Homeschooling on the road, what do you really need?
Which things do you really need to homeschool on the road? (Some may call his homeschool, unschool, world school, travel school or even roam school). What books, supplies, materials, equipment and resources do you need to carry with you?
It’s really not much, I’m not here to give you endless lists, you don’t really need to spend a ton on curriculums and materials.
We have been road / unschooling for 3 years now, and every time we hit the road to travel, we bring less materials and less books, except for the kindle, we never leave the house without our kindle – Lol.
It took some time to adjust to this lifestyle, learning more with less, because before we started homeschooling and road schooling, we were your ordinary public-school family, learning and studying for every test, forgetting about the subject the very next day.
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My boys are now teenagers, my oldest even an adult, earning his own money these days, but we still continue to travel and spend a lot of quality time together.
During these travels we take in a lot of education form the world around us, and always seek for learning opportunities.
My children, most likely, will not re-enter the school system unless it is their choice. Our learning is mostly child led, unschooling, but we do discuss learning goals, just not with strict scheduling, instead we use it as a guidance, I think it’s really helpful to have goals, vision boards are great for this use to.
We normally would be tied by school curriculum, annual testing, timetables and schedules - Europe-, but because we started world schooling, we don’t have to follow these restrictions any more.
After a long period of deschooling, especially myself, I needed to let go of the idea of learning with a curriculum, and that not everything is learned at school or because of books.
The boys are signed up with an umbrella school in the United States, we searched for one who works with the unschooling approach, this way they collect credits, are able to participate the CAT test, and if they choose, are able to apply for any university of choosing.
So long story short, we do written work, the boys enjoy writing stories, especially about our travels, but don’t like to call it journaling. We don’t do lessons, except the ones we choose like online art and mathematics classes (yeah, I know), the recently joined a (free) online class that gets creative with words, and the impact from words, and how you could easily change these words with positive words. Thinking outside the box at your finest!
We do enjoy free websites like Khan and Anton.com, I think this is the public school still hanging on a litte bit, and that's totally fine. Because that's the beauty of homeschooling, finding the way that fits your family.
Online school and Traveling
For us, online school or distance education wasn’t an option, mostly very expensive, and its school, just without the bricks and mortar. We had our experience during the lockdown, with the forced online schooling, so called distance learning in Austria, and we didn’t care for this option, we found it too restrictive and expensive. You will need materials posted to you, scheduled lessons times, and lose all your spontaneity.
I think online schools are great so lang you’re not traveling, but they’re not homeschooling. I will consider this route if we want them to pass exam fast.
Play and time, are the most important things.
During our deschool period I have noticed how much kids are learning during play, I just needed to be present, reading, cooking or crafting myself, giving the boys time for their own explorations, this was the time where all 3 started picking up books and reading. Played hours and hours with legos, or asked if they could bake or cook something.
Beneficial for myself, spending more time in the here and now, and less with my phone.
This is the Wood Log Cabin, build by the boys Autum 2023, mostly by themselves with a little help from friends, we love to sit and chill, make lunch or dinner on open fire and just enjoy nature.
Reading materials for homeschooling
Luckily my boys nowadays enjoy reading books, but they didn’t during public school, I have always provided them with books, read out loud, comic books and books with fact and jokes, it doesn’t matter, as long it has words in it.
We love going to libraries, bookstores or flee-markets, luckily for us the boys are bilingual, we almost always find something worth reading. If we do buy books during travels, because we really wanted to read it, or it was cheaper buying a book, we just donate it to other families or leave it at the campground/ hotel for others to read.
Our number one choice is the Kindle Paperlight, instead of the Kindle Fire the paperlight is a book and that’s all.
Paper and writing Materials
You will never see us without a stash of pencils, different shades of black, rubbers (erasers) on the end, a sharpener, a small and bigger ruler and colored pencils.
We don’t bring felt tips on travels anymore, because of the risk of leaking (yes, this is from experience) so we leave them at our home base.
Kid’s normally just need a sketch pad for their art and a notepad for writing, games like online chess or Minecraft and or maths.
The boys are getting pretty good sketching, thanks to online classes and YouTube.
A computer is essential for homeschooling
Nowadays we travel with laptops for all of us if we’re doing any sort of long-term travel. At first, I shared mine, but now I need it to work, edit and or plan, so they needed their own. At first, I thought tablet would be the easiest and cheapest option, but laptop works better and doesn’t take that much more space, and are easier to regulate.
Of course my boys are older, teenagers, we use the laptop not only for learning but also social purposes, this is how they stay in touch with their buddies during travels.
When they were little, of course, they didn’t have any devices other then Spotify and kindle for audio books.
And it is age dependent, all 3 are older now and have phones, and sometimes one does use it more the I wished for, if this does happen we talk about it, set times and I let my son choose what works for him, but luckily they all love reading and drawing, and know the world is bigger than that screen, so it works for us.
We do own 2 Nintendo switches, and im thinking about selling the devices because nobody’s using them.
What we learn on the laptop
Most parents just assume the boys are hooked to their laptops, just to play games. So let me tell you about the learning purposes.
· Learn to use a computer well, that’s pretty essential
· Acces YouTube, read out loud, documentary, cooking you name it, we love short history videos
· Learn about video editing, photo and graphics design
· Research topics of interest, make lapbooks
· Learn to type
· Learn coding
· Learn how to make websites
· Talk and play with online games
· I would love for them to start their own blog
· Online courses, my youngest just started with free Harvard courses, khan academy, Artventure, and Anton
Workbooks during worldschool
Especially in the beginning we had to carry so many workbooks with us, due to the Restrictions in our country. But we still enjoy workbooks, we love to go to bookstores wherever go and see what’s available, sometimes you find really fun learning workbooks. During our long stay in Chicago, we even ordered workbooks from amazon, the creative writing from Roald Dahl and science workbooks.
We don’t use them regularly, only when we are bored, don’t have internet, or need to cut the screen-time. Coloring books, Mandela, stickman and crosswords are always a great alternative.
Online learning recourses
We’ve tried several, and for us Khan, Anton and Harvard are the best options, but we have friends who really enjoy study ladder.
Easy peasy is convenient, the kids have to upload whatever works has been done, so I could easily keep track, we don’t use this at the moment.
We like to use it for fun, earn credits for the umbrella school, and in the beginning of our journey I used to to stay up to date, ahead, or on track.
So, do you need a lot?
Basically, I would say you only really need sketch books and drawings items; the laptop is not a necessity when it comes to learning. It does makes it easier, we watch chemistry experiments, watch movies in new languages or follow courses, most if it is free. I would say most travels its mostly untouched, unless we have bad weather or located in an unsafe neighborhood forcing us to stay inside more than planned.
We really like to bring binoculars, little bit of lego, and rubrics cubes…
At home we have all the fancy equipment, so we prefer to travel light.
A lot just depends on you, and your child’s interest, maybe he or she likes coloring books, Sudoku or crosswords . It is easy and fun to try Sudoku or word searches alongside you. It really depends on your family and your personal hobbies and interests what works for you, so keep an open mind and always try new things, we really enjoy hangman at the moment.
Mine liked Minecraft and wanted to build his own server, because of this he is now learning computer languages, and building his own website. In multiple languages, and all this because of child led learning, unschooling, worldschool or however you would like to call this freedom of learning.
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