Well Thanksgiving has come and gone, I hope you all had a great holiday. We sure did! We spent the holiday surrounded by family. The girls had a blast with their cousins at the beach, at the Santa Barbara Zoo, and in the back yard. The weather was amazing. We had beautiful 80 degree days that cooled off at night to a reasonably comfortable temperature for sleeping.
We did have our share of little problems as well which took a bite out of our travel budget, thus altering our plans a little. That is life I guess. Now we are staying with family in Southern California while Jason does some landscape work for them to earn back some of our travel budget. We are so thankful for this opportunity. It does mean however that we will not be able to make as many stops along our route to Tennessee since we are trying to be there by Christmas. I guess that just means we will have to explore this part of the Country again, darn! Let me just say, I love traveling!!! This is the best. Even though we have had some struggles along the way, it has been less stressful than life before the trip. We are after all following our dreams now. It may not be a traditional life, and it may not be the life that is right for us forever, but it its right for us now. We are so thankful to be living this dream, and we look forward to the next leg of our adventure!

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 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!

This whole month we have been fortunate enough to be a part of a gallery show in Ellensburg, WA at the 420 building first floor gallery. The show is a fundraiser for suicide awareness and prevention, put on by our dear friend David Story.

Me and David

It has been a wonderful experience to participate in such an eclectic show with so many wonderful artists who have all come together in support of such a worthy cause. Suicide has touched so many.
For the show we contributed 4 pieces which were donated in the name of Jonathon Saure, who graciously donated the pieces he purchased through our go fund me account. We also donated a fifth piece from J. MacIsaac Studios and two paintings by Jennifer MacIsaac.
The building that houses the gallery space is a beautiful Art Deco building in Downtown Ellensburg.
The show was an eclectic mix of art from several area artists. Each night of the show offered live music, food, and drink by local sponsors. David really did an amazing job of coordinating this event. The monies gathered will be donated to Clubhouse International of Ellensburg which is a wonderful global non-profit organization that provides support and opportunity to people with mental illness.
The Scroll of Gratitude in the top left corner it is a pretty cool piece of collaborative art. It has been fun to watch it transform from a blank canvas to the thoughts, wishes, and memories of those touched by this event. Visitors young and old have contributed to this wall hanging, and it will be gifted to Central Washington Universities's Student Counseling Center after the show closes.
If you are interested in hearing more about this event check out this podcast interview with David Story where he discusses the event, his vision, and what led him to put the whole thing together. (His interview starts about 8 min into the podcast)

 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!