Our Roadschooling Plan: How to Travel and Homeschool

I finally got to throw the family in an RV and see some of the world!  I know that there are a lot of questions about all aspects of how to travel and homeschool, so here I’ll talk about our roadschooling plan.

This May, all of the stars aligned.  Prayers were answered, and we set out on an adventure!  It all started when I reminisced to my husband about a quick trip to Santa Fe when I was a teenager.  “It’s so different out there, I would love to take the kids to see the Southwest.”  Then, within the week, I was invited to speak at the El Paso Homeschool Association’s annual Convention, and the plan was set in motion.

To make things better, friends offered to let us use their RV for the excursion so we could “try it out,” without taking the big leap.  Honestly, the thought of living and schooling in an RV was daunting enough – that was a big enough leap for me!  Our friend’s generous offer meant that I no longer had any excuses: I had to try it out.

Our Roadschooling Plan

I have 4 kids, ages 3-11, and because we have already taken a lot of vacation days around the holidays, I wanted to try to keep up a decent pace while we were on the road.

As a Minimalist Homeschooler, that meant keeping our 3 major, and 3 minor subjects going even while we weren’t at home.

As a roadschooler, that meant doing it with as little *stuff* as possible.

Minimalist Homeschooling was a MUST

Minimalist Homeschooling is the process of designing a homeschool according to minimalism principles.

Because of that process, I am really clear on our goals and priorities right now, and I have a deep-rooted sense of value and meaningfulness in those.  As a result, I have my own “checklist” of sorts that is based on external recommendations, but is internally filtered.

We kept our normal level of homeschool intentionality, and that made roadschooling seamless, and very easy to plan.

To make a long story short, I made sure that I was ONLY bringing the subjects that were priorities right now – major and minor subjects.  No extra subjects.

I trust that life, and the information-age that we live in will always provide the “extra,” and then some.  I don’t have to schedule it.

 

 

Use Less Stuff

In Minimalist Homeschooling, we use the best things, not everything.  When you’re roadschooling, the best things are the smallest things (and highly valuable things, of course).

Here are some ideas for using fewer resources:

• Use a mobile hotspot on your phone (make sure you have sufficient data with your carrier), so that you can use apps or websites for some subjects. We like Khan Academy, and XtraMath.org for math, for example.  Therefore, we didn’t need to bring math textbooks or workbooks.  Similarly, there are science and history courses online, documentaries on YouTube or Netflix…

What can you learn online while you’re traveling?

• Use a Kindle for your books and read-alouds. Even libraries now have books that you can download to a Kindle for free for a certain amount of time.  This really saves a lot of space without diminishing how much we all read.  You can even get a Kindle Unlimited subscription, which especially comes in handy if you’re trying to have less stuff in the house year-round.  Plus, I can carry one (very slim, lightweight) item in my bag, and have reading material at the ready for any family member!

What can you read on your Kindle, tablet, or laptop?

• Pull out the best pages of the workbooks, or print the tests or materials and bring them in a folder. It’s near the end of the school year here, so for example, my first grader got a folder filled with worksheets of concepts we hadn’t gotten to yet.  They weren’t anything spectacular – I just flipped through what we already owned, and grabbed the items I wanted to make sure that we covered this year, or that needed more practice.

What are the best things for your children right now?  No busywork allowed.

• Bring a notebook and/or sketchpad for each child. Notebooks are my favorite.  You can use these for anything from writing essays, to practicing sightwords, and journaling your experiences.

How many goals you can meet with just a notebook?

• Only bring one set of coloring utensils. Some of you need to hear that ;).  Really consider whether you actually need the scissors, glue, tape… We did not.  It probably depends on the length of your travels.  We chose twistable colored pencils.  Lots of colors.  No sharpener required.  Big and little kids like them.

Make note that mobile hotspots can be finicky.  You may want to stop at a coffee shop with free Wifi for a bit to stretch your legs, and get some online learning done.  Be willing to be patient if you are going to rely on the internet.

 

Field Trips Count

Out of 9 school days on the road, we spent 5 days on legitimate field trips.  Therefore, I actually dropped one of our current minor subjects for each child, and replaced it with field trips.

Viewing, reading, hearing, discussing, and experiencing what the world has to offer in the past, present, and future counts as an education.  A very rich education, at that.

If you want to extend the experience, consider having your kids document what they have learned in written, artistic, or oral presentations.

Or, we love Junior Ranger programs at the National Parks.  Did you know that 4^th graders get a year of National Park access for the whole family for free?  Even if you don’t have a 4^th grader, the rate for a year of National Park access is soooo reasonable that we invested in that.  Now I’ve been eyeing these Junior Passports to the National Parks.

Also, we allow our children to choose postcards to send their godparents from our adventures.  Needless to say this covers letter writing, grammar, punctuation, spelling…

Accumulate School Days

Whenever we travel, vacation, have a new baby, enjoy the summer months, celebrate holidays… we accumulate school days.

I blogged about that method over here, and I also discuss it in our Homeschooling Through the Holidays Video Series.

Basically, we had to get a certain number of days of traditional school work done (excluding those 5 field trips).  It didn’t much matter to me when it happened.  We could be flexible bout our time and schedule, and still be consistent with their education.  The goal is learning.

Batch Items

I always batch some school “wants and needs” each year, and this year was no exception.  You can read more about batching here, or you can watch a video about batching.

Basically, this means that I don’t have to do all. the. things. all. the. time. while we’re homeschooling.  I brought my 5^th grader’s science textbook, but I didn’t worry about experiments because I know that we’ll do those all together in a few weeks.

 

 

Don’t Forget the Games!

There are many small, compact games that can come with you on your next trip.  Not only are games fun bonding opportunities, but they also teach strategic and problem-solving skills that are nearly impossible to get from a textbook.

You can read about our favorite compact games for under $10 here.

Our roadschooling plan did not specifically include games – they were added after the fact.  But with a carefully curated collection of games, you could cover math, science, logic… and more.

Perhaps you make “games” or “logic and strategy” a priority in your homeschool while traveling?  What priorities can you approach through games?

Here are the games that made the cut for us:

• Valence Plus (not small, but it’s our big kids’ current favorite)
• Set
• Quixx
• Plain, Old Cards
• Monopoly Deal
• Spot It

It took me about 20 minutes to collect all of our “school supplies” for 4 children (and take the obligatory Instagram photos).  The items all fit easily into overhead compartments with room to spare.  We sharpened a ton of pencils, and brought them along.

 

 

 

So there you have it!  Our roadschooling plan!  This is generally how we travel and homeschool whether we’re snowbirding in Florida, visiting family in Virginia, or seeing the world while I speak at conventions.

I’d love to hear whether you roadschool, or what you think of our roadschooling plan?  Please comment below!  What questions do you have about how to travel and homeschool?

Wishing you all the simple things,
Zara

 

PS- If you’d like to learn more about how to apply minimalism to your homeschool, that’s what I’m here for!  Here are 3 ways I can help you have a simple, valuable homeschool right now, for people at every level:

1.  I just want to find-out more, and connect with people making the switch.
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