Road Schooling: Education on the Go

Road Schooling: Education on the Go

In this episode of TravelEssary, we’re sharing how we handle homeschooling on the road while living full time in our RV.

We talk about balancing structure with spontaneous adventures, from learning geography through travel to hands-on history in national parks.

We also get honest about the challenges, like staying consistent and redefining what school looks like when your classroom is always changing.

And yes, our guest episode on RV gear is delayed due to an unexpected injury. Life happens. It’s coming soon!

Transcript

 We're the Essary family and we're exploring America one destination at a time. On this episode of TravelEssary, we are going to share with you guys how we do school while on the road. Let's chat.

Well welcome and thank you for joining us on this episode. This is something that is near and dear to our heart. This is something that we do on a almost daily basis. Misty has done so much research and does a fantastic job with our children, and this is something with the direction that our life is going that is gonna give me an opportunity to be a part of this whole structure and this whole part of.

Homeschooling while we are traveling. Yeah. So we have homeschooled the kids their entire lives. , It's usually while Jeremy's at work during the day, so he doesn't get to really take part in that too much. So he'll get to see that a little bit more. And I feel, feel like. Road schooling isn't going to be that much different for us than homeschooling is.

There are gonna be some things that we're gonna have to change around, um, some scheduling that will have to be done, especially based upon, , our transportation days. Mm-hmm. When we move from one spot to another spot is gonna kind of mess some things up. But there's some other cool things that we're gonna implement.

Into those days that if we have the time, we'll give a little bit more hands-on type experiences. Yeah. Right now we only have one school age child, and that's our 16-year-old, and all of her work is done online. She does. Knock it out usually about two hours every morning, and she does it four to five days a week.

So until little man starts getting bigger and we're working with him, that's all it looks like for us right now. But I do definitely have some future ideas of what I want to do with him that , will look quite a bit different than what we did with all of our other children. Because of what we're gonna be doing as far as traveling full time and going from place to place.

, there may be activities that we're trying to get to that might hamper a little bit of the normalcy of school. I mean, you look at school now, kids go to school anywhere from seven to like eight 15. Mm-hmm. And then they're there all day. They're getting out at 3 34, 4 30, even some of 'em, even five o'clock, depending if they're doing a four.

Um, school work week or if they're doing a five school work week, and then all the extracurricular activities that go along with them as they spend hours upon hours. And most of that time it's just spent. Doing nothing

it's definitely a topic that I could spend a lot of time on, a lot. I'm very passionate about it. Get to, we get to the pros and cons of doing both and you know, me and Misty are both products of the school program. Well. I, I'm definitely Okay. I, I went all 12 years. Misty has, um, kind of , a split that she did.

Yeah. I have multiple ways that I wish schooled. Yeah. But yeah, not just public school, but even learning from that and taking our own experience and the way that we choose to educate our children and the way that we do, it just became a, a. I don't wanna say a huge issue for us, but it was definitely something that we had to do a lot of talking.

Mm-hmm. A lot of research and kind of, you know, especially with , our two oldest of how their life is going to look beyond school. Mm-hmm. You know, you have to have that scope of what is this gonna look like? After they graduate , what happens at that point in time?

So it is something that we definitely went into, but doing school on the road is a little bit different than doing normal school. For the older ones, I feel like it's gonna look pretty similar. I think so even to public school, not so much because you're, you know, you're not gonna have the eight to five or eight to three, I guess it is for most schools, and you're not gonna be jumping from class to class.

But, you know, we just finished being youth leaders after doing it for 10 years. And we noticed that kids tend to be on their laptops and iPads and turning in their work. Through that mode more and more and more and more. And that's not too dissimilar than what we do here at home for the high school ages.

Oh yeah. And the older junior high ages. So for right now, with our 16-year-old, , it looks very similar to our homeschool. It looks very similar to some public and private schools. , She has teachers and then she has questions and it's all done online and everything's , returned online. We do, , ellas Academy and it's like a private online school where you do have teachers and you have all of that.

You just don't have classmates. You get to go watch your own pace and, but I feel it looks very similar to a lot of school these days, especially nowadays. I mean, , I do a mentor program with our high school that we're at and. Even going and meeting with them while other classes are going on and watching kids walk around the hall where they don't have the big backpacks where there's like 15 books.

Mm-hmm. You know, of all your different subjects, they're carrying a laptop. Yeah. It's definitely looks different than when we were in school, but we're not gonna talk about how long ago that was. So right now that's what we're doing and that is always a possibility for anyone who wants to travel and do school on the road is.

Online, there are hundreds of online options and , I will always say it depends on what state you're in. Make sure that you do the research for what state you are residence in, even though we will be traveling our state of residence as Texas, so we will be following Texas homeschool laws as we travel.

So make sure that you are doing that. Whatever your. Home state is you need to follow that laws as you're traveling. So we will be doing. Online for now. And then as Jasper gets older, I don't usually do computer stuff with kids when they're small. I don't really like adding computers in until they reach early junior high ages.

I really prefer like a hands-on Montessori type elementary education, which I'm not even sure Jeremy knows what that is. Do you know what that is? Have I talked to you about that before? No, but it is one of those things where, you know, we believe that. Reducing the amount of screen time that mm-hmm.

Younger generation has, is crucial to the development of their brain and their cognitive motions and stuff. Mm-hmm. And so., It doesn't really hurt them because it's something that they really don't fully understand and really get into like coding and a whole bunch of other technology stuff until they get older where they can understand it.

Yeah. And so I definitely want my children to be able to function with technology and when they're at an older, mature and age, then that's, you know,, I'm good with that being our main source of , our educational venue as far as turning in our work and stuff like that. But that's after they have.

Grasp of how to work the world around them, I guess. Right. They need to understand, you know, the do's and don'ts of the world, , the general knowledge that children should have, uh, as a good firm foundation in the world and society and, you know, learn how , to write in their ABCs and their one two threes and not just sit on a laptop and then.

Type everything out where they never really know how to write. I mean, we can get to a whole bunch of stuff but for our youngest, we definitely want him to know, how to play, how to have an imagination. Yeah, I think every opportunity is an opportunity to learn. And even though he's only almost two,, I don't think there is an age that's too young to, , start learning, not necessarily me making him sit down and learn how to spell his name at the age of one and two, or.

Demand that he know his ABCs and can count to a hundred or things like that. But I do like to take opportunities to point things out to him and call out what they are. And as he gets older, I will just go more in depth with each opportunity than what I do now. I am really excited to the things that we get to do with him educational wise that we could not do with the other ones because we will be traveling.

And one of those things is I am really excited about him in the Junior Ranger program. So the National Park Systems have, , the Junior Ranger program where they do these activities with the kids and they go through and fill out, , activity books and they have questions and they teach the kids all about, , loving and appreciating and how to treat nature.

And make sure that they are taking care of the environment around them and helping to preserve these very special places. And that is one of the things I'm very excited about doing with Jasper. Especially as , a boy scout, someone , that loves nature. , That's something that. If, we would've known a little bit more about it whenever our Otis were going through it, , it could have been something that we could at least started. I know there's a lot of. National parks that we didn't visit whenever they were younger, but it would've just been cool to go into those areas where they could have learned a little bit more about nature from the true professionals that know their area really well.

Yeah, I'm excited to go through each of the parks , you know, we had a really great time when we took the kids to Carlsbad and just educating ourselves on how, you know, the park was formed and when it became a national park and, you know, its boundaries and the wildlife and the plant life that's in the park.

And I, I think that's a great educational tool to use with your children if you're traveling. 

Another thing that I am looking forward to is expounding on his geography. I think out of all of our children, by the time we are done traveling, or by the time he is no longer of school age, he will know his US geography better than. Any of our other children, he could probably even be one of those that could tell you which highways and byways that you need to take

uh, there's a lot of people that you know, besides their state and like the surrounding states, the ones that are touching the borders. It kind of goes away after that. Mm-hmm. There's a few that are totally recognizable. Like everyone recognizes New York, California, Alaska, Texas, and Hawaii.

But you get beyond that, sometimes you lose. Mm-hmm. Where you even been or what's even embarrassed? I'm not going to lie it. It will take me a minute. I will have to stare at a map to name all 50 states only because when you start getting into the smaller ones that are up in the northeast and you're like, okay, which ones which?

Or if you're getting into all the squares that are all stuck together, you have to remember which ones on which side of which . It does take me a minute and I think Jasper is going to blow us all out of the water when he is older. 'cause I do plan on expounding on his geography quite a bit. Yes.

'cause it just opens up that opportunity, especially with traveling and it's not only like just the way we're gonna be traveling, but it's also just traveling in general, period is getting out of your state and going visiting other places. I think that's gonna be a huge bonus for Jasper where the other ones , at that particular age , they definitely are not gonna have The knowledge that he has. Yeah. Well, with the other ones, when we went outta state, it was always specifically for a vacation. It was always for a short amount of time and we weren't schooling while we were on, right. Those trips. And so this will look very different as it will be our day to day life, not just a vacation that we're rushing through and we're gonna get to stop and.

, Explore each and every state. In fact, I have spent quite some time, and I have come up with a 50 state page. It's 50 pages, a state on each page. It is on our Patreon. If you want access to it, it's just a small fee. Or if you're a gold member on our Patreon, our digital products are free to you. So I have went and I have created.

A space where he can learn about, um, you know, together, we can do it together as we go through the states, but we can learn about that state's flag and the state's flower and that state's animal and their state motto and the food of that state and the culture of that state, and really just like. Really expand our knowledge on the people and that region.

Yeah. Not just going in , and enjoying the destination as far as, you know, either a theme park or you know, a downtown area, but actually understand the full knowledge of the entire state . I mean, let's be honest, how many state capitals besides your own state that you're in, can you name?

Just by looking at a flag and being able to recognize what state that is. Yeah, no, that's something I do have difficulty with. Um, I can probably do about half of them. Yeah. And then I think, again, a lot of the Northeastern ones I really struggle with. Like what is, what does their flag look like?

I have no idea. Yeah, I have no idea. But if you're interested in those pages, if you're traveling or if it's just something you want to do with your children, , I will link that in our show notes. So make sure you go check that out on our Patreon page and hopefully as we travel, I will be able to continue to have more time and more knowledge to create more products such as this.

I am a big fan of unit studies. And so as we learn about each state, I like to break it down into, well, this is, you know, the state's dish, so let's try this dish for our family this night, and things like that. And I think it's gonna be fun, not just for Jasper, but for the rest of us.

Another thing , an opportunity that he's going to get by being a road schooler is just the different cultures and walks of life. , not only him, but the rest of us will, you know, be able to gather a unique view of other people's perspective of our country and, you know, view it through their eyes and, and their families and their cities and their areas, and I think that'll be a really great educational experience for him.

And then just tasting some of the cuisine. You know, we use a lot of Tex-Mex around here. We have our own little twist on our own food categories that we eat, , a majority of the time and to be able to go taste some of these different places where, , their staple food is a little bit different than our staple.

. And then we'll be able to visit things like museums. We won't be limited to just what's around here. Museums are extremely educational, and whether we're visiting a train museum, a golf museum, a historic museum, or a national museum, it's all extremely educational, and, I'm very interested to see how many museums this child ends up going to in his lifetime.

And then again, like how much information he retains from visiting such places. I can only imagine because I know, on a typical person, if you don't travel, you're not gonna get to experience a whole lot of different museums and all the different kind of cultures that are out there. And seeing the history.

And what they had to go through in order to get where they are now. That's something that we're looking forward to. But even going to like Washington, DC or Philadelphia and checking out, all the different museums. Yeah. I can't wait until, you know, we're able to explore and.

Show him that history and educate him through the eyes of the people that were there , through museums or reenactments and things like that. And even going to a personal local museum where it's just like, why is this city here? How did this city come about? What big battle happened?

Or, how did certain things scope this region and make it what it is today? I mean, even doing that when you start getting into a local culture makes a huge difference and something that, although we have local history here, we're really excited to show not only Jasper, but our other kids, the different history in how, you know, history affects everyone across the entire nation.

I also wanna do things like factory tours while we're traveling the country. That's a great way, not necessarily to learn about a country, I mean, I guess you can learn about what products and stuff are manufactured here, what foods , are processed here, but to me, that is more leaning on to science and distributing and business, and those are also very good educational tools to use.

Yeah, because there's way more out there than just your straight up history. I mean, a lot of people travel for all the history stuff. Mm-hmm. But you bring up a really good point about, you know, the science and ,, how was it built like back in the day? Yeah, we can learn about engineering, engineering and so, and architect.

Oh man. And as we travel the different regions, you know, we get to go through different biomes and different weather patterns and he'll get to. Experience things that, um, you'll get to see trees, you know, you don't necessarily see and experience here in central Texas. We do have trees in central Texas, but um, having traveled east many, many times, I will tell you our trees are maybe like a third of the size.

Yeah. If anyone really truly knows, I can't wait to go see the redwoods and stuff like that. You know, going back into science, the leaves whenever they change. We talk about that in one of our other episodes that's on our bucket list to see those leaves change and all the different kind of colors. Where here in Texas you don't, it's green, it's brown, and then there's no leaves. Mm-hmm. That's all there is to it. Yeah.

And then we'll get to see different wildlife and learn about different wildlife. So when Justin and Ariel were younger in their elementary ages, we did an extensive unit study on the wildlife here in central Texas. And I can't wait to do something similar with Jasper, but through the different regions and the wildlife in there, like with him, we'll get to learn about things like moose and bears , and wolves.

I am just so excited to be able to not only talk about something, but show him the things that we're talking about and him being able to experience it.

And I feel like that's a layer of education that is much needed. There's so many. Different ways that you can road school it really is homeschooling.

It's just on the road. You can order curriculum ahead of time and you know, have it sent to your home base or wherever you get your mail delivered. And you can do all handwritten books or you can do like what we do is. We tend to do a mixture of everything. Now when they're young, I don't do computers.

, And then I slowly add it in, and then we usually phase everything out by the time they're, you know, senior age in high school, it's just computers. But there are so many options and if that's the thing that's holding you back, don't let it hold you back. Like don't let it hold you back because you can do this on the road.

Absolutely. And I feel like not only can you do it on the road, but you get to experience. So much more on the road. Of course, there are always like pros and cons to everything. Your con would be like, you wouldn't be able to join a co-op , your kids wouldn't be able to participate in local sport activities unless you were somewhere for an extended period of time during that season.

However. There are lots of traveling groups that do travel together and their kids form bonds and they form groups and they go to museums and national parks together as a group. And I think that's really fun. And I'm hoping we can find one of those groups out there when Jasper is of appropriate age and experience that with them.

And another thing that I would like to say is in one of the previous podcasts that we did, we talked about. You know, staying connected with, with, you know, not only with other people, but just staying connected on the road as far as, you know, social media and some other stuff. But there's a really good one if you don't have internet that you can take with you everywhere that you go.

, We talk about public places that you can go, that you can. Get on their internet for free and use, and the library is definitely. The top one that you can use that's totally free. Mm-hmm. All across the nation. Oh, you know, that reminds me another thing that I plan on doing, because we utilize 'em here in our local area, and I know they're all over America, is those little book boxes, book boxes, I forget what they're called.

I think they have different names in different regions, but essentially it's. , You have these boxes. They look like giant mailboxes of some sort of, and, it's take a book, leave a book type situation. Mm-hmm. And I have done that with our kids for years and years and years. Um, we have taken probably maybe two dozen books , but we have left over a hundred books in those boxes. So that's another thing I'm excited about is maybe we pick up a book in this state and then three states later we put it in another box in another state. And I think that's another great tool to use when you're on the road, if you are traveling.

You know, extended or full-time, you can't get a library card, you can only have one for your local area with your address. You can't get 'em in places that you are not a resident in. And so it's very difficult sometimes, unless you wanna go pay a bunch of money for a book and then you have to keep up with it.

Um, it's very difficult to get your hands on a new book. So being able to utilize things like that while you're on the road, I think that's a great tool. And of course.

, I know in Texas we have historical markers all over the place. Yeah. You can stop, you can read that. That gives you a little tidbit of the knowledge there. Mm-hmm. Almost every visitor center is going to have some type of. , Brochure that will give you information about that local area and even other places that you could possibly go to get more information. I know that our local one has something like that, which allows you to go to like the state park and the library. And some other places that you can get free information to further educate yourself in that area.

Mm-hmm. Which is just free curriculum. Yeah. Like I said, every opportunity is an opportunity to learn, and I am a strong believer, especially when they're young, but also when they're older, but especially when they're young, of making learning fun as much as possible. Not that it constantly has to be entertaining, but that it's in.

Gauging, like where they don't realize their learning, where you're teaching them something and you're enthusiastic about it and , they retain that information a lot better that way than if it feels like they're in a school type setting. So that is one of my methods is while we're traveling, it's going to seem more like.

Hey, come look at this really fun thing. But really I am gonna be teaching him and he's gonna be learning without even realizing it. And the great thing is learning never stops. I. So it doesn't matter if you're full-time traveling. It doesn't matter if you're just going on vacation or if you're taking a small trip somewhere.

If you're taking an extended trip somewhere, you can always learn, and this just isn't for those that are in school. But even me and Misty, we learn almost every trip that we take something unique, something, you know, we just got back from Oklahoma, learned things that I never knew. And it was just very eye-opening, very interesting. Um, very beautiful to learn about their culture and their history. , Every chance you get to learn something, especially about a community or um, a certain people or , a region is.

It always really nice because it furthers your education, keeps your mind sharp, but also gives you some really good talking points. Yeah, I'm a bit of a sponge. I like to soak up things like books and documentaries, podcasts, random articles I come across on the internet. And I feel like, um, my random useless knowledge is about to expand quite a bit.

You know, when I'm always like, oh, fun fact. And you're like, I don't care. Yeah. Fun fact. Do you know that the ant does? And I'm like, no, I, okay. Or like, oh, did you know, I think that's my favorite. Did you know, dah, dah, dah, da da? And you're like, Hmm. I don't even know what you just said. It didn't even register in my mind.

But I feel like, uh, my useless knowledge is about. I was about to expand.  But it's really nice whenever, you know, you go somewhere. Especially if you're just doing like a quick travel and you come back home and you have friends and family like, hey, , how did it go? And then it's not just like, oh, it was really good.

You know, we ate at this place and everything was cool. It's like, oh, hey, did you know this? Yeah. And like you're sharing that knowledge with them. Oh, I imagine things like that will be popping up on our social media cry often. , I am foreseeing our Facebook page to be a lot of, did you know, and if it does, you know, it was Misty that wrote that.

I want to say that. Our spectrum of learning mm-hmm. Are like almost polar opposites. Oh yeah. We learn differently too. We just, yeah, we learn differently. And it's just one of those really cool things that just kind of. I guess keeps everything going because I mean, you get to learn that knowledge. Mm-hmm. You get to have those conversations about it, you get to meet other people that are excited about that.

Like Misty can have a full on conversation about, you know, a people or an animal and, she's just , in her little field. And then I get the, the architect and the engineer over here, and I'm like, oh. Did, you know? And like we have a totally different conversation. Mm-hmm. And so it's really nice.

It's gonna be really awesome to, , but really think about that though. You're a building inspector. Yes. And a code enforcer. So that goes along with your line of work and the information that you have stored inside of you. I am a home educator and a mother of. For children, and so I have to learn things about animals.

Yeah. And so it's just, and stuff like that. So that is what my head space is filled with so that I can teach the littles. So it, it makes sense. It works out. It does, it works out. , If we meet a stranger and if we're both together and we find out what they like.

A good chance one of us is going to know a little bit about that, where we can carry on an intelligent conversation and not just be like, deer in a headlight, kind of look at 'em. Yeah. And you know, it's not just, um, the high school and below age that we are gonna be working on while we're traveling.

And Justin is working on classes like vocational type classes and he's getting some certifications and stuff that he'll be doing while we're on the road involving coding and things like that. , It's not just me teaching, it's. Him learning on his own while we travel. And it's no different than if you were taking online college classes at home, but he gets to do that experience on the road as well.

Yes. It's definitely gonna be a different look for us. It's gonna be way more knowledge than probably we ever could have gotten. Mm-hmm. Just sitting in the same place all the time. Yeah. I will say. Um, personally I think , the biggest challenge for us is we've always pretty much had a schedule.

It's, you know, Monday through Friday or Monday through Thursday, depending on how old they were and what we were doing while you were at work. Right. And majority of the time we were done by lunch, no big deal. But now that we're gonna be on the road, there will be times where we're busy visiting a new place during the week and we have to make up for it on the weekend. So I think the biggest challenge is going to see like creating a pattern where we're consistent enough that it. It doesn't throw Jasper off too much because I do believe consistency is important.

Exactly. But not such a strict schedule that we can't be flexible enough to go out and explore the new regions that we've been talking about this whole time. Yeah, we can't. Have a long extended gap from learning one lesson from the other. Right. So there's gonna have to be, not necessarily, like you said, a hardcore mm-hmm.

Timeframe that this all needs to be done. But it is something that we're gonna have to work very diligently on to make it a top priority to get this done within. A certain area. Yeah. And like I said, when they're younger, it's not that big of a deal. , I think it's more what we're gonna be out exploring and learning is gonna be the majority of his education.

But I do believe in, you know, getting, , writing and stuff as early as possible. So I like to throw in 20 minutes here, 20 minutes there, and I wanna make sure that , we're getting those times fulfilled each week. So coming up with ways to do that. And it might be, you know, what a way different patterns than what we ever did with the other two.

And the other two is always you get up in the morning, you do your school because that's when they functioned the best. And that's whenever, , we had the least amount of things going on as a family, whereas in the evenings we were booked and we were packed and they were tired. And so we never did that.

But now that our entire. Way of doing things as a family is changing. It may be we go out in the mornings and we do our stuff, and then we come back in the evenings when we're winding down, and then I work with Jasper. It may be something along those terms, which again is something I will have to, it'll be new for me, not so much Jasper, but it'll be something that I'll have to change after doing the same thing for almost 17 years, you know?

But that's one of , the challenges, but that's also one of the great things about. Learning on the road. Yeah. We have a lot of freedom. There's a lot of flexibility. Flexibility, flexibility. A lot of options. The main thing is we get 'em done. That's the main thing. Mm-hmm. Within , the timeframe that we wish for them to happen.

And as I believe, as long as we're consistent, as far as that goes,, it's gonna be a unique learning experience that a vast majority of. Children never get to have. Right. And I know there's gonna be a lot of people out there that don't agree and they don't, um, you know, support this  📍 type of parenting or schooling.

But that's okay. That's the great thing about America is we're allowed to have our opinions and our differences and do what works for us as long as we're following our state and federal laws and we will be doing so. So, i'm super excited to take this journey, not only with Jasper as he's going through his entire educational process, but you know with the other two and even with us, and seeing what we can learn out there.

Join us next week.