Are you thinking about travel homeschooling and aren’t sure what to expect?
Travelschooling, sometimes referred to as Worldschooling or Roadschooling, is a great way to help children learn from real-life experience. Many families are selling most of their possessions and traveling full-time. Children cannot be part of a traditional school since they are moving from place to place often. There are many challenges of homeschooling while traveling, such as lack of support, judgment from others, and staying organized while traveling. Even though there are challenges, the benefits far outweigh the challenges. Children get to see historical sites first-hand, witness scientific events like the Northern Lights and volcanoes erupting, and traveling as a family creates a strong bond and many memories.
There are a few things you should know before you get started. In this blog post, we’ll share some of the things we wish we would have known before travel homeschooling.
1. Some People Will Think You Are Weird
It’s inevitable that when you tell people you are homeschooling your kids on the road, they will give you a funny look and ask lots of questions.
People just don’t know what to make of it. They might think that your children aren’t getting a “proper education.”
Just smile and politely educate them.
Live a life that makes you happy – create the life you love.
2. Staying on Schedule is Harder When Traveling
One of the challenges of travel homeschooling is that it’s hard to stay on a schedule when you’re always moving.
There are so many distractions and new things to see and do, that it’s often hard to stick to a routine.
Try your best but don’t be too hard on yourself if things don’t go as planned.
I’ve found that by using an hourly planner, I can structure my day and plan our lessons around our travel plans. Here’s more scheduling tips!
KAICN Daily Planner is the one I love.
3. Memories Are Much More Vivid When Seen in Person
When you travel and see things first-hand, your memories of those places are much more vivid than if you had just seen pictures or read about them. This is a great way to learn and remember history.
For example, when we visited the Everglades, my son could tell me all about it for months because he had witnessed it first hand.
History comes alive when you walk through the actual sites such as the Alamo. You can picture what happened there so much more clearly.
Also, kids really have no idea how big animals really are until they see them in person. Go to the zoo, take an airboat ride, and visit the aquarium.
4. Travel Homeschooling Actually Takes Less Time
One of the benefits of travel homeschooling is that it actually takes less time than traditional schooling. This is because you don’t have to spend time on homework and can focus more on learning through experience.
One trick I’ve found helpful is to do school lessons while traveling, before reaching the destination. You can save so much time doing this. Once you arrive, everyone will be ready to go exploring – where the learning continues!
Also, keep in mind that homeschooling takes less than half the time that traditional schools take. Here’s more information about why.
5. You Won’t Have a Babysitter When You Travel
One of the drawbacks to travel homeschooling is that you don’t have a babysitter when you’re on the road.
While family and friends can travel to meet up with you, most of the time it will be immediate family only, meaning no grandparents to babysit for date night.
It’s an adjustment, but being together as a family is one of the main reasons people decide to travel! Almost everyone tells young parents to enjoy it because it goes fast. We have the opportunity to enjoy our extra time together and soak up as much time as possible.
6. It Can Be Hard to Find WiFi While Traveling
Another challenge of travel homeschooling is that it can be hard to find WiFi while traveling. This can make it difficult to do school work or even just keep in touch with friends and family.
Make sure you have a plan for how you will handle this before you hit the road.
We thought we were prepared because we planned to use our cell phones as a Hotspot. The only issue is when you are traveling through deserts or mountains, there won’t be any service to connect to.
This Mobile Hotspot is a great addition for traveling homeschoolers.
7. Traveling Makes it Harder to Order School Items
When you’re constantly on the go, it can be hard to order school items online. This is because you often don’t have a permanent address and people might not want to ship something to an unknown location.
You can sign up for a virtual mailbox, have things shipped to a fixed address when you reach your destination, get a PO Box, or have things shipped to family and friends.
No matter which way you go about getting things shipped to you, it’s more difficult than shipping straight to home.
Also, get creative with supplies. When purchasing items, try to buy things that are multifunctional. For example, a HiHo Cherrio game can also double as a math tool.
8. Making Friends is Harder When Traveling Full-Time
One of the challenges of travel homeschooling is that it can be hard to make friends. This is because you are always on the go and don’t have a lot of time to get to know people.
Visit playgrounds – there will be plenty of kids to play with.
Homeschooling Facebook groups tend to schedule meet-ups for other homeschooled kids to get together. You can always choose to stay somewhere longer if you make some friends.
Who knows? Maybe you’ll meet another traveling homeschooling family and sightsee together!
We also like to Facetime our son’s friends and cousins back home while we are traveling.
9. It’s Harder to Stay Organized on the Road
One of the challenges of travel homeschooling is staying organized. This can be hard when you’re always on the go and have limited space.
Try having a travel homeschool box and an area that is designated for schoolwork.
10. Having a Smaller Space Actually Helps Homeschooling
When you’re on the road, you have to get creative with your space. This can actually be a benefit to homeschooling because it helps teach kids how to organize and make the most of limited resources.
We’ve found that our son has more focus and fewer distractions while traveling. This is probably due to the fact that there is less space to run around and fewer toys to play with.
He also knows that once we finish the book work, the more fun learning starts!
11. How Much You Will Love Travel Homeschooling
Travel Homeschooling is not for everyone, but if you are considering it, I bet that you will love it. It is a great way to get your children out of the traditional school system and allow them to learn in a more hands-on way.
Not only that, but you will have amazing memories together that you will never forget.
The freedom and flexibility that homeschooling has allowed for our family have been life-changing. Sometimes we do schoolwork in the mornings, some days we do it in the evenings, and some days are field trips to all the places we are traveling.
For example, I’m writing this as we sit on the beach in the middle of the afternoon, watching my son build a sand castle – because we can.
If he were in traditional school, he wouldn’t even be home from school yet. Not only that, but I’d have to ask permission from the school to take my own child on vacation.
Imagine never having to rush to get your kids off to school again. Imagine not having to pack lunches or hear about a mean bully.
There are so many reasons why we love homeschooling – especially travel homeschooling.
We get to have so much more family time than we did before we started homeschooling.
We hope to create a fun childhood for our son, full of adventure and nature.
One of my favorite things about travel schooling is that we get to skip the winter season if we want to. We are sure to give our son some time to play in the snow before we take off, but no more 5 month Ohio winters.
Here’s how we became snowbirds in our 30s, and you can too!
Conclusion
So, are you ready to take the plunge and travel homeschool your kids?
It’s not as daunting as it sounds, and there are plenty of benefits to be had. Just make sure you know what you’re getting into before you hit the road.
Are there any challenges that come with traveling and homeschooling? Absolutely! But with a bit of preparation and planning, they can be overcome.
And once you see how much fun your family is having while learning together in some of the most beautiful places on Earth, you’ll wonder why you didn’t start doing this sooner.
If you are considering travel homeschooling, I encourage you to go for it!
