Making Roadschooling Work for You
When life gets in the way of homeschooling, homeschool parents often have to take school on the road. Sometimes, life seems to get in the way of plowing ahead and finishing the week’s schoolwork.
Despite traveling, doctor’s appointments, sports practice, extracurricular classes, and running errands, homeschool must go on! Here are some ways to plan in advance for roadschooling.
Take School to Go
Keep a bag stocked with essentials for taking school on the road.
It’s usually easy to find a spot to work on schoolwork and make the most of waiting time. If you have multiple students and are waiting for one of your children at art class or a music lesson, you have an excellent opportunity to get some work done with your other child.
Grab a coffee and find a quiet table at the coffee shop for a half hour and get some things done.
Or, head to the library, find a picnic table at the park, or hang out at a fast food restaurant with a play area.
Keep a tote bag packed and ready for roadshooling. Stock it with writing journals, writing prompts, Dictionary and Thesaurus, paper trimmer/ruler, pouch of pencils and colored pencils, pens, erasers, mini-stapler, scissors, glue stick, tape, and sharpener, geometry supplies kit, nature journal, legal pad, and a magazine, book, or Kindle
When you’re going to be out for awhile, be sure to add in whatever school books you want to bring along.
Good choices for outings are handwriting, vocabulary, math, and readers, but it varies depending on what needs to be done and how much time you have on our hands. Sometimes, you can even add the kids’ nature journals if you are going somewhere where you can explore outside.
Roadschooling Opportunities
If you are traveling farther from home, many places offer educational opportunities that don’t require your school books. Check out historical markers, explore walking trails for nature study, go on a tour, and visit Welcome Centers. Grab a handful of brochures for activity ideas, then let your kids use them to create travel scrapbooks.
One of the benefits of homeschooling is being able to set your own schedule and make your school days work for you. Take advantage of this flexibility!
The time passes faster when your kids are occupied, and it doesn’t feel like you’re wasting time or getting behind on schoolwork if you can use travel time or downtime productively.
How do you handle school days when you have to be out and about?
Check out these posts: How to Survive a Road Trip with Kids, & Travel Books for Kids.
Our free printable 75 Writing Prompts for Creative Writing is a great resource to add to your roadschooling bag. It includes 75 thoughtful writing prompts to inspire tweens and teens for several months of journaling (middle school, high school).
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We’ve done school on the go, but I need to set up a dedicated bag like you have because that will make it easier.
It’s like an extension of the days when the diaper bag was always packed and ready to go!
thanks for the tips, Anne! and the reminder that schooling does not happen just at a desk in a school room.
Thank you so much! 🙂
Thank you for the tips. This morning I drove my kids to a hospital appointment so we did lessons on the road. I seized the chance to cover spelling and early number skills too. Tomorrow we are going to a family history centre. At the supermarket or shops, I look for chances to get the children to practice their reading and counting skills. Learning is not something always done in the classroom.
Rocking it! 🙂