Homeschooling on the road or Roadschooling as some call it has been a lot of fun, though not without its challenges. We have Homeschooled off and on over the years and have used a variety of methods. We tried using a Montessori derived Homeschool method, but it is quite extensive in its material requirements as well as its guide/teacher requirements. Though I love the method dearly it did not work for our situation. We also tried the online K12 program. For those of you who don't know it is a free online public charter school. It is a great program in that they provide you with all the materials you need, books, workbooks, even a computer and printer if you need it. It is quite structured and the child has an online teacher with whom they have virtual class sessions. They also have a set assigned path in each course that they complete and test/quiz in before progressing on in the subject. There is some flexibility however in the course work. The child can move at their own pace and can test out of sections as well.

There were things I loved about this program as well as things that I was not so into. I loved the set structure but not so much all the testing. I loved having a teacher to work with and not being completely on my own. I wish there had been more control for the parent in choosing how and which subjects to teach. All that aside I felt like the program was a pretty good, but in our new lifestyle it physically does not fit. There are boxes and boxes of materials involved. It also does not fit our schedule. Each day for us is drastically different. Some days we have internet and some days we don't. Some days we are in the car pretty much all day and some days we are held up in our camper. Some days we are in a new place and we must spend the entire day exploring! I know it's a rough life!! K12 simply did not fit our new lifestyle.

I also knew I did not want to purchase a big curriculum as they can be quite pricey and often have several books to store. Many of them also have a Christian bent to them and though that may work for many families I prefer a completely secular education for my kids. I started doing some research and found Time4Learning. It looked quite promising and was very reasonably priced. We tried it out for a while. I liked the lessons we tried and the girls really liked it too, but we ran into a couple of logistics problems. One, it depended on the internet which left us high and dry on non-internet days. Two, the tablets I had bought for the girls to use for their school did not support the website, bummer! It meant that they would have to take turns on my computer and that meant that I could not get my work done as quickly. So ultimately we decided that it did not fit our needs either.

I thought perhaps Unschooling was the way for us. Wikipedia defines Unschooling as:

 "an educational method and philosophy that advocates learner-chosen activities as a primary means for learning. Unschooling students learn through their natural life experiences including play, household responsibilities, personal interests and curiosity, internships and work experience, travel, books, elective classes, family, mentors, and social interaction."

I love the idea that the child is the director of their own education, and I think that following the child is the key to reaching the child in a meaningful way.  I am however not ready to completely give up all control to the girls. I think that they do need some guidance along the way and a bit more structure too. So I can not call us Unschoolers either.

So where do we fit in? I am still not sure, lol. Here is what we are doing and what has been working for us thus far. On the days we explore, we learn hands on. We have a lot of great field trips that way! Like the salmon spawning

or the tidal pools



On the days we are traveling we play car games like spelling skittles...a favorite for my little sugar junkies!
The girls also have some great learning apps on their tablets like First Grade Learning Games (They also have other grade levels.)

When we are stuck in the camper we do a lot of workbook lessons or research places we have been or are planning to go. We take advantage of libraries as much as possible too.
On days we have an internet connection we have found some amazing resources. Here are links to the ones we are using and love!

• Adapted Mind has free math and reading lessons as well as a more extensive paid membership package. The skills build on themselves and the child earns points and badges as they work.
• e-learning for kids is for children 5-12. It is a free program with lessons in the subjects of Math, Science, Environmental Skills, Computer Skills, Health, Language Arts, and Life Skills. The lessons are animated and engaging. 
• Webrangers is the National Park Service's website directed at kids. It is pretty cool and a wonderful extension to the National Park Service's Jr. Ranger Program which is available for free at most national parks and is an amazing program. I wrote a little about our first experience with it here.  In the online version the kids get to set up their own ranger station and earn virtual badges by completing various lessons.
• Khan Academy is one of our favorite sites. It is a free website for all ages...even adults! Students complete online assessments and lessons. They have instructional videos to teach them new skills, and the skills build on themselves keeping the student on track and at the correct educational level. So far we have only used this for math but there are other subjects available as well, including test prep for high school kids. As a parent coach you can monitor your child's progress along the way. The kids love it as well because they get to earn points which unlocks various avatars. It is a really cool program and I look forward to trying out some of the classes as well!   

Well we have officially left Roslyn. It was an eventful last month however. We moved out of our house and into the camper the last week of September. At the same time my sister came to visit. It was a busy week. It was so nice to have her with us for the start of our great adventure!
The day after she left was really exciting here in Roslyn. The entire town was transformed in a few short days into the 1962 town of Canon City, CO for the filming of "The Man in the High Castle." It is based on the novel by the same name by Phillip K. Dick. The primes of the story is that Germany and Japan won WWII and America is under occupation by the Nazis and the Japanese.
The filming was the pilot episode for an Amazon series set to debut sometime in 2015. It was amazing to watch the complete transformation of the town.

I loved seeing just how many people went into making the transformation happen. It was equally interesting to see how quickly everything was set back as it was previously, just as if they had never been there! Ahhh, the magic of Hollywood! 
Once the town was set back to normal things quietened down a lot! We spent our time taking photos and selling art around town whilst waiting for Jason to finish his day job out.

One fun photo shoot Jason did was for Fused an artisan glass shop in town. Tony the owner and artist behind Fused invited Jason to shoot his shop in trade for a class for our girls.
I have not yet seen what the girls made as they decided to make me birthday presents! Such little sweeties. As an added bonus I got an hour long lunch date with Jason while they had their class. Happy Birthday to me!

Tony the artist from Fused made a bunch of the above ornaments and then hid them throughout Roslyn for people to find. He got the idea from the Lincoln City, Oregon glass float drop which brings in tourists from all over to search for the beautiful glass floats. So tony brought this idea to Roslyn and we had a ton of fun scouring the town looking for them. We found three. R found hers in a window sill near the glass shop. F found hers on top of a door jamb in town. I found one in a small shrub. Each one is marked with the date. I hope that this idea takes off the way it did in Lincoln City because it is a ton of fun. What a great little souvenir for tourists and locals alike!
All in all our last month in Roslyn was an eventful one, but we are glad to be on the road now. Let the adventure begin...

Well we have not left Washington yet, but that does not mean we have not had some fun adventure time! Currently we are staying at our first RV Park and I have learned a lot about site selection...more on that later though. We are in such an amazing natural area, just a few minutes down the road is a Salmon spawning site so we decided to check it out.

The location is absolutely beautiful! From the old bridge you lookout over the river, it is such a nice view. From that height you can see lots of salmon spawning. We decided, however, that we wanted to take a closer look so a short little hike through the woods led us to the viewing area at the water's edge. The first thing we noticed was the smell. Before we even saw our first fish we could smell them. The End of the salmon lifecycle leaves quite the pungent oder! The next thing we noticed was all of the dead fish in various stages of decomposition.  They were everywhere, in the water, on the banks, everywhere. You really had to be careful where you stepped! Finally we began to see the live fish spawning. It was such a sunny day that the glare on the water made it a bit challenging, but we were able to capture a few pictures.
The girls had a blast. The were filled with questions, so we decided to make it a real homeschool lesson. Today I looked up some fun information for the girls about Salmon. We learned that Salmon are a Keystone species, which means that they are vastly important to their environment providing food and nutrients to both animals and plant life. We found some great information here from the US Forest Service. We looked at the anatomy of the salmon and the lifecycle of Salmon. We learned that fish scales have growth rings much like trees and that by studying the scales you can learn about how old the fish is, you can also learn about the fishes' food supply by studying the rings. The rings will be thinner and close together during times when the fish have less food and is therefore growing more slowly such as during the winter or when the salmon is in fresh water. When food is more plentiful like in the summer or when the salmon is in the ocean the rings are thicker and further apart. Pretty cool, huh?
I think my favorite part was this math lesson:
Stay tuned for the kids perspective on this lesson coming soon!

Well we are officially out of our house now. The last of the unwanted items have been hauled away. For the time being we are parked in our friends back yard because we plan to hang out around town for a few more weeks while Jason is finishing out his job. It feels great to be past that first hurtle, but there is still so much to do before we take off for good! The trailer is coming along nicely and we have been living in her for several weeks now. We still have some leaky faucets to figure out and still no tub, but most camp sites have showers these days...It's and adventure for sure!

Well we are officially living in the trailer! I would say we are 95% moved in. There is still a ton of work to be done for one we have not even started the bathroom yet, but it feels like a major accomplishment.
So there she is. Like I said there is still a ton to do, but we have a couple more weeks until this is perminate. We do not have to be out of the house until the end of September. The house is also coming along. We have gotten rid of the majority of stuff thee are a few pieces of furniture left and several odds and ends, but we are getting there for sure.

Well we started revamping the trailer to better suite our tastes. I simply can not see living in brown fake wood paneling. It was too much and it really felt like a cave. It also felt very temporary, not at all like a permanent home. I have been pinning like made wonderful ideas for camp trailer/rv renovations on my
Camp Living page. Here are some of my favorites.

1,2,3,4

Though we do not have the budget to do most of these ideas we can personalize our space somewhat. One inexpensive and effective way to do this is with paint. So while we were out last weekend we decided to swing by the Home Depot and pick out some paint! We wanted to keep the walls as light as possible so we chose a soft creamy white called Shell Crack White. Green is my all time favorite color so we chose an accent color of soft green called Garden Path. We let the girls choose their own colors for their bunks. Fiona chose Teal Lake, a beautiful bright turquoise color. Rowan had her heart set on pink the whole way to the store but when we got there she ended up choosing a bright green called Shire Green. For all of our paint colors we chose Behr Paint and Primer in one. We also got Kilz primer sealer and stain blocker. Even though the paint was a paint/primer we decided that we might need the extra coverage to get the coverage desired. Jason also got some plywood to finish out the ceiling we had to tear out.

We got to work as soon as we got home. Jason patched the ceiling and we got right to work priming all the surfaces. Jason said that it looked better already, but I was doubtful when I saw how sloppy the primer looked on the walls.

Next I started painting the girls bunks and I think they came out pretty nice.


Then I started on the cabinets and accent colors. I thought it was a good idea to move outside to do this. I got everything all set up on a piece of cardboard. I painted the first door, stood up and turned around to get the second door and BAM! A gust of wind picked the cardboard up knocking over the paint, all of the paint all over the first door, and the sidewalk. An entire gallon of paint spilled everywhere!!! I was so shocked. I stood there staring at the mess, not entirely sure what to do, all of my paint was gone. The closest Home Depot an hour away so replacing it was not an option in the short run. So, I grabbed the paint brush and a spoon and salvaged as much of it as possible. I ended up recovering almost two thirds of it...with a little gravel and grass to boot! I washed the rest away with the hose and went right back to painting. All in all I think it turned out OK. I had to pick lots of gravel and grass out as I went but after two coats I was happy with the results.

Today I began the main color. This one is slow going and does not seem to be covering nearly as well as the other colors. So far I have done two coats on the back section of the trailer and there are still some places where I can see through the paint to the brown paneling. It is almost like it is beading up in certain places. After the second coat it looked much smoother but still not complete coverage. I think a third coat is in order. I certainly hope I have enough paint to do three coats on the entire inside of the trailer...stay tuned!

Bathroom

Master Bed/Couch

Girls Bunk Beds

Dining Area

We got her home and went straight to work, she needs tons of cleaning/ updating to make her home!
There were also a few surprises. We were told there were no leaks...but that was not the case! There are in fact several leaks. Jason began immediately pulling out the damaged areas. We will have to replace a good portion of the ceiling.  He also pulled all of the trim on the seams to clean and reseal them.

We got the chance to test his handy work this week as the weather here has turned ugly! There has been more rain in the last two days then there has been the entire rest of the summer. So much so that our basement flooded ruining a good portion of our yard sale goods! BUMMER!!! The newly flashed and calked seams seem to be holding up to the test though so yay! just have to keep her tarped so that he can work on the rest of them between thunder storms, sigh.

The next plan is to fog her for mold, replace the ceiling, and give her a fresh paint job on the inside to brighten her up a bit. We also have to replace the bathtub which was cracked and fix water damage in the bathroom. I think we are going to have to spread those projects out a little though as it is getting a bit expensive. We will just have to stay places with showers for a while!

I would love to eventually change out the flooring and recover the couch and dining cushions, but I suppose those will have to wait too, oh well. The goal now is to get her livable, then we can update as we go along.

Well that is it for now, but stay tuned as we keep plugging away. I will post new pictures as the work is completed.

We have made a purchase, we have our new home... We'll sort of. The bones are good but it needs tons of TLC! We have our work cut out for us but we are all very excited. We get to take her home later this week. Stay tuned for the updates.

 The first of the liquidation yardsales today! It is starting to come together.

I woke up thismorning with anxiety around 4:00am. I could not get back to sleep. I just kept thinking of all the things we have to do to prepare. It all seems so overwhelming. I hope we can pull this off.  We are going to give it our best!

We are preparing for a new adventure in our little family. We have always enjoyed traveling and exploring together. We have always loved to take photographs and create works of art. These have always been hobbies and passions of ours. Now we are taking that to the next level. We are preparing to hit the road full time. We are still in the early stages of planning but we hope to move fairly quickly. We will be keeping this blog as a record of our newest life adventure, the ups and the downs, the funny, and the serious. It should be a real trip!