Homeschool Life on the Road

Two months ago we did something crazy. 

Lake Windermere

We packed up our house, put everything in storage, and hit the road.

We took your typical homeschool and have gone Xtreme.  

It has not always been easy. But overall, it's been OUTSTANDING!

When we conceived the idea of this adventure, we hoped it would be extraordinary. We wanted to fill our kids with the wonder and magic and history of Great Britain, to inspire them with the sights, sounds, and feel of their home.

So far, our Great British Road Trip has taken us to these amazing places:

• the Peak District and England's first national park
• the Lake District and Morecambe Bay where we stayed at a magical cottage on the beach and found fossils in the sand and rock and mud of this primordial plain
• Dumfries and Galloway in Scotland where we followed the Burns Trail and were hosted by a bona fide Scottish Laird
• Argyll on the Holy Loch where counter-intuitively the US used to base a nuclear submarine
• the coast of Northumberland where we walked in the footsteps of Saints, sinners, and Kings of Olde - and maybe saw a bit of Hogwarts, too
• and high on the Northumbrian Moors where majestic skies compete with wind and rain and the Roman ruins that are all that remain of the frontier of this greatest of empires.

If that isn't an education, I don't know what is.  

If I am honest, when we started there was a part of me that doubted the wisdom of what we were doing.  I mean, it is one thing to homeschool your children, but it is another thing entirely to give them a back pack each and squeeze 4 kids, 2 dogs and all the gear we need to live on the road in winter into one not so big family car and a sturdy roof box.

But Lee and I knew that we needed to do something radical.  "Normal Life" was no longer normal.  We'd been bursting out of the seems for such a long time and all of this energy and desire for change needed release before it turned inward and we began to consume each other with our pent up frustrations and unrealised dreams.

And we have such big dreams - for ourselves, our children and our life together.

I worried that the kids would be miserable without all of their stuff.  I worried that we wouldn't have enough clothes.  I worried that the children wouldn't learn anything and that by ditching their math an grammar books I'd be relegating them to the sidelines of life.

It is spring now (almost) and my Facebook feed is full of the news of friends' children who have been admitted to this private school and are going to that competitive academy. For the briefest of moments, my worries rose to the surface. Are we placing our children at a disadvantage by not following the crowd?  Instead of creating something extraordinary, are we relegating them to the lower leagues of life?

This is Bamburgh Castle.  It is the ancient seat of the Kings of Northumbria.  We spent an entire day exploring it, from the main hall to the dungeons.  It is not the first castle my kids have ever visited but it is certainly the most complete (people still live in it) and the most magical.

As I look at this picture, I cannot help but believe that by spending four months road schooling across Britain, we have done something extraordinary.  My children have learned so much, and none of it has come from the dusty, dry, mouldy pages of a text book.  They have walked in the footsteps of history.  They have held fossils in their hands and heard the ballads of songs of their forefathers and mothers and fellow countrymen.

Their education has been alive with beaches and bays, mountains and moors, literature, history, and science.

I believe that fortune favours the brave but that courage isn't about being fearless. Rather, it is about facing your fears and doing what you know in your heart is the right thing for you, regardless of how many people tell you it's mad and can't be done.

This trip has not always been easy.  But it has been...extraordinary.

Just like we'd hoped.

What dreams do you have for your children's education? Have you ever wanted to road school? Unschool?  Homeschool?  Leave a comment...

There is loads more to come - we'll be updating the blog almost daily with pictures and more descriptions of our adventures and with tips and strategies for how we are keeping it all running smoothly.  So don't forget to subscribe!!