"How's School Going in the Trailer?"

Each has a back pack and they fit under one of the benches when we aren't using them

This is a question we often receive.  Many full-time families have young children. They "road-school" in the sense of letting life's experience become the education. We believe in that mode of education, and we ARE utilizing the advantages of it to an extent.  However, we have an 8th and 10th grader.  There are certain subjects which simply have to be covered, and we can't be quite as flexible with the road-schooling as we would be if they were all in elementary school.

We are committed to making the most of the unique experiences which come our way through full-time RV'ing. We are also committed to maintaining a high level of academics for our older children.  Our previous six home-school graduates have all been accepted into college and have done well there. We are committed to being sure we provide Nolan with the same level of education so that he has the same opportunities if he should desire them.

It has been noted we had a WHOLE LOTTA fun in Washington and Oregon during September and October. We racked up oodles of school days and lots of amazing field trips. Many of them tied in with history or science. Some were just plain ole fun.  During this time the kids kept up with "table school," but we didn't worry too much about doing "full weeks" of the rest of our book school (history, lit, art appreciation, church history, science). We have noted we get MUCH more work done in the trailer. Many of the distractions we are used to are gone.  Neither Michael nor I have any outside ministry commitments during this season. We have found campgrounds to be great places for school. Many of our neighbors are Senior Citizens. They are genuinely interested in how we are making the lifestyle work for us and are supportive of our choices. The kids are well-behaved and polite, and they enjoy chatting with them.  The rest of our neighbors seem to work during the day, and their kids are in public school- lots of quiet/undistracted time for school.

Our plan has always been to stop for extended times and get a LOT of school work done during those times. That is just what we are doing. We are averaging 1.5 - 2 weeks of "book school" and 1 week of table school (math and English) each week. By the time we leave Beale, we will be 6 -9 weeks ahead in our book school - we're way ahead on our number of days.  When we hit the road and are having more real-life educational experiences again, we'll slow down to .5 a week of book school during travel/heavy exploring weeks.  It's been our practice to school year round. We'll do the same throughout the summer, and we have no doubt we'll finish the year just fine - with a lot of extra field trips.

My biggest worry with taking a year or two to full-time while we pray about the next step and get Michael set on a great course of treatment was that we'd let school fall by the wayside.  As Michael is starting to feel better, he is doing some of the grammar and math with the boys.

This is our 27th year of homeschooling. We were well aware of the challenges we'd face and made plans to cope with the challenges.

In truth - this is one of the best school years we've EVER had. Thanks for asking.