I am a very on-the-go person. I don’t sit still well and love to be out and about. I have to remind myself to keep some days for slow, restful moments at home. Later, my family started living full-time in an RV and traveling often. Both my personality and our lifestyle altered my schooling style. I know not everyone is like us, but I think so many people are busy enough that juggling school work with activities can be challenging, so I thought I would share my experience!
I think the first step to success with this method is mindset. I don’t want school to keep us from the things we want to do. I want school to fit before, during, after, and in between life rather than fitting life around school. Next, an old restaurant working phrase comes to mind, “close to open,” which means end your day so that you are ready the next morning. I set up all school work the night before for the next morning on clipboards ready to go with pencils sharpened. This makes my mornings go so much smoother. I make a pen mark star on all sections that my kids can work on independently and have a bag set up with everything we could need while out. This includes pencils, a small sharpener, crayons, a practice reading book, all the clipboards set with work, an abacus, and a ziplock with math manipulatives.
Most mornings, we eat breakfast and head out of the house as early as we can. The kids work in the car on all the independent work I have marked previously. They can continue their work at the park, during appointments, at the gym, in the curbside space, waiting for groceries, and many other places. They finish their independent work at different paces, so as each kid finishes, I assist them with new concepts or mom-involved subjects. Sometimes I have them read to me while I drive. By the time we return home, we are usually either completely finished or very close to being done.
This method of schooling may not work for everyone or for every day, but I think it opens up options for those who may feel the desire to get out of the house more but have concerns about homeschooling at the same time.
Whether we have some grand adventures or normal errands planned that day, we can wrap our learning all around it!
Pictures: the entrance of Carlsbad Caverns, NM and our local laundromat.
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