Homeschooling on the Road

The past couple of years have afforded us the opportunity to travel far more than we have in the past and we have loved it. Between all the new people, places, and experiences we have been exposed to it has been an incredible education for all of us. But as travel seems to becoming the normal for us, it is requiring a level of balance about how to handle homeschooling on the road – doing the work that needs to be done and at the same time soaking up our current destination.

There is this great balance with homeschooling on the road that finds it tension between too much organized work and too much undisciplined time. I feel like these tensions play out in so many areas of life – rest versus work. Both are so necessary, in fact I would argue that each done properly makes the other better. Rest is delightful when you know you have worked hard. Hard work is possible when you have adequately rested.

We see the incredible value in exposing our children to people and places that stretch them beyond their normal day to day experience, but we also see the importance of teaching them daily discipline and that small investments of time on a regular basis will equal a greater whole. You know, like penmanship. Math skills. Memory work.

While some road schoolers are full time Rv-ers or adventurers, our family is not. We have a home and spend most of our time there. However my husbands work takes him around the US to various conferences, and he also works from home which offers a lot of flexibility for us to camp out somewhere for days on end. Additionally, his Army reserve commitment takes him away a few weeks each year.
Almost all of our adventures are based around his work commitments, with the exception of our international trip to Africa in the fall of 2017.

How we afford Homeschooling on the Road

As mentioned, most of our trips are based around Paul’s work commitments so cost of travel and lodging is generally covered.

We have friends and family spread throughout the US (and my family is just outside of Toronto, Canada) and when possible we stay in someone’s home to help keep costs down. This adds a social obligation that is a case-by-case navigation for how we will handle school. It is helpful when we stay longer than a couple days as we are able to build a routine.

A couple years ago we joined the IHG rewards program. Between the bonus points for signing up for the credit card and Paul’s annual Army reserve commitment (which puts him up in an IHG hotel) we have racked up tons of points. IHG also has an incredible program to redeem your points at select hotels. Whereas your normal IHG hotel redemption costs 15,000 – 25,000 points/night, two times a quarter you can get a room for as low as 5,000 points/night. We have used IHG and the points over and over again when we have been traveling. Sometimes I will cash in at a hotel for 5,000 points and stay two nights in a row there because it gives Paul more stability for work and gives the kids and I a chance to explore a bit more.
When we had our 24 layover in Paris and hotels were averaging about $200/night we were able to cash in some points to cover our hotel stay.
Spending the time to research and understand hotel loyalty programs and which one would best suit your family is definitely something worth looking into! It has paid off big time for us.

We have also invested in hammock camping supplies. Each of us have our own hammock, mosquito net, and low temp sleeping sacks designed to fit around the hammocks. It is free to set up camp in a national forest, and pretty cheap to stay at a campground site. We haven’t done hammock camping an enormous amount, but we always bring our supplies along with us and it works on occasion for a cheap sleeping situation.

Our traveling budget is determined by me from the money I make. I have an Ebay store, an Etsy shop, and a handful of other odd jobs that I dabble in to pull in extra money for our fun money. I have written about making money as a homeschool mom over here and you can read more about that there. It is so motivating to me to make extra income when we have the ability to travel and do fun things with that extra money.

Homeschooling on the Road – The Curriculum

Our homeschool curriculum that we follow is Ambleside Online, and our state requires us to do school for 180 days of the year. Those two things give us the backbone for what I plan out for us to do. AO lays out a literary feast for the boys. Sometimes I add extra books in to their reading to give an additional depth to a place we will be visiting. As an example, before our trip to Nigeria I had my oldest read Mary Slessor, White Queen of the Cannibals.

Bringing a huge collection of books along for the sake of homeschooling on the road can be a pain so we’ve navigated that a couple different ways. Audio and kindle books cut down on what we need to pack. Additionally, we never squeeze in everything, so before a trip I prioritize what I want focused on and only bring that along.

The boys narrate – tell me, in their own words, what they have read (or listened to) after every reading – and they do this whether we are at home or traveling.

They practice their cursive writing daily. On exciting trips they journal the events. Other times it is simply copywork.

Our math program is Teaching Textbooks and we sometimes have them do this on the road and other times use apps to do math review.

We love doing things outdoors and most trips are inclusive of nature walks and discovering the local flora. Sometimes what they see in nature gets drawn in a nature journal. Sometimes it doesn’t.

We make a general practice of stopping at State welcome centers and of announcing (with great enthusiasm!) when we enter each new state. This is especially fun in places where every few miles the signs change back and forth between states. haha
I also make a point of pointing out landmarks and places we have visited in the past if we are passing through to help reinforce geographical landmarks to them.

I try to find places that connect to something they already to know – for example, when we were reading Minn of the Mississippi we just happened to be traveling a great length of the Mississippi River and our trip took us to Dubuque Iowa, which is home to The National Mississippi River Museum and Aquarium which is part of the Smithsonian Institutions and is amazing in and of itself – but to be there while reading Minn of the Mississippi was really cool!

Sometimes we are staying with people that bring their local history to life for us, and that is super cool! In January we spent a couple nights with a friend near NYC and he gave us a tour, and the history of, the legend of the headless horseman and then took us to West Point.

Another thing we have found useful is the reciprocal memberships that many places offer. We are currently enjoying it with Science Museums this year, but have done it with zoos in years past.

Before choosing what activities we will do I consider the value it will offer. We don’t have a lot of extra money, so I try to be really careful in choosing what we spend money on. Reviews on Yelp or Tripadvisor are really helpful in determining what will be worthwhile for us. Friends that are local to the attractions are wonderful resources for deals on admission – and a couple times friends have offered us their guest passes for attractions which was so sweet and very appreciated!

Friends that are local to where we will be traveling are also invaluable resources to what we should be checking out. For example, Fort Matanzas, near St. Augustine, is a neat fort we have visited three times because a friend mentioned it to us. It has a ferry ride you take over to the fort, as well as a nice walking path. Just up the road is a state park with a beach front property. And when oranges are in season you can buy them freshly picked from the trees on the property. It’s an amazing little gem we have grown to love – and all because a friend mentioned it when he heard we were going to be in Jacksonville, Florida for a period of time with Paul’s work.

Eating While Homeschooling on the Road

We quickly realized that having a plan for our meals helped solve an enormous amount of issues. There’s nothing like a car full of hungry people to get the arguments and pettiness flying! As a gluten free family finding healthy, quick, and relatively inexpensive options is a bit trickier.

Here’s what we’ve come up with: our emergency back up when we find ourselves so hungry we cannot think is Chipotle burrito bowls. I try to keep a bag of corn chips in the car to go with this meal (Chipotle’s chips cost extra and aren’t consistently great.) Qdoba, Moe’s, or other similar style Tex Mex restaurants work in a pinch, too. But Chipotle is our go-to. We often find we can eat breakfast, then snack until we grab Chipotle early/mid afternoon, and then just snack again in the evening, so the price (about $10/person) goes a long way and gives us a hot meal.

When we can’t find Tex-Mex, or it is late at night, or we need to keep costs low our go-to is Walmart (or another 24 hour grocery store).
We grab salad, deli meat and cheese, corn chips, and a 7 layer bean/salsa dip.

I can’t even tell you how many problems it has solved to have this back-up plan for our meals. We prefer hole-in-the-wall places to eat. We like making our own meals if we are in a hotel room. But in all our traveling we have found stuff happens – and usually that stuff leaves us tired and stressed and having this plan to fall back on has been excellent.

When we find ourselves in a hotel room for a stretch the Instant Pot has been great for meals, both for cutting costs and ensuring we are getting a hot and healthy meal.
Walmart’s rotisserie chicken (hot, from the deli section) have also been easy, inexpensive, and delicious.

We travel with some core essentials: disposable plates, utensils, cups, a few seasonings, cooking oil (for the Instant Pot), ziplock baggies, a can opener, and metal tongs (for removing things from the Instant Pot.)

We also keep gallon size bottles of water and smaller water bottles stocked in our van. With the gallon size bottles we make sure to grab the screw on lids instead of the pop on ones as they’re more secure and keep leaks from happening. We learned this the hard way.

Less is More

I have mentioned that I prioritize what we bring along for homeschooling on the road – but we do this for everything. We have truly found the less we bring along the less stress there is. Regardless of the length of our trip we try to pack one backpack per person and then one additional backpack for games, and the kids and my books, and then Paul packs an additional backpack with his work stuff.

We pack snacks for on the road, and sometimes our instant pot and blender.

For amusement while on the road our kids enjoy audiobooks. Sometimes we bring along their pogo sticks and they will pull them out when we stop at rest stops. We try to ensure they get out and move around every few hours and we try to balance fun and enjoyable experiences for them with the tedious traveling. All of this is balanced with conversations with them about what is happening and what is expected of them.

We keep trash bags in the car and every gas stop is when we make sure the car is cleared out of trash and a general tidy up of the car.

The less we have in the van and the less we have to carry with us in and out of homes the more peaceful the experience is for us.

Often times I will take the boys and my backpacks and pack them so backpack 1 is used on days 1-3 of traveling, backpack 2 is used for days 4-6, and then the third backpack is used the rest of the time (with clothes then being washed and repeated as needed) – with a smaller toiletry bag being packed in Paul’s bag.

I’m a big fan of the capsule wardrobe movement, and it works really well when on the road.

Also doing less is also (generally) better. While in Houston, TX there were so many incredible options of things to do – the museum district is incredible! And while we were there for multiple days we chose to only do one – the Holocaust Museum. It was sobering and remarkable and so well done – and by it being the only big thing we did it heightened its significance.

That being said, we had less than 24 hours in Paris and we squeezed a remarkable amount of things out of those precious hours in that spectacular city and loved every minute of it.

The Practical Side of Homeschooling on the Road

While most of our traveling has Paul working, either in the backseat of our van, or at a desk in the hotel or hosts home, or in a coffee shop the kids and I like to go out and about and explore our surroundings.

While we were in Nigeria for three weeks in the fall of 2017 we opted to not do any school work. It was a planned and purposeful break and I was fascinated to observe them get bored in a third world country. Judah started writing a short story and Wesley spent hours reading. It was SO good for them and their development!

In early 2018 we took a three week trip that took us through New York, Ontario, back through a different part of New York, and then Pennsylvania. There was a lot of driving on that trip and the boys did a lot of audiobooks in the car (narrating each part to me).

Currently (April 2018) we are in the midst of a 2.5 week trip that has us stationed in Ft Knox, KY as our homebase. While the kids and I have done lots of mini-trips out to local attractions, we are able to create a bit of a schedule for ourselves since we have the stability of being here for a longer stretch. They have more books with them this time (as opposed to primarily using audiobooks), and have a daily routine they are following (as opposed to fitting it in on the road/around visits to people).

A vision for what we want and flexibility have been key for us.

The Most Important Part of Homeschooling on the Road

Seeing more of the world, even just your corner of the world, is a wonderful education. But even more important is the character that is developed. And there is nothing like being confined together in a small space, for great lengths of time, to reveal what’s going on inside you.

I wrote a little bit about this here when, at the very beginning of our trip to Nigeria (as in – within twenty minutes of leaving our home), we had a stupid argument. Faithfulness is cultivated in the quiet of home life, and exasperated when “home life” is on the road.

Enjoy the journey. Flat tires may happen. Museums may be closed. Traffic might be insane. Don’t let it change the joy in the journey.