Last summer, a friend of mine, Johanna, embarked on a year-long adventure of “roadschooling” her two previously public-schooled boys, ages 9 and 11. For those not familiar with roadschooling, it’s the idea of consciously taking your homeschooling on the road, incorporating lots of travel and real-life experiences into your educational pursuits. Johanna’s boys will be returning to public school in the fall and she has been gracious enough to share her thoughts with us on this past year’s adventure.
WHAT FIRST ATTRACTED YOU TO THE IDEA OF EDUCATING YOUR BOYS AT HOME?
Honestly, I’ve always had this little thought in the back of my head that I would like to give homeschooling a try but I always had a reason or an excuse holding me back. This usually came in the form of “I have no business trying to ‘school’ my kids!”, “What if he fails 3rd grade?”, “I’m totally not smart enough to teach 5th grade math!!”, “My husband will NEVER agree to this!”
This past fall as the boys were getting ready to head off to 3rd and 5th grade I felt like it was my “now or never” moment since my oldest son would be heading to Middle School the following year. It was time for me to get over my fears, my self doubts, the worry of what others would think about me “homeschooling” and just go for it. But, back to the question…I was drawn to the idea of spending an entire school year together, exploring and learning outside the classroom, not being at the mercy of school days/hours, and trying to bottle up as much of this childhood year into great memories and moments that would last a lifetime for all of us.
WHAT ARE SOME OF YOUR FAVORITE MEMORIES AND EXPERIENCES FROM THIS PAST YEAR?
The memories of road tripping down south and stopping along the way to Florida with the two boys and my mother-in-law is definitely at the top of the list. We stopped and did an extensive civil war experience in Tennessee which was pretty amazing and something we won’t soon forget. We also were fortunate to have our best friends homeschooling alongside us so we had many fun adventures with them throughout the school year traveling and exploring places/museums and spending TONS of time in the outdoors learning with them.
Surprisingly some of the best moments were seeing the two brothers having so much quality time with their two-year-old sister. To see the bond formed between the three of them is something I will always be thankful for from this year together.
The other favorites for me was the one-on-one time I had with each of them to see aspects of their personality I hadn’t seen before…in the ways they would best learn and the moment something would really sink in for them, what would get them excited, a 5:30 am wake up to look out over the night sky to see the planets that were visible during March. It really is the little things leaving the biggest impressions on my heart.
Now, if you ask the boys….their favorites were skiing all winter long, spending weeks at the beach in Florida with grandparents and road tripping to Itasca and exploring the Mississippi River with our friends.
WHAT WERE SOME OF THE CHALLENGES YOU ENCOUNTERED?
In the beginning it was a struggle to figure out how the days would go for us — would we be super consistent, would we follow an exact time schedule, do we really like the curriculum for a certain subject? There was also managing the feelings the boys had about “missing out” on time at school with their friends. I also found some (ok many!) days were a bit hard to manage with a two-year-old in the mix, other “mom duties” and running my business all while making sure we completed a school day. Some things were let go for the year, priorities shifted, and overall we just did what worked best for that particular day.
The other big challenge was trying to figure out our “roadschooling” trips while still being tied down to sports, church, business commitments, etc. So my grandiose idea of traveling around the country in a Winnebago didn’t exactly pan out (that adventure is coming later this summer!). As much as I wanted a free, flexible, do-what-we-want year, we had other responsibilities that were still there.
YOUR PLAN WAS ALWAYS TO MAKE THIS A YEAR-LONG COMMITMENT AND THEN RETURN THE BOYS TO PUBLIC SCHOOL, CORRECT? NOW THAT YOUR YEAR OF HOMESCHOOLING IS COMPLETE, HOW ARE YOU FEELING?
Yes, our plan was always to have them re-enroll in school after our one year of homeschooling. My husband and I both love the schools in our community and we feel confident sending them back in the fall. It’s bittersweet for me when I think about them heading back to school. I’m not going to lie, there will be lots of tears on the first day of school…it’s going to be like sending them off to kindergarten all over again!
WHAT WOULD YOU SAY TO SOMEONE CONSIDERING A SIMILAR ADVENTURE — WHETHER HOMESCHOOLING, ROADSCHOOLING, UNSCHOOLING, ETC — BUT IS UNSURE OF WHETHER OR NOT THEY SHOULD?
I say DO IT! Yes, there will be challenges and some days you’ll think to yourself “What have I gotten myself into?”, “Why in the world did I want to do this?” and other days you’ll look at your children and be brought to tears because life goes by WAY too fast and you’ll be so thankful to have them home with you. We only have a short amount of time while our children are at home with us, family bonding happens when we are TOGETHER and that’s hard to find in our crazy, busy lives. I think if God put even the slightest bit of desire on your heart to homeschool your children and you can make it work in your life — take the leap of faith and go for it. Surround yourself with other moms (and dads) who are doing the homeschool thing, ask questions, pick their brains (I was so thankful Amanda spent hours sitting at the baseball field talking with me about homeschooling while I was trying to decide what to do!) Find a community to support and encourage you and you’ll find out how amazing the experience can be for you and your family.
WOULD YOU EVER CONSIDER A SIMILAR HIATUS FROM PUBLIC SCHOOLING IN THE FUTURE?
YES! Looking back over the past year it has been such a sweet gift for our family to experience homeschool/roadschool together — and I’m pretty sure we will all look back and say “Remember that year….”. One of my biggest takeaways from the year is that we don’t need to just do what’s “expected” of us for our children. They don’t need to be in school K-12 in order to be successful. There are so many other amazing things to learn and experience that can’t be done in a classroom. At this point, I plan on doing at least one year of Roadschooling with my youngest when the time is right. But for now, the kids will all be back in our public schools — and that’s an amazing gift too!
To learn more about Johanna’s other adventures and passions, check out Beautycounter by Johanna.
