Written by Crissa Boyink in Homeschooling
Get ideas, inspiration and confidence from families schooling on the move.
Ditching the suburbs means taking responsibility for your kids’ education. This excites some people while terrifying others.
How do you make sure your kids:
Don’t fall behind their peers?
Learn age-appropriate subjects?
Are prepared for college?
We tapped our sources for input from RV families, sailing/boating families, and globetrotting families. They responded and we gathered up 27 different real-world examples of on-the-move homeschooling for you to learn from and be inspired by!
If you are also homeschooling on the road, sea, or air be sure to add your story in the comments at the bottom of the page.
RV Families
These families live in motorhomes, caravans, busses or trailers and drive from location to location. How do they school their kids?
1. Connie Perry (The Unpredictable Perrys)
How many kids do you have?
Two.
Perry kids taking the Junior Ranger Pledge.
What are their ages?
They are twins and are almost 12.
How did you school before ditching?
They went to public school until the middle of second grade.
How are you schooling now?
We are now homeschooling while traveling full time in our RV.
We have almost completed our 4th full year of what I like to call roadschooling. It’s a bit different than homeschooling in that we not only use books to school, but also use travel as a guide to our curriculum.
What’s been your biggest success?
Having our kids excited about what they are learning. When they are eager to share what they just learned or want to research more in depth it gives me satisfaction that we made the right choice.
What’s your biggest challenge?
Finding our groove:
How much work is enough?
How much is too much?
Should we use a boxed, all inclusive curriculum?
We found that by encouraging our children to help with these decisions they took ownership of their education. We still have struggles, but when they choose the subjects they want to focus on they are excited to learn.
For example, they chose to study Latin for two years, but next year they want to move on to French. Our son chose Anatomy, while our daughter wanted to focus on Marine Biology.
We also incorporate National Parks and local interests into our lives. This is not something we do very formally, but it rounds out our written work.
Where can we learn more about you?
http://www.unpredictableperryscontinued.wordpress.com
2. Bekah Dirkse (Life in the 5th Lane)
How many kids do you have?
Two children are traveling with us, we have a baby on the way due in September, and a daughter who is grown and married living in our home state.
What are their ages?
Our daughter is 10 and our son is 8.
Dirkse kids in Washington, DC.
How did you school before ditching?
They went to private school prior to the 2015/2016 school year. We homeschooled in our “sticks and bricks” home from September to January.
How are you schooling now?
On January 3rd we hit the road in our 42ft 5th wheel and have been “roadschooling” ever since.
What’s been your biggest success?
I don’t think there is any one big success that sticks out for us. Our kids loved the school they attended and they did well there.
Our daughter definitely had some anxiety issues with certain things though. She seems to have less anxiety now and she truly enjoys learning.
Our son is very happy-go-lucky. He enjoyed going to school but he often comments now that he loves being home schooled and “living the RV life.” He is high energy and I think it helps him immensely to be able to move his body as often as he needs.
His reading skills really took off since being home schooled. He went from knowing some sight words that he learned in kindergarten to reading chapter books.
Since hitting the road, we have been in 13 different states. My kids have learned about American history and president Andrew Jackson from a walking tour of New Orleans. They learned about NASA at the John C. Stennis Space Center in Mississippi.
We learned about different types of marine life in the Gulf of Mexico during a boat tour where marine biologists sort through special nets and let the passengers hold and touch different species before releasing them back into their habitat.
We panned for fossils in the Peace River in Florida and found fossilized shark teeth.
We observed wild horses, peregrine falcons, stingrays, crabs, starfish, and so much more on Cumberland Island, GA.
We viewed the Declaration of Independence, the U.S. Constitution, and the Bill of Rights in Washington D.C. where we visited the National Mall, the Smithsonian Museum of Natural History and the Smithsonian Air and Space Museum.
This is all just the tip of the iceberg. I’d say that is a pretty good success. :)
What’s your biggest challenge?
Trying to do too much at each of the places we visit. We all need down time.
When we have a week in a new city though, it’s hard to remember that this isn’t really vacation and we can’t keep squeezing every single thing into our schedule week after week. It’s exhausting.
Also, my daughter has a hard time saying goodbye to friends and family that we visit with while traveling. We will be going back to our home state this week to spend some time with family there and she is very excited, but at the same time, she doesn’t want to leave the family we are visiting right now.
I’m hoping this will get easier as we continue this lifestyle.
Where can we learn more about you?
https://www.facebook.com/Life-in-the-5th-Lane-888213841274671/
3. Monica King (Our Kingly Expedition)
How many kids do you have?
Four.
What are their ages?
7 (just starting third grade), 4.5 (first grade), 3 (preschool), and 1 year.
The King kids roadschooling.
How did you school before ditching?
Much of our early learning is tied to life skills but we also did traditional home school. Christian Light Education mixed with A Beka is our favorite curriculum so far.
How are you schooling now?
The basics are the same. Our schedule is much more flexible and we school year round so that we can take each day as it comes.
We also do MANY more fun things like the Jr. Ranger Program at National Parks, hiking, sight-seeing, and learning all we can from everyday life.
What’s been your biggest success?
Listening to a child read a book and realize that I taught them that. It’s also amazing to teach them life skills - you know, cooking and emptying the black tank :) .
What’s your biggest challenge?
I often feel very distracted by the youngest child and that I can’t give full attention when needed. It’s hard to find a balance and juggle everything.
Where can we learn more about you?
http://ourkinglyexpedition.blogspot.com
4. Tara Weed
Tom Sawyer Days in Hannibal, MO
How many kids do you have?
Three.
What are their ages?
9, 14, and 18
How did you school before ditching?
They never went to school and were raised on the road.
How are you schooling now?
We have always unschooled.
What’s been your biggest success?
Watching my oldest start college credit classes this Jan and making the transition from unschooling look easy.
What’s your biggest challenge?
Having patience to know they will get where they need to go on their own time frame.
5. Emily Vetetoe (The Vetetoe Family)
How many kids do you have?
Three.
What are their ages?
5 (k/1st), 3 (pre-k), and 1 (just along for the adventure).
Learning in the woods.
How did you school before ditching?
We were attempting some tot schooling without even realizing it.
How are you schooling now?
We’re using an eclectic approach that includes a variety of curriculum, manipulatives, unit studies, and other various methods.
What’s been your biggest success?
Realizing and accepting our schooling doesn’t have to look like “school”.
What’s your biggest challenge?
Patience while in the confined space and storage for my book hoarding tendencies. Reading is so big for me!
Where can we learn more about you?
Blog: http://www.thevetetoefamily.com
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/TheVetetoeFamily
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/the.vetetoe.family
6. Jennifer Schillaci (Narrow RoadSchoolers)
How many kids do you have?
Seven but only six on the road with us.
What are their ages?
Five boys ages 16,14, 11, 6, and 4. One 9 yr old girl.
The Narrow Roadschoolers
How did you school before ditching?
Homeschooled using a cross between unit studies and KONOS.
How are you schooling now?
Unschooling.
My oldest son has taught himself guitar, everything from gypsy jazz to classic rock…. and a few in between.
Currently he is also passionate about Japanese culture so he has been cooking us Japanese meals and been learning how to read, write and speak japanese.
Our 9 year old daughter has found interest recently in birding and our neighbors this week are avid birders so we went out to a wildlife refuge with them and discovered shore birds in the desert.
What’s been your biggest success?
Watching them love learning.
What’s your biggest challenge?
Feeling like they get enough.
Where can we learn more about you?
https://www.facebook.com/narrowroadschoolers
7. Heather McKay Gebbia (4 Radical Roadschoolers and a Fat Cat)
How many kids do you have?
Two.
What are their ages?
11 and 9.
Gebbia kids (and no fat cat) at the Grand Canyon.
How did you school before ditching?
Homeschooled.
How are you schooling now?
We are roadschooling now—using the same curriculum we used before, but now also visiting lots of national parks and monuments and historical sites in places we visit.
What’s been your biggest success?
The kids are enjoying the outdoors more, hiking in parks and exploring nature.
What’s your biggest challenge?
Trying to fit it all in - feeling torn between trying to keep up with school work and enjoying the things to do where we are.
I’m getting better I think, easing off on feeling like I have to stay home and do school and instead getting out more and realizing the kids are learning much more at the places we visit than they will ever learn in a book.
Where can we learn more about you?
https://4radicalroadschoolersandafatcat.com/
8. Louci Saputo (The Trippin Saputos)
How many kids do you have?
Four.
What are their ages?
3, 5, 12, and 14.
Learning about Komodo dragons.
How did you school before ditching?
Public school until 2 months prior to going fulltime (which is when we began the “deschooling” process).
How are you schooling now?
Since starting with unschooling we are more relaxed and the kids are finally starting to think of topics on their own. We tried following a curriculum but it was just not for us.
We just began unschooling in December so it hasn’t been very long. Before then our school age kids were in public school and struggled.
Our son had a hard time figuring out what things he liked and would get frustrated and ask if I could just tell him something to do. Now he has new ideas everyday and he likes having the freedom to pursue his interests.
He was being bullied badly daily before but now his self esteem is improving. Being in the RV gives us more time to do fun stuff like go to the zoo.
We all like that.
What’s been your biggest success?
Seeing the positive changes in our older kids since leaving public school. Having freedom to let them learn.
What’s your biggest challenge?
Consistent internet service at our current very rural location.
Where can we learn more about you?
https://www.facebook.com/groups/thetrippinsaputos
Sailing/Boating Families
These families live on sailboats or motorboats. They move from location to location, visiting different countries around the world. How do they school their kids?
9. Sean Linnan
How many kids do you have?
Two
What are their ages?
10 and 8.
How are you schooling now?
Two hours a day of math workbooks, brain teasers, and spelling workbooks.
The older kid does the ships log book outlining what we did, where, times, places, etc. Both kids keep a journal which is about half a page and hand written.
Both also keep a “gratitude journal” of five sentences a few times a week. One sentence about what they like about themselves or are proud they did. One about a family member. One about the trip and two random thoughts.
Kids read at night in their beds for 1 - 2 hours (because they want to).
They drive the dinghy, plot courses on Paisley (our boat), map read, talk about the places and people, and talk about fish and life.
They build forts, fish, snorkel, and make friendship bracelets to sell at every stop (and make serious cash doing it).
We have hundreds of ukulele songs and both play 5 songs each twice each day. It’s a full day.
Formal education is the lowest priority of the day so if we go on a land expedition or need to do real boat chores the workbooks wait.
But our two kids are very quick learners and like the stuff so I don’t need to “stay on top of it”. If they need to get caught up . . . they will do an entire workbook in a day or two.
10. Lauren Lesser (Meandering Lessers)
How many kids do you have?
Three.
What are their ages?
10, 8 and 6 last year.
Boatschool Phys-ed.
How did you school before ditching?
State primary school.
How are you schooling now?
One year of boat school and now they are back at the state primary school.
What’s been your biggest success?
Realizing day to day book learning didn’t fit and changing to an unschooled approach.
We turned our trip into the classroom - how many miles was it to the next stop, how long that might take, history etc.
My son now reads at least two years above his class level.
What’s your biggest challenge?
Letting go of my dreams of happy schooling families.
I had hoped to be better organized but the month prior to leaving we were spending all our time doing boat prep and I didn’t take enough time to plan the schooling.
Then we started and it went badly because we still had stuff to do on the boat. We just gave the kids workbooks to keep them busy.
One downside is that now all three kids would rather do anything but go onto the boat. It’s sad as we made sure we did less than we had wanted to make sure it was as low key as possible.
We’ve been back on land for three months and are still pondering our experiences.
Our son is struggling with re-entry at school. He hates me leaving in the mornings and doesn’t want to do set work. He had one year of school, one year on the boat and now he is confused.
We’re really glad we took the year off. We think we’ve all grown and become closer in some ways but it wasn’t easy.
Hopefully one day the kids will appreciate their experiences. They are glad to have gone and happily talk with new adults about the trip - both the highlights and lowlights.
I am a trained teacher re-entering the workforce who thought this would be a breeze.
Where can we learn more about you?
http://meandering-lessers.blogspot.com/
11. Kristie Henry Weiss (Sale2Sail)
How many kids do you have?
We have one child.
What are their ages?
11 yo son.
School with a view.
How did you school before ditching?
Public/Charter School.
How are you schooling now?
World Schooling/Boat Schooling. We focus mainly on math and reading in the mornings. We do some type of history at every island we visit.
Science is all around us everyday, sailing, weather, snorkeling, etc. We also study maps of the world and our son will do the navigation whereever we go.
What’s been your biggest success?
His excitement to learn while exploring new places.
What’s your biggest challenge?
Sitting down to do English and Math.
Where can we learn more about you?
http://www.sale2sail.me
12. Beth Stauffer (The Coastal Family)
How many kids do you have?
Two kids.
What are their ages?
14 and 7.
Dad teaching the 14 YO how to sail.
How did you school before ditching?
We homeschooled for the last five years.
How are you schooling now?
Homeschool/Unschool.
I give my 14 year old subjects that he needs to learn, like science, history, math, etc. He chooses what he wants to learn within those subject areas and comes to tell me what he learned afterward.
I also have him write whatever he wants once a week and then we go over ways he can improve his writing.
The 7 year old is dyslexic, so we are primarily working on teaching him how to read using a curriculum for dyslexics.
He absolutely loves math and he enjoys the math-u-see curriculum, so he’s going through that. He consistently comes to tell us he has figured out a math problem that is beyond what he is learning from the curriculum.
For all other subjects, we talk about what he’s interested in and go off that. He is really interested in ocean life so we have an aquarium membership and we go there a lot.
We take as many field trips as possible. The primary thing with unschooling is that learning is never forced. They aren’t forced to learn things they aren’t interested in. When they want to learn something, we help facilitate that.
My older one is strongly considering being an airline pilot, so we are about to start finding him opportunities to learn more about that.
What’s been your biggest success?
Figuring out that the younger one has dyslexia and getting him to finally read using dyslexia model.
What’s your biggest challenge?
Getting the older one to realize he doesn’t need to be in the same classes he would be in if he were in public school; he needs to learn what he’s ready for instead of being pushed through due to what grade he’s in.
Where can we learn more about you?
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/thecoastalfamily
Blog: http://www.thecoastalfamily.wordpress.com
13. Belinda Govatos (Adventures of a Tribe)
How many kids do you have?
We have 11 creatures but 7 of them are older and are working or studying in the USA. So, 4 permanently on board.
What are their ages?
The oldest with us is 18, then 16 and twins that are 13.
Boatschooling in action.
How did you school before ditching?
They attended mostly public schools while we lived on land. Also a charter school in Hawaii for 4 years. I homeschooled the twins for almost a year before moving onto the boat.
How are you schooling now?
We are using the American School of Correspondence program.
What’s been your biggest success?
All the amazing family time we spend together exploring and learning new cultures and countries.
What’s your biggest challenge?
Not having wifi sometimes to look up information for school.
Where can we learn more about you?
http://www.adventuresofatribe.wordpress.com
14. Val Truch
How many kids do you have?
One son.
What are their ages?
4 and a half.
How did you school before ditching?
He went for a few months in public kindergarten in France.
How are you schooling now?
He loves numbers and always ask questions about everything (more random than you could ever imagine).
What’s been your biggest success?
Yesterday he did an IXL math first grade level and nailed it with 0 mistakes. I must say at his age it is very easy to homeschool, as long as you manage to make it look like a game.
What’s your biggest challenge?
When I want to actually sit down and do some “real” work.
15. Lisa Carswell Presnell (SV Piper)
How many kids do you have?
Two
What are their ages?
Boy age 8 and a girl age 7.
Learning teamwork, communication, simple machines, & physics.
How did you school before ditching?
Both attended a public charter school. Finn completed 1st grade and Mackie completed kindergarten before we left in June 2014.
How are you schooling now?
We started with a very structured routine using several different curriculums based on The Well Trained Mind.
Now we tend to lean to unschooling with a strong focus on math (using Singapore math), reading (both independent and read aloud), and writing.
It is not a daily routine and we try to focus on incorporating school into all we do.
What’s been your biggest success?
Learning to take a deep breath and not forcing anything.
What’s your biggest challenge?
Stop beating ourselves up and beating our heads against a wall. For example our oldest, once we stepped back, really dove into reading. It “clicked” and now he loves it.
It’s amazing to see how closely tied our successes are to our challenges.
Where can we learn more about you?
https://www.facebook.com/piperandtink/
16. Nadine Slavinski (Namani At Sea)
How many kids do you have?
One.
What are their ages?
7-11 for the years we sailed from Maine to Australia.
Taking notes.
How did you school before ditching?
Regular school.
How are you schooling now?
He is back to the same school. While sailing we roughly followed the school curriculum but as time went on we mostly used it as a guideline.
What’s been your biggest success?
Instilling a sense of independence and allowing our son to pursue his interests in depth. In a broader context our greatest success is giving our family a sense of being a true team.
What’s your biggest challenge?
Covering the less exciting parts of the curriculum!
Where can we learn more about you?
http://www.namaniatsea.org/
17. Jen (SV Perry)
How many kids do you have?
Two.
What are their ages?
8 and 9.
The boys from SV Perry.
How did you school before ditching?
The older one went to public school until the first grade and the younger one was only in preschool.
How are you schooling now?
We currently use a variety of methods and are generally flexible in our goal of covering all the knowledge areas we think that they should have.
We are more structured with math and focus on lots of practice when needed.
The kids read all the time.
They write about the places they have visited. The older one loves writing blog posts about his experiences when we have internet.
We have traveled throughout the Caribbean and Pacific and had amazing experiences.
What’s been your biggest success?
Spending time together as a family during our kids’ formative years and sharing many once-in-a-lifetime experiences.
What’s your biggest challenge?
Getting the kids motivated to do the more formalized aspects of school and to listen to their parents. Our eldest loved his teachers and that gave him motivation to try.
Where can we learn more about you?
Blog: http://www.svperry.com
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/sv.perry.9
18. Buddy Mira (The Life Nomadik)
How many kids do you have?
One daughter.
What are their ages?
12 years old.
Boatschooling in action.
How did you school before ditching?
Public school in Quebec until second grade.
How are you schooling now?
Unschooled / boatschooled since 2012. Maya has books and manuals in English, French and Spanish (she also speaks Bulgarian) and we don’t follow any particular program.
We use cruising guides, pamphlets, magazines and whatever we find as school materials.
What’s been your biggest success?
Maya realized the importance of knowledge, no matter if you get it in school or outside of school. She is interested in learning and reading and is confident about studying outside the school system.
What’s your biggest challenge?
Math - the one subject she doesn’t like but has to do. All other subjects, themes, and lessons are her choice.
Where can we learn more about you?
http://www.thelifenomadik.com/
19. Michelle Elvy (SV MOMO)
How many kids do you have?
Two daughters.
What are their ages?
14 and 11.
Boatschool biology.
How did you school before ditching?
We did not school when they were young - now we have a NZ-based correspondence programme.
How are you schooling now?
We work with Te Kura, the NZ-govt-sponsored curriculum.
What’s been your biggest success?
Raising our daughters away from mainstream schooling and ensuring they can think on their own and outside the box.
What’s your biggest challenge?
As they reach advanced maths and science—not my fields.
We feel it’s important to keep on track enough that they can go to uni or whatever post-secondary-school opportunities they seek, so we look to make sure they gain a well-rounded background.
Where can we learn more about you?
http://svmomo.blogspot.com/
20. Bill Jackson
How many kids do you have?
Two.
What are their ages?
7 and 4.
Learning how to be mermaids.
How did you school before ditching?
We’ve been doing this 3 years so besides pre-k for the 7 yr old there was no other former school.
How are you schooling now?
We school for about two hours a day until lunch, which includes about a half hour independent reading.
Then it’s swimming, snorkeling, sand castle building, coconut gathering, spear fishing, machete class, hut building, line fishing, trolling fishing, back to swimming . . . oops its dinner time.
Rinse. Repeat . . .
What’s been your biggest success?
Homeschooling is rewarding. Boat schooling is over the top amazing!
What’s your biggest challenge?
When they arent “getting it” and typically we tag team when frustration sets in.
They also don’t realize how good they have it. I threatened once to hit a dock and enroll in school, butts on the bus at 7am . . .
Remember always be yourself, unless you can be a mermaid. Then be a mermaid.
21. Deb Perfitt (Coastal Drifter)
We have a little different spin on Coastal Drifter, being that every year we invite one of our 7 grandkids to join us for a year. Last year we had 2! Sierra 12 and Savannah 11. This year we have Ethan 11.
We invite the child who is between the ages of 11-13. We have found that this age group benefits the most for this period of time cruising.
Schooling with other cruising kids.
As each child must re-enter their respective school and lifestyle after a year, we try to ensure that they don’t have gaps in education when they return. Therefore we have a more structured “boat school” program.
How many kids do you have?
One.
What are their ages?
Ethan is 11 turning 12 end of June.
How did you school before ditching?
Conventional public school.
How are you schooling now?
We try to follow the Ontario, Canadian Curriculum as he will be going home in August.
What’s been your biggest success?
We are very happy that Ethan has not only completed some programs in his current grade (Grade 6) but has also completed the history, geography and science in grade 7.
What’s your biggest challenge?
Getting enough materials to satisfy his interests, my learning curve to teach, and connectivity to download interesting topics (ie YouTube). Would love to tap into programs like Bill Nye!!
Where can we learn more about you?
http://www.coastaldrifter.ca/
22. Eveline Maas (Sailing Mallemok)
How many kids do you have?
One son.
What are their ages?
3 and a half.
Letters everywhere!
How are you schooling now?
During our wintering in Port-St-Louis-du-Rhône he went to local day care.
As of age three French kids go to school, but we felt he would be better off at day care. It offered more flexibility (we chose 3 days a week, Mon, Wed, Fri).
He loved playing there and after a few months he understands basic French. He says some things in French, sometimes spontaneously and also in responses if I ask or say something in French.
On board we let him play with a lot of numbers, counting, ABC songs in Dutch and English, ABC letters and stamps, and we read a lot of books with him.
He shows a high interest for letters and as soon as he indicated that he wants to play with his letters, we stimulate him and practice words - mainly those based on beginning letters in two or three different languages.
He is now starting to ask about letters on signs outside. I play the game along and tell him which letter he touches and give him at least one word that starts with this letter.
We believe that rather than using more formal ‘teaching methods’ and calling something ‘school’ we will just play with him around educational topics, like we do with the alphabet.
We do the same with counting - always introducing a play element (I guess this is what people mean with “unschooling” which is still a new term for me).
I do believe that the earlier one starts, and hooking up with the interests shown by the child, the more fun learning becomes (without even calling it learning or teaching/schooling)
What’s been your biggest success?
Finding a way for Max to get ‘formal education’ combined with playful learning by us.
What’s your biggest challenge?
Getting the ‘right’ material that is suited for his development phases.
Where can we learn more about you?
https://www.facebook.com/sailingmallemok/
Globetrotting Families
These families live out of suitcases and backpacks, using airlines and local transportation to move around, renting houses, hotel rooms or using AirBnB to find housing. How do they school their kids?
23. Kimberly Gallap (Soul Shine Kids)
How many kids do you have?
Two kids, a boy and a girl.
What are their ages?
9 and 7.
A new friend.
How did you school before ditching?
My oldest went to 3 years of public school before I pulled him out. My youngest has always been unschooled.
How are you schooling now?
We are unschoolers/worldschoolers. I help them learn what they are interested in and try to provide as many learning adventures as possible.
What’s been your biggest success?
Letting go of any preconceived notions of how they “should” be learning and going with the flow.
For example, my son and I are avid readers and my daughter is still learning. I used to feel pressured to get her reading by a certain age and she could sense that. She rejected any sort of reading “lesson”.
Once I let go of control, it was beautiful to see how/what she learns in her own way and time!!
What’s your biggest challenge?
Not being financially able to take them all the places we would like to travel to!
Where can we learn more about you?
https://www.facebook.com/soulshinekids/
24. Erin Greene
How many kids do you have?
Two.
What are their ages?
Boy 9, girl 5.
Is there a carnivorous one in there?
How did you school before ditching?
Co-op preschool and Public school.
How are you schooling now?
The 9yr old does workbooks for math and language arts, typing and computer coding games online, and journaling travels.
The 5 yr old is working with general abc/numbers workbook, magnet letters, white board, playdough and random craft supplies.
Both kids learn through educational apps on tablet, field trips, exploring nature and local parks, and libraries.
We do unit studies inspired by the area we’re in.
For example, Berkley Botanical Garden has carnivorous plants and a free docent tour so we attended that then researched more and made a book with sketches, pictures and facts.
We found more carnivorous plant info at the rainforest exhibit of CA Academy of Science later that week.
Oh and maps! Our 9 yr old can navigate and with help can plan a day trip using public transit including what to budget for bus fare and admission costs and budget for lunch or help pack a picnic.
What’s been your biggest success?
I feel it’s taken us about a year to realize what to pack for a nomad classroom.
We went from a bookshelf at home to a tote in the car to a backpack.
We drive or fly to places in USA and stay in hotels when my husband is on a contract job for 3-8 weeks, 4-5x/yr. We also camp on our sailboat often.
We choose to keep a couple textbooks, but realizing we can ditch science and social studies curriculum when traveling has allowed more freedom to learn about local culture like:
The history of California missions and swallows at San Juan Capistrano
The early gold rush and railroad when visiting San Francisco’s Chinatown
How the Asian workers were treated during that time and a bit about employee rights today
Then there’s the impromptu learning from questions like when we passed through their first toll bridge and we discussed collection and use of taxes!
My son has clued into how things are connected, and how stuff “counts as learning.” He’ll say “oh, this counts as science for today, right?”
We do school year round so if we do some book work in the morning then hang out at the beach the rest of the afternoon it’s guilt free!
What’s your biggest challenge?
We’ve had to be intentional about finding community connections - maybe because staying in a hotel is not as neighborly as a marina or campground.
Some ways we have learned to find community:
We enjoy attending church and most communities have at least a Sunday morning service so now we have a few even with midweek children’s ministry programs we enjoy returning to.
Libraries have family events posted.
If we go to parks after 3pm we’re more likely to meet school age peers for our son (otherwise it seems only Pre-K kids are out).
Yelp is my best friend when traveling!
The city chamber of commerce often has a calendar of community events.
YMCA is also great.
We just have to be proactive in being where locals are likely to play and visit.
25. Brandon Pearce (Pearce On Earth)
How many kids do you have?
Three.
What are their ages?
12, 10, and 4.
Laying down a groove.
How did you school before ditching?
Only preschool (we started traveling/homeschooling when they were 5 and 3 – the third was born on the road).
How are you schooling now?
Worldschooling/unschooling.
We don’t formally teach them, or use a curriculum, but they do take some classes in subjects they’re interested in - both online and in the local communities we visit.
Some current/recent classes they’ve taken include:
Singing
Songwriting
Irish dance
Art
/>
Digital art
Math
Besides the classes we do:
Read together as a family
Watch an occasional documentary
Learn through museums, travel activities and daily life
If they want to learn something, however, they know how to find the information online.
What’s been your biggest success?
My 12 year old daughter has many passions, but has become a talented singer/songwriter, and is even selling her music on iTunes.
Check out one of her recent music videos about how she misses people when she travels.
What’s your biggest challenge?
Moving too quickly, which reduces our options for local activities that require an x week commitment.
Where can we learn more about you?
Blog: http://pearceonearth.com
Facebook: http://facebook.com/pearceonearth
Instagram: http://instagram.com/pearceonearth
26. Angharad Wrigley (The Wrigleys Do Europe)
How many kids do you have?
Two.
What are their ages?
8 and 11.
Phys-ed on the beach.
How did you school before ditching?
Normal primary school in the UK.
How are you schooling now?
By travelling and experience with a little maths/spellings/journal writing thrown in for good measure.
What’s been your biggest success?
My 11 year old telling me he thinks he’s falling in love with maths. He always felt inadequate at school but now with undivided attention (albeit for very short periods of time) he gets it.
Also finding sports that my son enjoys, surfing and ice skating!
What’s your biggest challenge?
I haven’t yet faced it!
It will be convincing their father that this is more than a year’s jolly and that it can actually be a way of life and it will be far better for the boys than attending school.
Where can we learn more about you?
https://www.facebook.com/Thewrigleysdoeurope/
27. Jennifer Taylor (Travel Teach Talk)
How many kids do you have?
Three.
Phys-ed with a view.
What are their ages?
17, 16 and 12 - so at the (for us scarier) top of the road schooling range.
How did you school before ditching?
We moved to France where there was a local rural single-class school for primary, state secondary. We took them out of school 2013/14 to travel in a campervan.
We followed (very loosely) the curriculum for approximately one hour per day. Our kids were at the same level as their peers when we returned.
How are you schooling now?
They all went back to the state school in France for a year, but they were conflicted by the realization that school wasn’t as efficient and good at encouraging learning and the desire to learn as it could be.
Our youngest chose to leave school and unschool. The older two remain at school - one leaves this year post baccalaureate to work in Thailand and the other still has a couple of years to go.
What’s been your biggest success?
Getting Katie (youngest) interested in and growing her confidence in maths by looking for practical applications. Possibly I was more blown away by the Fibonacci sequence and its presence in flowers and plants than she was!
But it was great to learn about it together, and that maths isn’t just a workbook of sums.
What’s your biggest challenge?
Stepping out of the “school” mode, particularly us as parents, mainly because we were ourselves part of that system for so long.
Also the fear of letting go of the “norm” when we had family chipping away at the potential negatives of what we were doing.
We needed to build our own confidence in our kids’ ability to learn - which I know all about in theory; when it’s so close to home it’s a little scarier!
I’d also add that in France one of the biggest challenges is combining unschooling with an annual inspection which is at the opposite end of the spectrum.
Where can we learn more about you?
http://www.travelteachtalk.com
Homeschooling On-the-Move Resources
Need more ideas, input, or community with other suburbia-ditchers? Here are some links for you to investigate:
Kids4Sail Facebook Group
Ditching Suburbia Facebook Group
Fulltime (RV) Families Facebook Group
Location Independent Families Facebook Group
Elementary Homeschooling Resources
Middle School Homeschooling Resources
High School Homeschooling Resources
Back To You
Are you already homeschooling on the move? Feel free to add your approach in the comments below. Here are the questions we hope you can answer:
How many kids do you have?
What are their ages?
How did you school before?
How are you schooling now?
What’s been your biggest success?
What’s your biggest challenge?
Link to your website/facebook page
Help Spread the Word!
Pin this article on Pinterest