We recently took a long road trip to visit family. Of course, I could have left our homeschooling at home for the two weeks we would be gone, but it is impossible to stop learning!  We brought the usual things: Teaching Textbooks – readily available on our devices, books to read, audio books, fun workbooks and activity books. But we also kept schooling in a more unusual way – etymology!

I’ll admit it. I am a sucker for learning the history of words and place names. As I drive, I pay attention to the names of everything along the way. I love to point out town names and landmarks, river names and mountain ranges. And I use those names to teach!

I cover vocabulary: “That town is called Ravine. Do you know why that would be a good name for a town in the mountains?”  “Why do you think this town is named Interlaken?”

I cover history: “Let’s write this one down – I bet there’s a lot of history so we can look up its history (Fort Indiantown Gap, PA).” (Spoiler alert, it’s not what we thought!)

I talk about the names of towns that were probably named by immigrants from other parts of the world: Austerlitz, NY  … Strasburg, VA … Manheim, PA … Conyngham. PA. Conyngham has a great historical society and we learned quite a bit here: https://www.conynghamhistoricalsociety.org/about-cvhs/history-of-conyngham.

Last year on this trip, my daughter took a dislike to all the “Kill” towns in New York (Fishkill, Peekskill, Catskill, etc.). We took time to learn about the history behind the town names (in Dutch, kill means water) so we could travel fearlessly on the Taconic Parkway. Speaking of, did you know Taconic most likely comes from a Delaware word meaning “in the trees”? (Wikipedia) The old spelling, Taghkanic, is still used for a state park and nearby town.

As you can see, there is so much information you can learn from a name! These are only examples off the top of my head. Start practicing on local trips and learn about the names of places near your home. Get your children excited to know more; have them keep a list in the car of funny and interesting names you can look up later. Keep it fun and lighthearted and see where your travels take you.

Happy Homeschooling!