How to Homeschool in an RV- Part One- The Basics
- Kayla Richerson
- Aug 28, 2023
- 4 min read
It's that time of year again, back to school! For most of the country, this means getting up at the crack of dawn to get on a bus to go to a dingy public school for 7 hours for 10 months. No, thank you! Luckily some of us escaped this.
I stopped going to public school when I was in 5th grade, and have been homeschooled ever since! When we moved into an RV in 8th grade, it was quite the adventure to figure out how this whole "roadschooling" business worked. However, after a few years, I have gained much knowledge and am now going to share the secrets to roadschooling success with all of you!
If you are just starting out on this path with your kids, or are a veteran looking for new tips, then you've come to the right place! Here's what I'll be covering in the next few posts:
Understanding state law
Finding your family's "flow" and capacity for school
Budget
Options for curriculum on the road
Field trips and their role
~Socializing~
College and career prep
And other surprising things I've learned!
With that, let's get into it!
State Law and Your Schooling- yay...
The first question you'll have to ask before getting into the roadschooling rabbit hole is, what does my state require of me? Because alas, we are not above the law (even though we RVers are a little rebellious sometimes 😛).
Some states have a ton of crazy regulations, and some of them have literally none. I recommend this website for researching your state.
They have a comprehensive guide for each state and what you'll need to look out for when starting this process.
Once you understand state guidelines/law then we can move to step two.
Understanding Your Family's Flow
When first getting on the road, for a few months, there's a period where your family will have to find what your traveling schedule, limits, and preferences are.
As a quick example, our family will take a day or two off to stay at home if we've had a lot of "adventure days" in a row. This is so we can catch up on school and work. Just little limits and "rules" like that.
Perhaps your family will take weekends off to avoid crowds, or maybe you're only able to go out on the weekends. Maybe you try to have an adventure every day, but you don't usually leave til the afternoon.
In order to know where school will fit in, it's important to understand your family and your travel schedule. Once you understand that, then you can better gauge how much and what kind of school you are able to take on.
Education Goals (Older Students)
What goals do you or your kids have for their education? Do they plan on going to college? Do they have a desire for a career that has certain education requirements? These are important questions to ask to prepare for the future.
If your student has a certain college they want to attend, look on their website for any "absolutely necessary" requirements. See if they have a homeschool application process. I knew I wanted to attend Liberty University, so I checked out their homeschool applicant requirements and have been able to work backward from there.
Perhaps your student has a certain career in mind (wants to join the military, wants to become an entrepreneur, a doctor, whatever), and they need special education for that. If they have an idea of what they want, then you're able to plan their schoolwork accordingly.
$$$
How much money do you have to spend on school? Once you can figure out your budget, then the curriculum you're able to get becomes clearer.
I'd like to point out that your budget can be 0. There are tons of free online resources out there for homeschoolers, and that doesn't mean that they take up a ton of time for the parent to put together either (see Khan Academy, or K-12).
If you have a low budget, perhaps unschooling might be an option for you (depends on state law though).
I'll be sure to go through each curriculum option and what you can expect from it in the next article! Seriously though, there's a ton of choices and no reason to fear.
Learning Styles
This is one that I think is undervalued in today's education system, but something that you are able to work with if you're homeschooling!
How do your kids learn best? What fuels them? What will keep them interested and instill a love of learning?
Figuring out what inspires your kids to learn does take a little time and attention to understand, but if you're able to accommodate their learning style into the curriculum, then they will have a much more enjoyable and thorough understanding of what they're being taught.
If your student is an obvious kinesthetic learner (likes hands-on projects), then perhaps they would do better with more field trips to historical sites and fewer videos or books about historical sites. This is what is so amazing about school in an RV! We are able to actually experience these things.
Perhaps if your student is more visual, then they may benefit from documentaries about the places you're going to visit.
If they're an audiophile, maybe an audiobook or audio tour about the national park you're visiting would be a great lesson!
It takes a little more creativity to keep learning style in mind, but it's totally worth it.
Oh, uh, we don't have room for that...
Last but not least, how much room do you have to store school in your RV? For some of you, you may have to do online school purely because you have no room for any books.
Others may have a cabinet or storage space for school work and materials. In the next article I will be going over the different types of school, and what will work better for different space capabilities.
Class Dismissed!
Hopefully, these questions about state law, family flow, education goals, budget, and learning styles helped you better understand how your roadschooling journey will go!
In the next article, I will go over curriculum options and the actual "how to" of roadschooling. I will also write more about college prep, time management, socializing, and more, so stay tuned!
Thank you and happy travels!
-Kayla
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