four, ten or fifteen of their friends and make some interesting and thought-provoking generalizations.

Some children might respond to open ended suggestions to write about or draw 'The best thing about the vacation was...' or 'The worst thing about the vacation was...' or 'What surprised me most during the vacation was...' School is life, vacation is life... life is never all good, but life always has some really pleasant surprises. And sharing personal stories is interesting and can be informative.

There is also no need for the teacher to pass any judgment on what he/she learns from children in the course of a project such as this example. The issues discussed can be filtered and guided so as to be focused on worthwhile, constructive and positive approaches to healthy living, including work and play activities. There will some parallels to be drawn with individual children's and teachers' responsibilities for healthy, safe and orderly living in the classroom.

In our next discussions can we read about what you learned from your children if you tried projects on any of the three suggested topics?

How able were the children to find creative ways to represent and share their experiences with the class?

How useful was this time for a preliminary assessment of student achievement or abilities?

How useful was it in helping to establish routine expectations?

Or anything else you would like to share...

Best wishes,

Sylvia

(Sept 2 '96)