Traveling full-time and homeschooling — How we do it
Go to school. Find a good job. Marry someone good. Buy a house and have a few kids. Retire.
This was the formula that most of us were given for life after high school. And up until my health was severely compromised, Tim and I followed that to a tee, well almost. After years of servitude to other companies, spending weekends not seeing each other and paying more for daycare than we were saving, we decided that needed a drastic change.
And so began our journey into entrepreneurship. In 6 short months, we quickly learned that we knew nothing. From e-commerce to investing, we soon found out that there was this whole world of making income outside of a job that was never taught to us in college or by our parents. And to be honest, it was overwhelming. There was so much information to unpack but more importantly, there was so much to unlearn. It was then that we realized that we couldn’t allow our children to go down the same beaten path. They needed access to an education that would grow with them and could be modified based on their learning styles. But more importantly, they needed an education that would prepare them for the future they would have to grow up in.
Choosing how you want to homeschool
With our new-found realization, we embarked on uncovering every avenue to give our children this unorthodox education. We looked into everything from Montessori schools to British international schools and, beyond the cost, their curriculum just didn’t fit the learning environment we were trying to create. After a few late-night forum reads and an exhausting amount of research, we learned about all the different forms of homeschooling.
Relaxed or Eclectic — homeschooling is the method used most often by homeschoolers. Basically, eclectic homeschoolers use a little of this and a little of that, using workbooks for math, reading, and spelling, and taking an unschooling approach for the other subjects.
School-at-Home — is the style most often portrayed in the media because it is so easy to understand and can be accompanied by a photo of children studying around the kitchen table. This is also the most expensive method and the style with the highest burnout rate.
Unschooling — This Ted Talk video by a 13-year-old homeschooler is an excellent example of Unschooling. He calls it “Hackschooling”. Notice how he does not use one single curriculum and how his learning is based on his interests. His homeschooling takes place at home, at Starbucks, and out in the community.
Classical — This approach has existed since the Middle Ages and has produced some of the greatest minds in history. The goal of the classical approach is to teach people how to learn for themselves. The five tools of learning, known as the Trivium, are Reason, Record, Research, Relate and Rhetoric. Younger children begin with the preparing stage, where they learn the three R’s. The grammar stage is next, which emphasizes compositions and collections, and then the dialectic stage, where serious reading, study and research take place.
Waldorf — This method is also used in some homeschools. Waldorf education is based on the work of Rudolf Steiner and stresses the importance of educating the whole child — body, mind and spirit. In the early grades there is an emphasis on arts and crafts, music and movement, and nature. Older children are taught to develop self-awareness and how to reason things out for themselves. Children in a Waldorf homeschool do not use standard textbooks; instead the children create their own books.
Montessori materials are also popular in some homeschools. The Montessori method emphasizes “errorless learning” where the children learn at their own pace and in that way develop their full potential. The Montessori homeschool emphasizes beauty and quality and avoids things that are confusing or cluttered. Wooden tools are preferred over plastic tools and learning materials are kept well organized and ready to use.
