Living in an RV or taking extended trips can be super fun. However, it’s complicated with school-aged kids. Homeschooling can be the perfect solution. RV homeschooling allows for flexibility in schedule and location. Let’s take a look at nine traveling homeschoolers you should be following for inspiration to hit the road with your family.
9 RV Traveling Homeschoolers to Learn From
Whether you’re a homeschooling expert or a newbie, combining traveling and homeschooling can be a great solution to doing school on the road. Here are nine families that have figured out how to be RVers and traveling homeschoolers and make it look effortless.
#1. Soulful Family RV
The Soulful Family RV follows an ex-NFL player and his family through their travels. The family decided to purchase an RV when the dad began traveling between two different cities for work. Rather than rent an apartment or pay for a hotel stay, the couple decided to purchase an RV and live there.
How They Homeschool: For homeschooling, the Soulful Family originally began without a curriculum and put together lessons found on YouTube, Pinterest, and other social media websites. This system worked well, but eventually, the mom suffered from “homeschooling fatigue,” typical for many homeschooling parents who overexert themselves putting lessons together.
The family opted to use the Sonlight Curriculum and has enjoyed it. The only downside is that using a curriculum requires purchasing multiple components, which can be challenging to store. But the Soulful Family has found some creative solutions to this problem.
#2. The Wanderpreneurs
The Wanderpreneurs follow a family of four as they travel across America in their spacious fifth wheel. The family opted for a fifth wheel because a motorhome would require towing an extra vehicle. In addition, a fifth wheel is easier to maneuver. Ultimately, they chose the Coachmen Chaparral 390QSMB. It had a great floor plan and a superb rating for long-term travel, which is precisely what this family wanted.
How They Homeschool: Once the Wanderpreneurs decided to become full-time RVers, they knew they would need to start homeschooling their two children and become traveling homeschoolers. Through gradual changes, the family has settled on the “unschooling” concept. “Unschooling” involves focusing on a few core concepts, like reading, language arts, and math, and then allowing their travel destinations and the children’s interests to guide studies in other areas like science, social studies, and history.
#3. Nomads with a Purpose
The Nomads With a Purpose include Robyn and Victor who originally lived in Coronado, California, and owned a successful business for 18 years. After having five children and realizing that their life was flying by too quickly, they decided to sell everything and buy a 30-foot motorhome.
How They Homeschool: The transition to traveling homeschoolers was easy because the Nomads had already been homeschooled for 11 years. Spending as much time as possible with her kids and forging quality relationships was one of the fundamental reasons Robyn chose homeschooling. She also says that recently, after becoming a full-time RVer, she has shifted her homeschooling toward unschooling and world schooling. These terms refer to using interests and daily interactions with the world around you to teach your children. She uses designated assignments in some core subjects but is less structured in some of the other topics.
#4. The MomTrotter
The Mom Trotter follows an African family originally from Kenya. They’re now splitting their time between visiting Africa and RVing across America. They paid off their house in 2020 and moved into a 2016 Fleetwood Tioga Class C RV. They’ve recently moved into a 2021 Keystone Montana High Country 385BR and love the increased footage and fancier amenities.
How They Homeschool: The family has one school-aged kid and has opted to homeschool. Homeschooling is the perfect solution for this family. Homeschoolers from the beginning, Kay began looking for a homeschooling curriculum when her son was five but soon opted for a more open education plan. Kay has said she participates in homeschooling, unschooling, world schooling, and roadschooling.
#5. Crazy Family Adventure
The Crazy Family Adventure follows Craig, Bryanna, and their four children. They originally purchased a 29-foot Class C motorhome but soon realized they needed a bigger rig if they were going to RV full-time. After a few more months of searching, the family found and purchased a Class A motorhome. The motorhome required a slight remodel and updates to make enough room and sleeping areas, but this only took about a month to complete.
How They Homeschool: Homeschooling was something Craig and Bryanna always wanted to do. They said it was a natural progression from attachment parenting. Because they were already homeschooling, it was easy to become traveling homeschoolers. Ultimately, the couple settled on radical unschooling. Radical unschooling doesn’t include any formal education time. Instead, they live life to the fullest and take advantage of any learning opportunities that come up. Although this style might not be successful for some, it works for this family.
#6. Salty Escape
The Salty Escape follows a family of four who wanted a change in lifestyle that would allow them to experience new and exciting adventures. And they had quite the adventure finding a well-running, fully functioning RV. Initially, the family purchased a Gulf Stream but learned that it would take months to fix a suspension problem. The family traded this rig for a Winnebago Adventurer. But this RV also had severe engine problems. After replacing the engine and doing some other minor repair jobs, the RV was finally ready to go.
How They Homeschool: The Salty Escape family didn’t begin homeschooling until 2020. The many school shutdowns due to COVID-19 gave the family the push they needed. Through some thorough research, they chose the Timberdoodle curriculum. This curriculum comes in a kit and provides lessons for the core subjects but also has classes in STEM, art, and additional content to extend learning in science or history. They also joined a homeschooling association that provided great teacher resources, helped keep track of their children’s work, made arrangements for standardized testing, and provided diplomas as needed. The association was also a great place to find experts to troubleshoot or bounce ideas off of.
#7. All About RVs
The family from All About RVs has been traveling in a Grand Design Reflection 28BH RV since the end of 2020. They did make a few custom design choices, switching the sofa and dinette area and upgrading the sofa from a two-seater to a three-seater. They may redesign the boys’ bedroom to include longer beds, which may be necessary as the boys continue to grow taller.
How They Homeschool: As far as homeschooling is concerned, the family has two boys with an age difference of one year and have opted to use a variety of curriculum to meet their needs. Some of these curricula include Apologia, All About Spelling, and others. They also use the North Star Geography lesson and The Mystery of History, which provide a textbook. All lesson pages come on a CD, and you can print out what you need. These curriculum choices are compact, which is perfect for traveling homeschoolers.
#8. Knorpp & South
The Knorpp family began their RV adventures in a 2015 Jayco RV but have purchased and sold several others since then. Although their RV journey began as weekend adventures, they soon sold their house and moved into the RV full-time, an impressive feat for a family of 11. The Knorpps have four biological children and five they’ve adopted from China.
How They Homeschool: Although the Knorpp family initially began homeschooling using K12, they eventually leaned more toward unschooling. Unschooling is essentially child-led learning. As long as the Knorpp children are learning or actively doing something, they’re allowed to be in charge of their education. They also emphasize the importance of having an “end-game” goal that leads the education journey.
#9. The Crazy Outdoor Mama
The Crazy Outdoor Mama, also known as Stacy, is a wife and mother of three who enjoys being active with her small family. Stacy and her husband purchased their first RV, an 18-foot Keystone Hideout, shortly before having their twin girls. That began their RVing adventure, and they haven’t stopped since. What started as a weekend getaway has become a full-time RVing lifestyle.
How They Homeschool: Because they’re full-time RVers, they’ve also become traveling homeschoolers. Their homeschooling method of choice is roadschooling. Roadschooling is educating your children through extensive traveling and experiences. Roadschooling is similar to unschooling but relies more on travel and adventurous events to lead instruction rather than just childrens’ interests.
Homeschooling Might Be The Perfect Solution
Living full-time in an RV can have many benefits, but it can also create challenges, especially for schooling. If you have school-aged children and want to delve into the life of full-time RVing, homeschooling might be the perfect solution. It allows you to educate your children wherever you are. And you won’t be alone; there are so many experienced traveling homeschoolers willing to share their tips and tricks. What are your best tips when it comes to homeschooling?
As home schoolers ourselves, I applaud the effort to full time RV and home school. But at times I look at the roadschool and unschool methodology and wonder if the kids are getting short-changed with the obvious holes in the “curriculum”. Both methodologies can work, but it takes a lot of planning to make sure the less directly relevant studies are also performed (tying local histories together in a bigger picture, mathematical concepts, structured language for example). Otherwise gaps will occur. Applicable portions of a structured curriculum can help fill those gaps.