One of our favorite ways of learning is through roadschooling. Taking our kids on the road gives us so many real-world experiences. “But, I don’t live in an RV!”, you say. Well, I don’t think this is a problem at all. In fact, I believe that anyone who homeschools can roadschool their kids!
What is Roadschooling?
Roadschooling is typically known as living full-time in an RV while traveling the country and learning all kinds of amazing things along the way. We just moved into our RV recently, but we have been roadschooling for years.
I’m a firm believer that you don’t have to travel full-time, or even own an RV, to roadschool. Roadschooling can happen days or weeks at a time, once a year, or even locally.
My personal definition of roadschooling is learning through travel. It’s really that simple.
How Can I Add Roadschooling to My Homeschool?
My favorite way to homeschool is to bring real-world experiences into the mix. We may tailor all of our learning around a specific trip, famous person, landmark, etc. A large majority of our history and science is all done through roadschooling.
Learn About Famous People
When we went to Hershey, PA, we read up on Milton Hershey before we set out and made sure to take the tour to learn all about him while there. History lesson, complete!
You can totally create even more of a lesson by having your kids write about what they learned, make a lap book, notebooking… the possibilities are endless. For our Hershey trip, we could dive into how chocolate is made, the history of chocolate, and other famous chocolate makers. Let the location lead the way in your rabbit hole of learning possibilities.
Visit Museums
The number of museums available is astounding. We take advantage of them whenever we’re in a new city to learn about all sorts of different topics. Even in our own state, we’re within a few hours of some amazing museums and historical landmarks. We could take a roadschooling day once a week and have years of exploring ahead of us, just with what’s available for a day trip.
Visit Your State and National Parks
State and National Parks are great places for roadschooling! My kids have earned their fair share of Junior Ranger badges, which help them learn about the places they’re visiting even more. Our local state park has events all the time that we’re able to visit and learn about topics ranging from local plants and wildlife to the stars and constellations.
There are more than just National Parks, too. There are National Monuments, National Seashores, National Battlefields, and the list goes on. My kids have been able to learn about the Underground Railroad, our country’s presidents, landforms, and so much more through everything that’s available through the National Parks Service. It’s one of my top ways to dive into a subject when we’re traveling. If there’s a National Park nearby, you can guarantee we’ll be paying a visit!
Keep a Travel Journal
One of my favorite ways to use roadschooling in our homeschool is to have my kids keep a travel journal. This helps us work on geography since they’re keeping tabs on their map of where they’ve been, it gives them a nice little writing assignment that goes with every place we visit, and it is a great way for them to keep their memories from each place we visit in one easy location.
How Can Roadschooling Benefit My Child?
Something I have found over our years of roadschooling is that my kids really remember the things they’ve learned through our adventures. They can spout off the most amazing information that they just don’t remember when learning from a textbook. There’s something about going to a new place and learning about a topic firsthand that ingrains those memories into little minds.
When you’re planning your homeschool lessons this week, this month, or this year, I challenge you to make time for some roadschooling adventures. See if you can find those local places to explore, or even center your family’s next vacation around some amazing learning opportunities. I have a feeling you will fall in love with this way of learning as much as my family has!
