What is Roadschooling? And why do we do it?

First, let’s address the elephant in the room, “What is Roadschooling?” Roadschooling is when people take their families on the road and teach from the things they see or experience along the way. 

For someone who had never even homeschooled before, I was a little worried. When my oldest was in school, I was the mom who made him do extra schooling every night and all the extra curriculars. I wanted to have a ‘well-rounded’ kid. What I didn’t realize was that I was creating more things for him to do that were not necessary, keeping us from getting home until 8pm most nights. I was allowing more things to get in between our time together, which I always knew was the most important thing. 

I feel like in our current society, the more your kid does, the better your kid is going to be at life. You are not a ‘cool mom’ if your kid isn’t signed up for baseball, he/she doesn’t raise the most money for the PTA or if your kid doesn’t wear the trendiest clothes. Well guess what, NONE of those things matter when you are on the road homeschooling. Your child gets to do all the sports you encounter as you travel…kayaking in Colorado, paddle boarding in the Atlantic, skiing in Montana, trail biking in Utah, bouldering (mountain climbing without the ropes) in Arizona. Your child doesn’t need to raise any money or wear the trendiest clothes, because there are not a bunch of kids telling him his clothes aren’t up-to-date. And you get to spend A LOT of time with your kids (and husband).

So back to us being first-time homeschoolers. To be fair, my mom homeschooled for 20ish years. She is somewhat of an expert, so at least I had her knowledge and expertise to help me choose what program to use or not use. But I was worried about fitting it all in our RV (remember we have NO space), not failing our kids by missing the bar when teaching and not making my kids hate me. After much research (online and via my mother), I finally decided on our current curriculum. I actually started homeschooling when my son’s schools/daycares were closed because of Covid. I realized that meeting with his teacher for one hour every week would not cut it in second grade, so I ordered homeschool curriculum to supplement his ‘real’ schoolwork (crazy mom alert). 

I also ordered some kindergarten schoolwork for my 5 year old because he was already very good with his letters and letter sounds and I felt he was ready. Sure enough, he was ready to begin and has really thrived this year. It has been amazing for me and Zach to see their progress throughout the year. Brixton went from knowing his letters to reading 20-30 page books. Knoxton caught the reading bug and won’t put down the Boxcar Children books and is doing math a full grade level above what he should be. Seeing Knoxton piece together what we read in history to something we are seeing on our travels is confirmation that we are doing the right thing for us right now. 

If you have the chance to get on the road (even if it is for a year) with your family, I highly recommend you take that chance and run with it. In this current age, so many careers can be done remotely. You won’t regret a year getting to re-engage with your family (no promises you will love each other after your time together) even if it is for just a year. 

What questions do you have for us? Have you thought about homeschooling or even roadschooling?

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XO,

The Fabulous Life of an RV Wife

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