A Day in the Life of a Roadschooler

 

 

We are a traveling family that schools along the way. We homeschool on the road. We are Roadschoolers.

Roadschoolers are a very small segment of the growing population of homeschoolers (3.4% of the American school aged population) who choose to make the world their classroom. The bulk of our instruction centers around our present geographical location and what learning opportunities it has to offer. For example, if we are in Yosemite National Park, we might take a hike and take note of all the things we see by drawing or taking pictures.  We might couple that field trip with a lesson on volcanoes, erosion and types of rock and work to get a Junior Ranger Badge.  Our writing assignments will coincide with the “experience de jour”.  From that hike, we could let our minds wander and pen a creative story of what we found on that hike. The possibilities are really endless. A biography about John Muir can be studied and our reading assignments might be geared toward the animals that live in the area. We might visit a museum or two to reinforce what we are learning. All of this is joined with a solid math program and plethora of rich literature, including the Bible and it’s teachings and it is my belief that you have one solid education. At least for the first grade.

Of course, not everyday is as magical as the lessons that Yosemite can lend but we always try and make the most of it.

Some days can go like this.

It’s a travel day and we hurry to get some reading in before breakfast along with some spelling words. Then it’s time to break the motorhome down and pack up to get on the road. Damn! One of the awnings over the window won’t retract. Everything comes to a screeching halt! Internet searches for possible solutions turn up nothing. We have to find a mobile repairman. Is he reputable? How many stars on Yelp? After an hour of You tube “How to” videos and fuse plug changes we get it to work.

On our journey we go. As we travel down the road we write about the museum we visited yesterday, but the roads in Mississippi are so horribly bumpy, it all looks like scribble!!

Ok, let’s regroup. Maybe some read aloud and Math facts. Oh no! Pman’s Sea-band isn’t on right and those aforementioned Mississippi roads have force an encore appearance of his lunch!

Clean up time. Dramamine it is.

We finally get to our destination for the day just in time for our entomology scavenger hunt that goes with our science lesson. What? Monsoon rains and tornado warnings?

Looks like we’ll have to settle for cartwheels, horsey rides and Netflix in the living room/bedroom/kitchen. That’s okay we always have tomorrow.

Most days our Roadschooling experience is somewhere in between magical and obsurd, but we get plenty of both. That’s what keeps us eager to see what the next day brings. We know in the grand scheme of things everything always works out. After all, we are all learning to live and living to learn. And that is what this whole thing is all about.