Question
Sunday, April 20th, 2008At a book reading yesterday at the Kingshighway Branch Library in St. Louis, a woman in the audience asked what was my best advice for parents who might want to roadschool?
Obviously, there are many considerations. Still, you want to know that you and your kids actually like to travel together. The only way you know that is to spend time on the road. There are always rough spots to be worked out–like how much time people need to do their own thing, how many hours they can drive without going nuts. (When my sons were young, we stopped at three or four parks every day along the route.They got out their bat, gloves and baseball while I stretched out on a park bench for a snooze.) We also found out that for long trips, a rigid schedule didn’t work. If the kids needed a break just to play at campgrounds and hang out with other kids, well, we’d give it a break for a couple of days. Those break days didn’t always correspond to destinations. If they NEEDED to stop in an area I thought of as nowheresville, rather than a place I was itching to explore, well, we stopped.
Getting that information in small doses–a week, a month–provides a lot of confidence that everyone can actually enjoy and benefit from such an adventure.
It is also important to be realistic in assessing your child or children. Not everyone is a good candidate for this kind of learning. If your young student would feel more deprived than excited by taking off and leaving friends, sports, and beloved activities behind, then limiting the experience to a few weeks in the summer might be perfect.
That goes for you, the parent, as well. Although you probably wouldn’t even consider this if jumping off to see the world didn’t get your blood racing and your eyes sparkling.