Roaming Homeschoolers

Homeschooling while traveling is amazing, but it does come with its challenges.

Space of course is one of the big challenges.

– Space for all the homeschooling items can get tricky especially if you don’t have a storage unit somewhere to store items. If you have more than one kid and plan to homeschool them all then you’ll want to save curriculum for each level, but your not necessarily going to want it in the RV until you need it.

– Space for the items you are currently using. You’ll probably cut back on a lot of the items you might have had in the sticks and bricks home. Hanging charts, all the extra what nots, books, books, and more books will not make the cut for space.

– Space for working. There will be limited space for each child to spread out and work on their stuff, especially if they are a keep everything out while I do this project type of person.

– Space for alone time. You’ll have to get creative with getting your kids and yourself space to just get away from everyone if you need it. This might be a difficult one in a RV, depending on what helps you. If it’s time and space at home, you’ll need someone to take the kids out. If it is getting out with some friends this could be hard while traveling unless you can make friends quick. If your normal relax and fill your cup thing is not something easily done in a RV start looking for new ways that can work.

– Space for working alone if you need it. I have one kid that likes to listen to music while he works and one that can’t stand any sound so that can be a challenge.

Another challenge of schooling on the road is if you do it online. You may have a difficult time getting good service. A lot of RV parks even if they have wifi it is very poor. There will be the popular times when the wifi is even worse because so many are using it at once. We also boondock a lot and have been in places that have no service at all, which of course makes us fall behind with the course work we do online.

Traveling around you constantly have the “but this is vacation time we don’t have to do school work” attitude. I am not just talking about the kids here. It is very hard for us adults to not want to get out and explore each area; forget about the book learning!

I had assumed we would have plenty of time to get things done as we drove from location to location, but I was very wrong. Not only did my kids hate to try and read or write while bouncing down the road I discovered I hated missing seeing everything while I read or helped with lessons. So, my grand idea to get work done while driving fell flat.

Despite the various challenges, homeschooling on the road has some amazing perks!

We gain so much seeing things in person and letting our kids touch, smell, hear, see, and occasionally taste experiences they otherwise would only get to read about.

Here are a few things we do while traveling, aside from experience the wonders around us. We love to play the name the states game when we do long treks. The boys have to name in order all the states we have driven through. It’s a fun one to do.

As we go into different states I’ll read them some info about it. I like using this webpage that has a few interesting facts about each state.

When we get to a new location we try to learn about it. We keep an eye out for the state flower, tree, and animal. We will also try and learn about different plants we see on our walks. We learn about different animals that live in the area. I like to go over any poisonous plants or animals before we set them free so they have an idea of the dangers and will hopefully leave them alone. Of course most animals hear them coming and get the heck out of the way long before they get there. If the area has some neat geological features we point them out and explain how/why it is that way.

National parks, state parks, and historic sites generally have lots of wonderful information posted or in pamphlets. I’ll try to have my boys stand and read signs with me, but they are normally too excited to stay and listen very long.

Military bases often have neat museums or welcome centers with displays and great information.

We also enjoy finding some of the fun odd sights out there.

There may be some challenges that come with schooling kids while traveling full time, but all in all the amazing experiences we have certainly out weigh the bad!

If you’d like to see a few of the places we have gone check this story out.

If you have questions about homeschooling in general check these out.

If you’d like to read about why we started homeschooling check this story out.