Our Days: Part 1

I often get asked:  How do you fit it all in? How do you do school? How do you handle being in such a small space? What DO you DO all day? So I thought I would share a little bit about what our life looks like on the road.

We have a few types of “days”. The first of which is what I call “Home Days”. On these days Shawn will usually leave to work since 80% of his day is spent on the phone and it’s hard to keep 5 children quiet. Often times he will also do the laundry while he works or run any errands we need to do while he is out, such as getting a few groceries we are out of before coming back or going to the post office.

These days are spent doing chores, prepping food for the week, schoolwork,  and playing outside. Just overall low keys catching up with the normal things that have to be dealt with and enjoying some down time.

 

This is what our couch usually looks like.

We try to have as much time creating as we can.

 

PlayDough is another favorite activity. I have one bin of art supplies we keep on hand.

Displaying his creations.

School often happens in unconventional positions.

With limited space we utilize all space and get creative. P is working on her math lesson in the passenger seat of the cab.

Enjoying some quiet moments during “Rest” Time

Most of all I love they all share the space and

end up working together throughout the day.

Each RV Park offers a little different scenery and play area which can always be fun for the younger ones to explore! Although we all enjoyed the huge Koi fish at this location.

As much as I love our adventures, I love these low key days equally as much and the time we all get to spend together.

(These pictures were not posed, we actually had a pretty ideal day the day I snapped them. However, not everyday looks this ideal, but we do our best!)

 

 

Creating Lifelong Learners

(This is an old blog but I’m just realizing I never published it. This is how we continue to school as we travel and it is my goal to create a blog for each location with resources and ideas we used. )

 

Canoeing in the spring right the top of the giant manatees!

The touch tank is always a favorite. They got to hold a starfish.

As we embark on this journey we will no longer be homeschooling but rather roadschooling, as the full time rv community likes to call it. It’s just an extension of how we’ve already been schooling but opens the doors to even more opportunities. My main goal for our children is to teach them that learning is an everyday thing and encourage them to be lifelong learners. Even though we aren’t quite on the road yet, we’ve been traveling full time for the past 10 months and have been able to see and do some amazing things to enrich the kids’ education.
Two weeks ago I was able to take them to see the manatees at Manatee Springs, visit Clearwater Marine Aquarium, and go to LEGOLAND. There were some obvious educational activities, but I was also able to incorporate some not so obvious lessons, which is what I love doing!

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I found some amazing lesson plans online (link to plans) and used those for an in depth study on manatee anatomy, sea grass habitats, the balance of the ecosystem and the role humans have played in endangering these mammals. I also had them watch a documentary (here) to help prep.

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This was our second visit Clear Water Marine Aquarium since we purchased an annual family membership last year on a deal I found. It was cheaper than tickets for 1 day! Last year they did the Behind the Scenes Tour and loved every second as well as learning a ton about the animal rehabilitation program. This year we continued to expand on their knowledge of marine life. Clearwater had some excellent plans available online (here).

Now for the not so obviously educational moments, a lot of which I call real life learning.

Map reading skills– At LEGOLAND and along our route. At LEGOLAND they obviously used the map to figure out where they wanted to go and made plans for how they were going to be able to ride every ride and see every exhibit. Along our route I had them help choosing which route we were going to travel and help plan stops along the way.

Math– Distance x speed = Time problems, How much fuel do we need?, How much more time until we reach a particular destination?, Personal Finance/ Budget planning- Prioritizing their purchases to keep them within their budgets.

Character Traits– This is a biggie to me. They have to learn how to get along, how to work out differences, how to jump in and help out when needed. We are together A LOT and it’s not always easy. There are explosive moments, there are moments when they hate my guts or can’t stand their siblings, but when it’s all said and done the usually handle the situation and are able to continue in a positive manner. This trip in particular was almost ideal. So ideal that I kept thinking “Ok someone is going to fall apart any moment.”  But they didn’t!

As we travel I’ll be sharing more of our lessons from the road and links for any cool materials I come across. Maybe you can apply some of these ideas to your trips even if you don’t homeschool or roadschool and we can inspire you to be a lifelong learner too!