Several readers of the blog have asked how the home schooling is going. Here is a progress report as we approach the end of our third month:
Julia’s school materials fit in a large plastic file box that we schlep into our room or campsite together with our luggage each time we check into a new place. Our standard daily routine puts off touring until the afternoon. We start schoolwork at breakfast around 7:30 AM and continue either in our room, campsite, picnic area, coffee place, or the local library until about 11:30 AM. If we have a full day of travel, we use the next Saturday or Sunday to make up the work not done. We are generally following the 6th grade curriculum of the Bath Middle School using materials that her teachers gave us and trying to stay approximately on their schedule. We purchased our own texts and workbooks in Earth Science and in Geography to make those subjects more portable. We followed the 6th grade social studies and science textbook selections of the Denver Public Schools because Denver, unlike most systems, lists the texts for each subject at each grade level. By happy coincidence, the Geography text began with chapters on Eastern Canada and on the US National Parks, so Julia has a firm foundation for some aspects of the current focus of our travel. In Earth Science she has been studying earthquakes, volcanoes, landforms, topography, and maps as well as plate techtonics, which have included the formation of the Rockies and Grand Canyon.
One of our challenges is keeping up with Julia’s reading. She will read two or three shorter books each week; longer books last longer. But this means constantly buying new books. We have become very adept at finding used bookstores and library book sales. Julia’s Grandfather gave a Kindle for her birthday; we have loaded a number of classics and she has read them as well. At the moment the Kindle is broken awaiting replacement. So more stacks of books in the back seat. In either case, each finished book is the subject of a written book summary and review. Other writing assignments have come from our travel – descriptive essays on particular features of places we have visited and a longer research report on the songbirds of this part of the Southwest that we have encountered. The other subjects – art and music – we have approached opportunistically. When art museums are near, we visit, take notes, do sketches. When we can hear live music we do. It seems that a lot of learning is going on, both from the school materials and from all of our experiences.
