Mobile School

One of the things I love most about homeschooling is being in control our family's pace and schedule. School does not come before family; it's just part of our family life with very few lines of demarcation. When we found out that we had six days to move, we closed up our books and took an unplanned spring break that lasted for two weeks. Hello, spring. I see you, daffodils, as I carry this 300th box of books to the moving truck.Spring cleaning? Why, yes, I think we will, because we want our deposit on our rental back.

We just cracked those books back open today. It felt like the first normal thing we've done for days and days, and I was grateful. I would venture to say more grateful about it than my little students. We will be figuring out this RV schooling gig together.

So when Rob and I looked at travel trailers for hours and hours--how did people do this before the invention of the internet?--we knew that we would need something that would do more than just provide enough beds. We are going to be spending a lot of time together in this, and though there are times to settle and make do, this was not one of them if we could help it.

The best thing about this travel trailer--and call me a camping fool, but I seem to use the terms RV and travel trailer interchangeably. Is that even right?--is the opposing slide outs in the bunk house. There are actually enough beds to sleep 12 people in the RV, but. . .no. I do not want to turn my dinette into a bed every single night and stash bedding in odd places every single day. We all have our limits, man. But the bunkhouse, or Kids Quarters as we call it, is just awesome. School room by day, game room by evening, bedroom by night, without too much rearranging. This was important for our overall happiness and feeling settled in an unsettling situation.

The Kids Quarters has another dinette in the back, a perfect spot for the school computer and writing desk. School books and materials are stashed away in the cupboards up above, and the benches are storage for their clothes. The bunks are on either side, and underneath were four twin-sized futons. (We removed one of them and use that extra corner for storage.) The girls sleep up top, and the three boys each have a futon chair that folds out into a bed underneath the bunks.

We brought along a table we bought at Ikea that we had been using in our school room. This sits at the other end of the Kids Quarters by the empty space we created by removing one of the futons. The table is super lightweight, the legs come off, and  they are adjustable to keep it level. The chair in this shot and the one above I bought several years ago at Goodwill and reupholstered. They are light and tuck nicely away underneath the table, which is important. This small, flat TV allows for a little gaming or movie watching after school when we are indoors.

Lily prefers to do her schoolwork in her bunk. She is queen of finding a quiet little corner and tucking herself away. Here you can see the futon chair/bed underneath. That would be Seth's bed, because he is never far from his army blanket.

The main cabin dinette gives plenty of space for at least one student. Just before I took this shot, Lily was sitting opposite Caleb working on the online portion of her school. Plenty of room.

In fact, we are able to squeeeeze all seven of us at the table. It's tight, but it works for now. If we're having sandwiches or something a little less messy, we tend to spread out a bit more, but chicken fajitas with salsa and guacamole necessitate table space. 

And we also have the great outdoors.

A whole bunch of outdoors, actually.