It is crazy to us, but we have friends that still ask us why we chose to travel in our RV rather than just travel by plane. My response is still the same. There is nothing better than the feeling we get when we load the family up in the RV and hit the road for an extended road trip.
We love our travels because it gives us the opportunity to explore new places and include these rich experiences in the education of our boys. We have so much freedom during our RV travels to switch things up, that to compare it to air travel would be like comparing spinach to ice cream.
Also, because we travel so often, it is important for us to stick to our homeschool schedule as much as possible. We began using Sonlight’s core curriculum this year mainly because of homeschool fatigue that I experienced last year.
Please click this link to read my blog about my homeschool fatigue.
I turned to Sonlight’s literature based curriculum in hopes that it would take the extra burden of teacher planning off my plate so that I could enjoy this educational journey with my boys. I fell in love with Sonlight immediately. But in the back of my mind I feared that it may be difficult to travel with in an RV. The true test for our family would be if this curriculum would be as easy to use on the road as it was to utilize at home.
Our maiden voyage with Sonlight in tow would provide me with the proof that I needed; that I indeed, made a sound decision for our traveling homeschool family. As you can imagine, when we are traveling during the traditional public school year, the majority of the families that we encounter at the campgrounds are homeschoolers, as well. The means by which they educate their children are as varied as the families themselves.
Several times during our most recent trip, we were asked about how we like the Sonlight Curriculum and how feasible is it for full-timers to use. As RVers we have to be very intentional about what we bring into our tiny homes because space is at a premium.
Honestly, we are not yet full-time RVers but we do understand that adding a large box of curriculum is not feasible for many RV families. Of course, if you have only one child that you are homeschooling or if your children are close enough in age where you are able to share a curriculum, it is possible to make room for this curriculum. If you have more that one curriculum level like we do, there are options for you too.
For example we currently have three children that use Sonlight. Our two oldest kiddos are working through Core D+E, which includes roughly 40 books which they share. It sounds like a lot but the bulk of these books are small paperback readers that do not take up much space in the RV. I was able to fit them all into one overhead cabinet in the RV. If you are already homeschooling in your rig, then you already have space set aside for your homeschooling materials.
My youngest is working on the Core B, which we decided to approach in a different way. I think that this is probably the easiest way for fulltime RVers to enjoy Sonlight across grade levels. We chose to purchase only the Instructors Guides and worksheets for him. This gives us the opportunity to look for the required books at the local library, borrow ebooks online or order them through Amazon as needed. Doing things this way does require that I take the time to look through the curriculum ahead of schedule and plan my purchases or place holds through our library system. But in the end I still enjoy the curriculum while not eating up too much coveted storage space in our tiny home on wheels.
We are currently only two months into our Sonlight journey, but so far it has been smooth sailing and we couldn’t be more pleased with our decision to switch to this curriculum. Please let us know if you are using Sonlight on the road and how it is working for you. Do you have any other tips to make traveling in the Sonlight even more enjoyable? We would love to hear your ideas and feedback.
Tia Sims – Homeschooling Mom of Soulful RV Family
*Many thanks to Sonlight for sponsoring much of the material that will be used this year. If you are interested in finding out more about Sonlight and their curriculum offerings you will find a link to their website below. As we journey through this new curriculum, we will also be utilizing it to plan some destinations to incorporate learning into our road trips.
