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.

Comments

Megan said…
Love all the pics and details! What online school do you use??
Megan
Megan said…
Also, what camper do you have? I love that layout! I love living vicariously though you and your adventures. :-)
jodyfoznot said…
Megan, I'm pretty eclectic about school. My philosophy is a classical/Charlotte Mason blend. Have you ever heard of virtualhomeschoolgroup.com? It. Is. Awesome! Four of my kids do their Saxon Math on it. It is FREE. For math, there is a daily video lesson, about five minutes long or so and then the same problem set that is provided in the actual text. It keeps record of your child's work, progress and test scores. The math part is self-paced. We were already using Saxon, but my kids like doing it online so much more. Did I mention it is free?

As for our camper, we love the layput, too! It is a 2015 Keystone Bullet Ultra Lite 335BHS.

Lexie's 3 Loves said…
Awesome! Love the "mobility" of homeschool. Where are you guys headed?
Megan said…
Thanks for answering Jody! I will check out that website. :)
Anita said…
How creative and how wonderful to have such a space to be able to still allow the kids to get in that necessary homework! The adventure of this phase in your lives is something I feel you will all look back on with some kind of fondness!
My Friend, Sarah, sent me over to your blog as we are a military family (28 years) who often lives in our camper. We live in it sometimes up to a year and sometimes just for 3 to 6 months as we move around the U.S. and go to Military Schools. We have many friends that we have met in the military and national campgrounds who are full time RV live as well. Although, we just got to our new duty station where we moved into a house for a little bit, we still hop into our camper for months at a time for school. However, there are several people under my husbands' command who are buying campers to live in full time after seeing our experiences! No one wants to be out done with a Momma with 5 children it appears! One soldier is even living in our camper right now until he gets his own camper. And, my Parents are RV Missionaries. It is a fun, simplistic, money saving life style.

It looks like you have a great spot for everyone to school. We like our picnic tables outside the camper too for homeschooling!

- Carmen

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