Travel School: Homeschooling on the Go!

by Liesl - Homeschool Den

Do you homeschool in the car and on the go? Lots of family use time in the car to learn a new language, learn about history, listen to stories. Then you hear about the homeschoolers who do extraordinary things for extended periods of time.

In the spring and into the summer I followed the adventures of a homeschooling family that hiked the entire length of the Appalachian Trail. That’s 2,000 miles, for those of you who don’t know!! They produced an entire video series of their adventures over at ToeSalad! What an extraordinary feat for the entire family. The kids were almost 15, 13 and 11 when they started last April and they successfully finished the momentous journey just recently.
There are numerous families who have spent a year traveling around the country or around the world. We’ve been following some of the world travels of Tsh Oxenreider of The Art of Simple, who is traveling with her husband and three kids. She’s been sharing a lot of their photos of China and now Thailand over on her twitter -Tsh and instagram-Tsh Oxenreider accounts. What an adventure!

Now that I am over my crazy year of health problems (ear issues that led to incredible dizziness, balance problems, vision problems and noise sensitivity that was so bad that I couldn’t hear the phone ring or being near people without cringing, feeling seasick and having my vision blur!)… anyway, now that I’m over all that, I’ve been itching to seize the moment and get out and about when we can!

We already shared all our adventures in West Virginia and Ohio six weeks ago… the beautiful water falls in West Virginia, the historic town of Harper’s Ferry, the wonderful historical drama about Tecumseh, the amazing Safari we went on (yes in Ohio!) with rare and endangered animals on 10,000 acres…

Then a few weeks after that, a friend and I took a trip together to Williamsburg to participate in homeschool days there. Still not quite ready to head out on my own, I was grateful that she drove (all 7 of us!). We took in so many wonderful experiences — from learning to be a tinsmith, to archaeology, to a ghost walk, the Rev Quest adventure (complete with secret codes to decipher) and all the shops and displays there. We learned about sheep sheering and old fashioned games, wigs, printing and much more!

When my Dad invited us to the beach this week, it took only a few minutes to decide (first, considering whether I could drive the distance on my own… I felt that I ccould. What a great place to be!)… We packed our bags and set off. After a long drive (we got in after midnight on Sunday!!), we were at the ocean! Since we weren’t making the trip educational in and of itself, we put lots and lots of books together and set off. I tried to take a picture of our books with the beautiful scene in the background (below). And while our days weren’t as action packed (educationally, that is) as at home, we did do some school while we were away. The weather was perfect, hovering around 75-80degrees (23-26C) this week! Perfect for long walks along the beach and even some time in the water for those brave children of mine! And, of course we spent a couple nights hoping to see the launch of the Antares Rocket (and since we were so excited about it, we were devastated to hear about the explosion just 6 seconds after liftoff).

We feel so lucky to be able to do homeschooling… not just at home!

We won’t be setting out on any 6 or 12 month adventures, but I’m trying to take advantage of my new found energy, enthusiasm, zest and zeal to just break loose and head out when the opportunity arises! How about you? Do you travel with your homeschooling family? Come tell us over at our Homeschool Den Facebook page! That’s also a great place to check over all our latest posts and latest free printables.