Right now, I’m at a cafe with my almost ten-year-old, where she’s writing a blog post as her next writing project (topic: things for kids to do in Queensland, Australia). I’ve been furiously working on finishing my e-course while we have decent Internet, before we head to our next location: Sri Lanka.

There’s a certain irony to me contributing a post to Simple Homeschool’s day in the life series, because since we left the States on September 15, not one day has been the same.

We’re on a round-the-world trip that we’d planned for about five years, and at the time of this writing, we’re a few weeks shy of halfway through.

Everything changed when we crammed our backpacks full of the gear we’d need for the next nine months, from our food to housing to day-to-day activities. (Thankfully, we didn’t need to adjust to schooling as a way of everyday, all day family life. We were already used to that.)

What has thrown me for a loop, however, is my need to adjust my expectations. My dear friend worldschooled and traveled with her family not too long ago, and she warned me that even though our kids will learn more than they ever could in a classroom setting, there will be days (weeks, months) when it won’t feel like it.

We’ve got a few bits of curriculum with us, but we’ll go weeks without cracking it. There are many days when we have to account for long travel and jet lag adjustment. And a regular morning routine? Forget about it. I really don’t even know how to write about “day in the life” for this year.

Kids getting ready for a hike in New Zealand

But learning? You bet.

Our field trips have included, but aren’t limited to:

The Great Wall of China, ancient Asian palaces and parks, Terra Cotta Warrriors, the karst mountains of Yangshuo, elephant reserves, local cooking classes, hiking the Southern Alps of New Zealand, snorkeling the Great Barrier Reef, hiking the oldest rainforest in the world, learning how to throw boomerangs and play a digeridoo from an Aborigine, holding a koala and feeding a kangaroo, and taking a ferry ride around the Sydney Opera House and Harbor Bridge (all those in Australia, obviously).

Riding a World War II-era train through the Australian rainforest

Checking out the Terracotta Warriors

Bathing elephants in Thailand

A young monk helping our guy light his lantern for Loy Krathong

Seeing as we’re not quite halfway through, I can’t even imagine what else we’ll add (Victoria Falls, a safari in Kenya, the ancient Moroccan city of Fez, Cappadoccia in Turkey, and Beirut, Lebanon, are all on the horizon. And then there’s Europe next.)

This doesn’t include everyday markets galore, local cafes and pubs, daily life in the world’s megacities, enduring long drives in the middle of nowhere (squashed up sweatily next to your brother and sister!), handling metro and bus systems, currency conversions, airport layovers, cooking with new ingredients, and language barriers.

Having to pack up again and again while keeping up with your stuff, and I’d say we’ve got “life skills” checked.

A spur-of-the-moment science experiment when a lantern landed in our front yard

“Meeting” the neighbors in China

Learning culture and the natural world from an Aborigine

So yeah… they’re learning. I just have to remind myself.

The closest thing to a “day in the life”

When we are in one place for more than a week at a time (our preference), we’ll spread out and open our backpacks a bit to dig in to our books. Our priorities are our field trips and adventures, obviously, but this sort of learning fits in to our nooks and crannies:

• Our oldest, turning 10 in a few weeks, journals our outings and adventures, doubling as both writing practice and creating the perfect souvenir for our trip. She also writes down Bible verses from our family devotional time, jots down new-to-her spelling words from books she reads, and publishes occasional blog posts.

• Our middle, age 7, practices his handwriting with his workbook and with his spelling lists, and also works on his articulation—this is one of the few “schooly” things we’re intentionally doing as daily as possible because he has a fine motor and speech delay.

• Both kids are also working their way (albeit slowly) through their math that we have on the iPad, and they also keep track of their allowance on a spreadsheet with the different currencies and their value converted to U.S. dollars.

• Our youngest, age 4.5, mostly plays, but since he loves “doing” school with his older siblings, he’ll practice his letters when the workbooks are pulled out.

• His brother and sister also enjoy helping him with counting and sorting (coins! rocks! steps on the Great Wall! whatever we find!).

• We also listen to Story of the World as a family from our iPad (doing our best to listen to the ones pertinent to where we are), and we reference our travel map near-daily and talk about our locale’s language, politics, food, animal and plant life, geography and culture.

• The older two read a ton on their Kindles, which are gloriously connected to our local public library back home.

• We continue our family read-alouds via Kindle as well, and take advantage of any picture books that might be near us (we’ve stayed in guest houses with libraries, and a few rental houses have had kiddo books).

And just like in real life, the kids play, play, play.

Study time in a Thai guest house equipped with a library

Writing in a restaurant in Beijing

Goofing around at China’s Temple of Heaven

Snorkeling the Great Barrier Reef

All this happens all throughout our days—there is no routine right now. There is no typical “day in the life” for us (and I do look forward to when we return to such, eventually).

The kids write on planes, when we have a low-key day of vegging in a guest house, from beds before drifting off to sleep. Math happens when the iPad is charged and we have space and time to concentrate. And reading? Reading happens everywhere: on windy-road drives, while waiting for food at cafes, at bus and metro stops, and from airplane seats, beds and park benches worldwide.

Other than this? We don’t do that much.

our “first day of school” photos at the Great Wall of China

Writing this has encouraged me that even though it doesn’t feel like we’re “doing” much school, they really are learning. I have a feeling we’ll feel the aftereffects of this special year for years to come. I’m overwhelmingly grateful for this season.

Have you ever found yourself homeschooling far away from home?

Written by Tsh Oxenreider of Simple Mom.

Ages of my children: 7, 4, & almost 2
Educational philosophies I pull from: Classical, Interest-Led Learning

A few weeks ago, I spent the weekend visiting Peace Hill Press and its founder, Susan Wise Bauer. Known for fostering a modern-day movement of the classical method of teaching, she is someone I’ve long admired. It was an honor to meet her.

So it might surprise you to hear that we’re not homeschooling next year. Oh, well, of course we are in the organic, basic rudimentary definition of the word—I hold the belief that education always begins at home, whether or not families are aware. But formally, we are taking a step of faith and enrolling our kids in a local private school.

This was a tough, tough decision, and most of my closer friends and family know that we wrestled with this decision most of the spring semester. But in the end, we feel a strong peace that this is our learning path next year, and we’re excited.

So why am I participating in the curriculum fair here, you might be asking? Well, because we’re going to try out something that I learned about this past spring, and it’s one of the things that released me from the disappointment in not homeschooling next year.

It’s called afterschooling.

Afterschooling: What is it?

It’s almost silly that this even needs a name, in many ways, but afterschooling is simply homeschool, after school. It can look a lot of ways, just like homeschooling. I’ve jokingly come to call it Homeschool Lite.

Increasing in popularity, many families choose to do afterschooling in order to go deeper in an area a student’s school isn’t able, to cover a topic that’s completely ignored at school, or to foster more interest-led learning. I learned a great deal about afterschooling at Teaching My Baby to Read, and the Well Trained Mind forums also has a forum just for afterschooling.

As we considered the possibility of afterschooling, one of our highest criteria was finding a school with a low homework policy. After all, kids need tons of play (where some of the best learning happens!), and I have no intention of bogging down our kids with more than is necessary.

We’re going to try it out this next year, and if it ends up being too much, we’ll slow down. We might even shelve the idea for awhile and pick it back up later. Or we may stop doing the private school and return to only homeschooling.

Our afterschool plan

We’re going to ease into it, and we may not even do afterschooling every week. But these will be our resources.

1. First Language Lessons

I really do love everything from Peace Hill Press, and their grammar curriculum is at the top of their game. We’ll continue doing First Language Lessons, since it worked so well for us this past year. I’m guessing we’ll do one to two lessons a week, tops.

2. The Ordinary Parent’s Guide to Teaching Reading

Our 7-year-old learned to read using this curriculum when she was four, and we didn’t even need to finish it—it just clicked for her. I have a hunch it won’t be the same for her 4-year-old brother, but he’s showing eagerness to learn. We’ll pull out our Ordinary Parent’s Guide this summer and ease into phonics, slowly.

3. Story of the World

Of course, right? We love this history curriculum, especially the mp3 version. We just listen to Story of the World in the car, talk about it a lot, and pursue the activities and further research if the kids are interested. Tate begs to listen to SOTW, so it’s fun for her.

4. History sentences (and songs) from Classical Conversations

We participated in CC this past year, and we loved the 24 history sentences, easily learned by song. I’m blown away by how much history our entire family memorized. We’re not participating in our local chapter next year, but I’ll still order next year’s CDs and play those in the car as well.

5. Geography maps and memory work from Classical Conversations

My first-grader also learned an enormous amount of geography, and she loved it. We’ll keep on with the CC map tracing, memory work, and exploration of cultures and places as the interest arises.

I also love Writing With Ease and Telling God’s Story from PHP, and we’ll also incorporate these if it works out.

I know I’ll miss the longer hours of homeschooling next year. But we’re very much a year-at-a-time, kid-at-a-time family—I don’t for a second doubt that we’ll homeschool again. It might not be the best fit for our family next year, but that doesn’t mean that’ll always be the case.

Have you ever tried afterschooling? What was it like for you?

(Peace Hill Press gave me complimentary curricula for review.)

Children’s ages: 6, 3, and 1
Educational Philosophy Influences: Classical, Charlotte Mason, and Leadership Education

I‘m a newbie when it comes to homeschooling. This can’t be overstated enough — those of you who feel completely green at homeschooling, count me among your throngs.

While we have a very nomadic lifestyle, I actually thrive quite a bit on structure, so my homeschool plans reflect this. Part of this is preemptive: I also have two other little ones, a business to run, a book to start, speaking engagements, and travel plans. If I don’t somewhat structure our school, I’m afraid it’ll never happen.

So. Here are our plans for first grade this next year.

Classical Conversations

We will most likely sign up for Classical Conversations this next year. I like its emphasis on memory work, even though this next year’s subject matters won’t exactly align with what we’ll learn at home. I value the basic act of memorization, and the content will eventually come in handy at some point.

The other main reason for our involvement will be to socialize — we’ll be in a brand new city, and it’ll be a helpful way to meet people.

Learning words: Grammar, Writing, Handwriting, Spelling, and Reading

I really love Peace Hill Press. I love their philosophy of education, their materials, and the people behind the scenes. So ultimately, most of my resources come from them.

I plan to use Writing With Ease and First Language Lessons for grammar and writing. I admittedly haven’t used them yet, but many of my friends have, and in flipping through these texts, I think they’ll serve us well. We’re going to ease into this gently.

Tate learned cursive in kindergarten this past year, so I’m going to just keep going with it. I use StartWrite software to create our own handwriting practice pages. We mostly do Bible verses, poems, and quotes to aid our memorization.

We’ve used Spelling Workout this past year, as part of our after-schooling activities. It’s nothing fancy, but it works. We’ll start with workbook B next year. We may veer into All About Spelling, after reading Heidi’s glowing post.

For reading, we’ll do lots of quality read-alouds and provide plenty of solo free reading time. Hooray for library cards!

Learning the world: Geography, History, Foreign Language

Understanding the world is a high priority in my educational philosophy. It is vital to me that my children understand geography and cultures, not only because we travel a lot, but also because the world is shrinking. One of my favorite reasons for us living overseas is that it gives our kids a unique, global perspective on life.

For history, we’ll use Peace Hill Press’ Story of the World, volume 1. I love the emphasis on learning history chronologically, so we’ll study Ancient Times. We have the audio version, so we’ll listen to them in the car, check out books at the library, and create a master timeline.

For geography, we’ll copy maps repeatedly, improving cartography skills slowly over time. We’ll make this our major focus on geography, but we’ll also include Operation World as a text, exploring a new country every couple weeks or so. This is something we’ll do as a family, since we all love exploring the world and its myriad cultures.

I asked Simple Mom readers what foreign language Tate should study this next year, and I agree with the consensus — whatever she wants. She’s currently interested in all things French — the food, the language, the wine making process (no idea why!), Madeline, you name it. So we’ll be doing French 1 on Rosetta Stone as a family — not only because she wants to, but also because French is a genuinely useful language worldwide. It’s one of the mostly widely-spoken second languages, and we could live anywhere in the world, literally, in the next few years.

I used Rosetta Stone when we lived overseas and had great results with it. I also used it to help teach English to Albanian students in Kosovo about ten years ago. It’s expensive, but I’m a fan nonetheless.

Learning how things work: Math and Science

Because Kyle and I both work from home, often working on projects together, he has agreed to take on primarily teaching math and science this year. Otherwise, I simply won’t have time to write.

Jamie gave me an unopened copy of the alpha level of Math U See, so we’re going to try that out as our primary math resource. We may also supplement this with Singapore Math.

We’re going to explore plants, animals, and the human body (life science) using mostly the library and creation. But our main texts at home will be DK First Animal Encyclopedia, Kingfisher First Human Body Encyclopedia, and Green Thumbs. We’ll keep this pretty low-key and interest-led, which shouldn’t be a problem, since both Kyle and Tate enjoy learning these things. We also have the Planet Earth series, so we’ll use that, too, just for fun. And nothing can beat walking outside, collecting bugs, and seeing what happens.

Learning other stuff: Bible, Art, Music, Home Ec, and getting out the wiggles

Peace Hill Press sent me their new Bible curriculum, Telling God’s Story, and we’ve already used it a little bit. I love it! I really appreciate how the curriculum starts with Jesus, His life, and His teachings. It keeps Him as the center and foundation, and the lessons provide lots of opportunities for discussion throughout the week. It’s also flexible — we can study the same passage every day for a week, or we can just do the lesson for a few days. There’s plenty of activity ideas to pick and choose. We’ll keep using it in the fall.

Tate enjoys drawing, so I’ll do my best to kindle this interest of hers with Drawing With Children. We’ll also study an artist each semester or so. None of us in the family are musically inclined, but we do love listening to it, so we’ll also study a different composer each semester.

I want our kids to leave the house knowing how to bake bread, balance a checkbook, and sew the basics, so home ec is important to me. Tate has chosen cooking for her first course — so this year, I’m looking forward to Spaghetti, Scrambled Eggs, and Smoothies 101. (This mostly involves her helping me cook dinner.)

We’ll probably join Bend’s Park and Recreation and enjoy living in a beautiful location! We love being outside, so Tate may join a hiking group or some other sport. Or we may just spend lots of time together, running around.

Finally, Tate is traveling with me to the Middle East this fall, which will undoubtedly provide myriad learning opportunities, as well as good mother-daughter bonding time. I genuinely look forward to our next year together, exploring the world.

Alright, more experienced homeschoolers — what are some good chapter books for a six-year-old, for both reading aloud and solo reading? I need ideas.

Add to this my own daughter’s precociousness and voracious interest in learning to read, and I knew I needed to add a bit more to our day than my own ideas to satisfy her thirst (and my sanity).

So this past “school year,” my daughter and I learned together via Five in a Row. As a four and five-year-old who loves to read, this was an ideal format for her to explore the world in a sort of big picture way, covering a wide variety of topics while still living a super flexible lifestyle.

Five in a Row isn’t just for preschoolers — it can be done through high school, in fact. But I found it an ideal curriculum and learning style for our family’s lifestyle and my child’s temperament.

Here are some of my favorite things about FIAR.

1. We read, read, and then read some more.

Photo by John Morgan

The basic premise of FIAR is that you read the same book every day for five days, and then explore a different angle of the book’s story as your launch pad for more in-depth study.

This method uses quality literature and living books as its textbooks, so that means reading is at its center.  Fostering a love of reading is the fundamental goal in my kid’s early education. FIAR really champions this.

2. It applies more traditional subjects to real life.

Photo from Amazon.com

I never liked math in school because I never really understood the point. While FIAR doesn’t teach core math skills (you would need to supplement that, if it’s needed), it reveals the application of traditional subjects to real life.

So when we read Madeline, we spent a day talking about counting by twos and symmetry. In How to Make an Apple Pie and See the World, my daughter was introduced to the concept of fractions and their use in cooking.

For science, we discussed why a lemon would make the townspeople’s lips pucker in Lentil. We explored the ocean world in Night of the Moonjellies.

And don’t get me started on geography and history — in one school year, we traveled to Paris, China, Italy, New England, small town America, Japan, and myriad time periods.

3. It opens the door to discuss moral issues.

Photo from Amazon.com

The books in FIAR are all chosen so that the overall themes and messages apply to real life. We’ve discussed community responsibility with Katy and the Big Snow, perseverance in The Glorious Flight, and obeying authority with The Story about Ping.

There’s also a Bible study supplement book that corresponds with each FIAR volume.

4. It’s super flexible.

Photo from Amazon.com

The basic idea is to read the same book everyday for five days, in one week. But there were many times we covered one book over two weeks. Other times, we were done with a book in three days.

Sometimes, we covered art, science, history, literature, math, and Bible from just one book. Other times, we stuck with just science and ran with all sorts of ideas based solely on interest.  You can flex FIAR to work for your family’s current calendar.

It’s also easy to include siblings. We’d all cuddle up on the couch for the day’s book, and my two-year-old son would hang around and count pennies or “draw” a small town map with us.

5. It’s not very expensive.

There’s just a basic curriculum guide for each of the four volumes of FIAR (there’s also Before Five in a Row, Beyond Five in a Row, and Above & Beyond Five in a Row). Then you can either buy the books you read each week, or you could check them out at the library.

It obviously costs more to buy each of the books, but then you’ve added great literature to your family’s library, and younger siblings can use them for their turn with FIAR.

Overall, this has worked really well for our family. There’s an active forum that helps answer questions and generate ideas, and it opens the door for creative ideas so that books can be read and explored again and again.

Have you ever used Five in a Row or something similar? What sort of learning does your preschooler enjoy?