stm4him Posted March 21, 2015 Share Posted March 21, 2015 So, my husband and I are talking about some crazy ideas such as roadschooling for part of the year or moving to another state this summer. These are a worse case scenario for us because we LOVE our home and just bought it (and due to its location would probably have a hard time re-selling it), and because I am due with a baby this summer. Also, we would have to transfer doctors for my son with cancer close to the end of his treatment or live in two different states from August to the end of November so it would not be ideal by any means. Anyway, without discussing whether or not we should actually do any of these crazy plans, how feasible they are, or why we would have to consider this, I want to play around with how that would work with homeschooling. We actually don't have that much stuff right now in our house, but we have a huge storage unit (10 x 20) and a garage full of boxes. We would likely put all of that in temporary storage and eventually come back and move it or clean it out or whatever. Most of what is in the 10 x 20 storage unit we actually don't want but haven't had time to deal with. The things in our garage were mostly waiting to come into our house when we added more furniture (we got rid of a lot of our furniture because we knew we wanted to decorate differently in this house and live with bare minimum for awhile), but close to half of it is books and the rest is mostly toys (which they are doing fine without), or furniture that needs some fixing (which we can also do without), or seasonal clothing or decorations (again, most of which we could part with as needed for at least a few months at a time if not altogether.) So that being said, I really think we have the mentality now that we could live with very little and be happy. If we were to move to another state quickly we would not necessarily know where we wanted to settle so we may also be living in some temporary RV or other similar vehicle in that scenario as well until we figured out details. So we would need to probably get our homeschool things (not to mention everything else) to a minimum. Here is the list I would think about having with us (some of which we don't need yet and would collect within the next few years): Worship/Character: -A few hymnals (3-5) -catechism songbook (and maybe something that goes into depth about catechism meanings) -Our 24 Family Ways -Achieving True Success (character traits) -365 Manners Made Easy for Families Art/Nature Study: -The Country Diary of an Edwardian Lady (one of our most favorite books) -A few How to Draw type books (would have to decide which we liked the most) History/Science/Geogaphy/Literature/Bible, etc. -Wayfarers Guides (hardback...4 of them as they come out/as needed) OR this could be done by pdf if needed (If this didn't workout for us I'd probably try TruthQuest, which could also be done by pdf I think) -I'm sure we'd have to have a few hard copy books that weren't available on an electronic device or from a library or bookstore temporarily, but we would likely only keep hardcopy spines with us -MAYBE a set of VP Bible and History cards and all my Acts and Facts cards but not in binders Math- -How To Tutor (could be ebook), -Activities for the ALAbacus and the workbook that goes with it (used with transparencies and vis-a-vis), -2 copies of each S-U book, -one set of Saxon Math books Alg 1/2-Advanced Math or Calculus OR A Fresh Approach Alg 1, 2, and Geometry (we don't need the higher math yet so I have time to decide) -MAYBE Right Start games and/or math flashcards set Language Arts- -RLTL, ELTL, and HLTL (all by pdf) -SAT prep books -Wayfarers high school composition suggestions (don't remember off the top of my head) Languages- -set of LNST and HA with flashcards, -The Easy French and The Easy Spanish -Mounce's Basics of Biblical Greek and Basics of Biblical Hebrew -MAYBE Henle 1-4. (all workbooks would be done as mentioned above) Music Theory- -set of Alfred's Essentials of Music Theory (1 workbook and 1 TM) with 2 flashcard sets (rhythm and notes I think) and 2 ear training cds -a keyboard -MAYBE PianoPhonics (think this is a download). (The workbooks would be done as mentioned above.) For me: -A few of my favorite educational theory books (too hard to narrow off the top of my head, but not too many and only those that couldn't be on my kindle app) Supplies (bare minimum, restock as needed at dollar stores): -composition books -pencils and electric pencil sharpener (or just mechanical pencils) -colored pencils, -MAYBE crayons and markers, -glue/gluesticks, -scissors, -cardstock, -printer paper and ink -construction paper pad, -sketch pads, -rulers, -red and blue pens, -sharpies, -highlighters, -vis-a-vis markers and transparencies -compass and protractor (or whatever for higher math) -abacus (2) -MAYBE set of base ten blocks -cheap watercolor sets -maybe a few crafty supplies in a small container The higher math books, SAT prep, Wayfarers high school composition suggestions, and both Mounce's books would not need to be purchased or brought this summer but I would need to be mindful of the fact that they would need to be added over the next couple of years. Wayfarers or TruthQuest, if brought in hard copy, would also be collected over 4 years. This is mostly just for fun and because I am a what-if kind of girl. But for the heck of it, what am I missing? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sherry in OH Posted March 21, 2015 Share Posted March 21, 2015 I’m not familiar with the programs you list, but one thing that struck me is that you list several resources dealing with the Bible or Biblical studies, but don’t mention taking an actual Bible. You might consider skipping some of the study material and just read the Bible. You do not need to take math flash cards. Drill math facts with computer apps, playing cards, dominos, dice, or make your own flash cards from index cards on an as needed basis. Why do you need 2 copies of S-U books? Can’t your children share the books? And why do you need to take all of them? Your high school students will need scientific calculators for advanced math. If I had to move quickly, I would take the homeschooling materials I needed for the next 6 months to a year. I would plan to donate/sell/toss materials as we finished them and acquire the next levels at that time. Thus, space for homeschooling materials would remain approximately the same. With two children, all our current homeschooling texts and notebooks fit on a single shelf. This includes reference books such as a children’s dictionary, thesaurus, and atlas. We have a second shelf for library books. So, ideally, I’d like readily accessible space for the equivalent of approximately two feet of shelf-space per child. Paper is easy to obtain, no need to stockpile. I would start with graph, copy, and notebook paper. Other types could be bought on an as needed basis. I would want a clipboard for each member of the family. If space allowed, lap-desks for the children would be handy. Pencils, pens, rulers, and arts and crafts supplies could be fit into a shoebox. Plan to replenish as needed. I would not take paints. In an RV there is not enough room to deal with drying pictures. The same goes for clay and play-doh. If we decided we needed or wanted these items, they are easy enough to acquire. For nature study, and general interest, I would want magnifying glasses, binoculars, and field guides. An inexpensive camera for child-use would be a nice plus. I’d probably take subsets of LEGOs and snap circuit kits before other science supplies. (Note: I do not have high school students – what materials will yours need for labs?) One thing I would definitely do is deal with the items in storage before moving. Do your future self a favor. Donate or toss unwanted items before moving or setting out on an extended RV excursion. The ongoing expense of a storage unit outweighs potential resale value of the contents. Unless the facility is climate controlled and rodent proof, the longer the items remain in storage, the more likely it is that they will deteriorate or otherwise be destroyed. If you relocate to another state, how likely is it that you will have the time, money, or inclination to return to your current location to deal with it? You mention not having time to deal with the stored items. If the storage facility caught on fire and you lost everything in it, would you miss any of the items? Would you want to replace them? If not, the onetime expense of paying someone to clear the unit for you is worth the cost. You’ll save money (and energy) in the long run. Put the stuff you do want to keep in POD type storage. Keep this to a minimum: quality furniture, a few keepsakes, things that would be expensive or impossible to replace (and that you actually use). When you settle, have the container shipped to you. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hunter Posted March 21, 2015 Share Posted March 21, 2015 If you are looking at roadschooling or moving this year or next, I'd really stop looking at the high school levels that are so far ahead, especially all that math; you are not there yet. Wayfarers would work well for roadschooling as so much of it is eBooks. Last time I used it, the geography books were hardcopy, but she has now switched to scheduling the books as written instead of integrating them as much, so I would be very comfortable substituting something else eBook for geography. Being on the road is not a desert island. You can arrange to buy/add things as you go along. Start light and very carefully and slowly add things. Start with Wayfareres and the math you need NOW. Continue with whatever Bible you have been using or do Wayfarers Bible. Drop foreign langauge for NOW until you have a steady routine for the other stuff and have actually created a time slot for it. The how to draw books are good as those are books the children might use on their own and might not need to be scheduled as "school." I personally would NOT bring a keyboard on the road with that many children. It's bulky and can't get spread around enough. If I wanted to include instruments, I'd purchase harmonicas, tin whistles, or recorders. There is some decent free online music for them. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hunter Posted March 21, 2015 Share Posted March 21, 2015 Stm4him, I'm not even going to try and come up with a scenario that would lead to this, but say your husband dumped your kids in my lap for 6 months and asked me to set something up that you would approve of and would maybe be happy to take over and continue indefinitely. I'd use Wayfarers because I think you would like that and I think you CAN use that long term in YOUR situation. I'd use Strayer-Upton with the youngers, and I would PLAN on MAYBE using Saxon LATER, but not purchase it. And I would only switch a child over to Saxon that was behaviorally and emotionally ready for that and WILLING to put in the time that it would take to complete the lessons. Saxon has a wider scope and sequence and requires juggling a lot of topics. It's more in so many ways. I'd only do more with a child ready and willing for more. If I got to finishing the pre-algebra topics in S-U and had a kid that wasn't a good fit for Saxon higher maths, I'd track down a used copy of S-U Algebra or use whatever was handy to get them ready for junior college algebra, hodge-podge however I had to do it. Or just send them there for remedial classes. Life is bigger than math for SOME kids that just are not STEM bound. I'd schedule some time weekly to use the drawing books, but I'd skip music to start. I wouldn't even consider the foreign language to start. I'd use ELTL, but not try and teach more than 1 or 2 books. I'd combine kids even if it were a bit easy for some. The basics are more important than the details. Review of basics seldom hurts most children. I wouldn't slavishly worry about levels of wayfarers books as long as everyone were reading and listening to GOOD books. If I resorted to using the booklists loosely Robinson Curriculum style I wouldn't worry, knowing I could switch back to slow readings later on if I wanted to. That is what *I* would do with YOUR kids if I needed to take over for YOU right NOW. Then when you came back you could evaluate and see where you thought that wasn't good enough and could be IMPROVED without sacrificing and disrupting anything of the good that was already happening. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
stm4him Posted March 21, 2015 Author Share Posted March 21, 2015 I didn't say a Bible because we can get that on our computers or electronic devices. I am positive we would have at least one hard copy Bible with us for me :-). I know there are online ways to review flashcards. We probably wouldn't bring them. But I can see that for some kids the physical cards in hand would be nice. We can always pick those up later at the dollar store if we needed them. I would need two copies of S-U because I would be using them WITH my kids and they are small books so I would want to hold mine while they hold theirs. We have almost 8 kids. As soon as we got rid of one level we would just about need to buy another so there is not much point in getting rid of things I know we will use (especially if shipping might be an issue). You may be right about paint. Clay and playdoh are not even an option....lol. School supplies and paper would be bare minimum and restocked as needed. Most of the paper would be for all my little girls to create with to keep them busy. We wouldn't use clipboards because I hate loose paper. Everything is bound in a workbook, a folder, a composition book, or sketchbook. The crafts they make with paper last about a day or two and are trashed. We would definitely not bring lab supplies. And we don't use field guides now even though we own them, so I doubt we would bring those. Binoculars and a camera I agree about. Legos are a MUST! The main issue with the storage thing is time. Between now and when we find out if we would even need to leave we can't do anything. Once we find out there may be very little time to organize all of this with a c-section and a baby in the mix before we have to be out of here. Our storage units are pretty cheap and climate controlled and such. That probably isn't a problem. We may be moving to VA for a little while which is only six hours away and we have lots of friends here so we could manage to come back here for a week or two and deal exclusively with the storage stuff. Of course if there is time to deal with it before we leave we will. Last time I looked into PODS they were super expensive. I didn't say anything for geography because Kathy Jo has a download of outline maps and I'm assuming you mean the books to read. If it were just a few books per year I would be ok with buying the ones for each term and then tossing them or mailing them to a friend to hold onto for us or something of that nature. Foreign language (HA and LNST) are already part of our routine and we already own Henle 1. Mounce's we would hold off on like I said. The Easy French and Spanish we could probably hold off on for at least another year. But I was thinking within a year or two time frame. We do have tin whistles I could bring but they may drive me batty in a small space. I was thinking that they can plug in headphones with a keyboard and we already own one. It can go on their lap and probably could squeeze under a couch or bed or be propped up against a wall. If it was taking up too much space or didn't fit somehow we would take it out of course. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
stm4him Posted March 21, 2015 Author Share Posted March 21, 2015 I like it. Are you offering? Just kidding.....LOL! This is seriously the craziest (and most stressful) turn of events. It has nothing to do with us personally, but would impact our family directly from what I understand and would go into effect for next school year in our state. If it happens I would be outta here. My husband is probably more reluctant to leave but he is more ok with taking chances than I am. So I am dealing with this stress by thinking of "what ifs" in the meantime. What would we do? Where would we go? How would we afford it? What would we take? We would have a good amount of money in hand but I have no idea how much it would cost to get the kind of RV (or whatever) we would need to travel in. Unfortunately it seems more likely that we will end up in my parent's basement, but my parent's are planning to move to SC this summer and my newly-wed sister (getting married on Good Friday) and her husband and two step-daughters are planning to continue living in their house. It is a good sized house so I think we could tolerate it there for a few months but it would not be ideal by any means. It may be the only thing we can afford. Credit and debt are issues right now. You know what? People have no idea how much cancer affects a family. You survive the first year and everyone breathes a sigh of relief and just prays for you for the remaining years of treatment. The financial havoc of it (not to mention in my case the related health issues in me and my daughter that came about at least as a partial result) often come two years or more into the picture. The tanking of the economy didn't help matters because we are stuck with land we don't want and can't sell (not including this land we live on and love but will probably not be able to sell right away.) We didn't ask for the changes on the horizon, but there they are. Planning and praying is the only thing I know to do right now while waiting to see if our lives are about to take another insane turn this summer. If I get a few things thought through (even if they are just ideas for what we "could" do) I may be able to do something productive today. We have only known about this for a few days and I am trying not to be paralyzed. I tend to want to sit around hanging out with my kids while planning in my head instead of putting laundry away or teaching reading when things like this happen in my life. My husband listens to my crazy plans and mulls on them for awhile without much comment. Eventually he either agrees it is a good idea or tells me it is completely impossible and we have to think of other options. He tends to not need to plan out worse case scenarios as readily as I do. I can't even function without a back up plan in my head. I'll take an off the wall, crazy idea over none at all any day. 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
elegantlion Posted March 21, 2015 Share Posted March 21, 2015 So, my husband and I are talking about some crazy ideas such as roadschooling for part of the year or moving to another state this summer. These are a worse case scenario for us because we LOVE our home and just bought it (and due to its location would probably have a hard time re-selling it), and because I am due with a baby this summer. Also, we would have to transfer doctors for my son with cancer close to the end of his treatment or live in two different states from August to the end of November so it would not be ideal by any means. Anyway, without discussing whether or not we should actually do any of these crazy plans, how feasible they are, or why we would have to consider this, I want to play around with how that would work with homeschooling. We actually don't have that much stuff right now in our house, but we have a huge storage unit (10 x 20) and a garage full of boxes. We would likely put all of that in temporary storage and eventually come back and move it or clean it out or whatever. Most of what is in the 10 x 20 storage unit we actually don't want but haven't had time to deal with. The things in our garage were mostly waiting to come into our house when we added more furniture (we got rid of a lot of our furniture because we knew we wanted to decorate differently in this house and live with bare minimum for awhile), but close to half of it is books and the rest is mostly toys (which they are doing fine without), or furniture that needs some fixing (which we can also do without), or seasonal clothing or decorations (again, most of which we could part with as needed for at least a few months at a time if not altogether.) So that being said, I really think we have the mentality now that we could live with very little and be happy. If we were to move to another state quickly we would not necessarily know where we wanted to settle so we may also be living in some temporary RV or other similar vehicle in that scenario as well until we figured out details. So we would need to probably get our homeschool things (not to mention everything else) to a minimum. Here is the list I would think about having with us (some of which we don't need yet and would collect within the next few years): I really have no suggestions about what to take, but I will caution against the bolded. If you have no other ties to the state you are leaving, such as house or relatives, I HIGHLY recommend NOT leaving items in a storage unit. This is in light of some of your other posts. I'll spare you my horror story, but we had a similar issue that turned into a nightmare. Eventually for us was YEARS. Our intentions were good, but life happened and time and financial obligations in our new state kept us from returning as we had hoped. Instead I would take what you loved and couldn't replace, then donate, sell, or trash the other. Then you can leave the state without financial obligations for housing material possessions. Now back to the fun dreaming: I would add cameras to your list. If you're traveling, you'll want the kids to have some fun documenting the trips. I would also add Barb's Outdoor Hour Challenges. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gentlemommy Posted March 21, 2015 Share Posted March 21, 2015 We do a bit of road schooling over the summer while in our RV. At first I was taking a crate of books and curricula, but as we did it more often, I found the absolute best resources I could have were- *Fully stocked PLAIN kindles for the reading kiddos. *Fully stocked iPads. We have several in our family. Mine holds all the TM and a ton of free PDFs files, the kids hold their educational games, electronic files, and audio books. Seriously, you can homeschool for the price of an iPad. I have found free resources for every single subject and for every single grade. The Internet can be an amazing resource, and if I didn't have space for our library, it would not be an issue at all to switch everything to a digital version. *Boxes of sharpened pencils and colored pencils. A drawing/plain paper notebook for art or nature study and 3-5 subject notebook for each kid. This keeps everything in one place. I'd also pack a small pencil box with glue sticks and scissors. This could all very easily fit into a tote bag or small Tupperware bin. If you planned well and loaded the devices before you left or had a place you could go to every once in a while to get it, you wouldn't even need Internet available to you. At times our connection was slow or spotty, but since I had stocked the devices at home, it wasn't an issue. Even in the most primitive areas, we were an hour from a place that offered wifi. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
stm4him Posted March 21, 2015 Author Share Posted March 21, 2015 We have at least one iPad (can't remember if the other one works), a tablet, and five chrome books. So there is a lot we can do on those. But I still want control of what we use and those things I listed would have to be hard copy. However, there are other free vintage math I would consider. There is a Web version of the music theory but it is much more expensive than buying a hard copy. You would be surprised what I would be willing to sacrifice for books in terms of storage room. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
stm4him Posted March 21, 2015 Author Share Posted March 21, 2015 I found an older vehicle (don't ask me what kind) in great condition that sleeps 10 for $7300 on Craigslist. Of course we wouldn't buy anything now but the fact that we could pay cash for something like that next month or so is comforting. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hunter Posted March 21, 2015 Share Posted March 21, 2015 We have at least one iPad (can't remember if the other one works), a tablet, and five chrome books. So there is a lot we can do on those. But I still want control of what we use and those things I listed would have to be hard copy. However, there are other free vintage math I would consider. There is a Web version of the music theory but it is much more expensive than buying a hard copy. You would be surprised what I would be willing to sacrifice for books in terms of storage room. If you resort to eBooks, I cannot strongly enough recommend regular eReaders over tablets, for the novels. Old cell phones are good for the audio books. Books are heavy. It costs more money to drive an RV full of books. You will not be able to roadschool Wayfarers without eBooks. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sahamamama Posted March 21, 2015 Share Posted March 21, 2015 You might want to PM Kinsa. She and her large family traveled for (I think) over a year, in an RV, while homeschooling. Here's a link to their travel blog, also. It's fun just reading it, even if you never leave home! http://forums.welltrainedmind.com/user/2157-kinsa/ 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hunter Posted March 21, 2015 Share Posted March 21, 2015 Sth4him, I started a new thread for you, about roadschooling with only/mostly hardcopy books. http://forums.welltrainedmind.com/topic/546041-minimalist-challenge-roadschooling-with-onlymostly-hardcopy-books/ Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
stm4him Posted March 22, 2015 Author Share Posted March 22, 2015 Thank you. Much obliged :-) 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RoundAbout Posted March 22, 2015 Share Posted March 22, 2015 I haven't read all of the responses, but we roadschooled for about 8 months last year and I homeschooled out of a rolling catalog case. I wanted something nice enough to take into a Starbucks or hotel lobby and it was perfect. My son was doing first grade, which I know is pretty easy, but this is what I had: -Zipper pouch of basic school supplies (pencils, sharpeners, scissors, glue, colored pencils, etc.) -Beast Academy 3A -Right Start C books -Right Start manipulative and C-rods -Explode the Code 7&8 -A notebook for History (one of those journals where each page is half for writing and half for pictures). -Notebook for handwriting practice and Writing with Ease In electronic format I had Writing with Ease and Story of the World. We did reading on the Kindle and either bought books or checked them out through our home library Overdrive system. We studied science on the road by doing the National Park Service junior ranger program, doing tours and ranger talks, and visiting science museums in major cities. We live in the West but are fortunate enough to have friends in NYC, DC, and Philadelphia. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jnaj Posted May 1, 2015 Share Posted May 1, 2015 I was wondering- do you have a link to the rolling catalog case you used while road schooling? We will be traveling full time in our RV soon, and I am trying to figure out what would be best to use to keep all of our homeschool books/supplies. Thank you! I haven't read all of the responses, but we roadschooled for about 8 months last year and I homeschooled out of a rolling catalog case. I wanted something nice enough to take into a Starbucks or hotel lobby and it was perfect. My son was doing first grade, which I know is pretty easy, but this is what I had: -Zipper pouch of basic school supplies (pencils, sharpeners, scissors, glue, colored pencils, etc.) -Beast Academy 3A -Right Start C books -Right Start manipulative and C-rods -Explode the Code 7&8 -A notebook for History (one of those journals where each page is half for writing and half for pictures). -Notebook for handwriting practice and Writing with Ease In electronic format I had Writing with Ease and Story of the World. We did reading on the Kindle and either bought books or checked them out through our home library Overdrive system. We studied science on the road by doing the National Park Service junior ranger program, doing tours and ranger talks, and visiting science museums in major cities. We live in the West but are fortunate enough to have friends in NYC, DC, and Philadelphia. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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