What Roadschooling Looks Like in Our Van

Okay, the question I get more than any other, usually in a DM at 11pm: "but what about school?"

So let me show you. We've roadschooled six kids across 47 states and it doesn't look like a classroom on wheels. It looks like this.

Affiliate links below for the stuff we use. I get a small commission if you buy through them, at no cost to you. The whole van list is at bellebucket.com/road-trip-essentials.

The audiobook is the curriculum

Honestly, most of our homeschool on the road is listening. Hours and hours of audiobooks, and the trick that changed everything for us is picking books set where we're going.

When we drove to Salem last October (that trip is here: bellebucket.com/fall-road-trip-itinerary), we listened to the story of the witch trials before we ever got there. So by the time we walked into town in our costumes, my kids already knew who everybody was. They had opinions on the Putnams. They argued about who was lying. We had inside jokes about people who have been dead for three hundred years. And then we stood in the burying ground and it wasn't a field trip anymore, it was the end of a story they'd been living in for two days.

That's what makes history stick. Being IN it after you've already fallen in love with it.

We do this everywhere now. Book first, place second. The kids remember the state because they remember the story. And when we went to Dollywood, we listened to Dolly's own book on the way in (read it here), same idea.

Math doesn't stop

This is the part people don't expect. When we're home, my kids go to a micro school a few days a week. When we leave, the micro school just sends us with our curriculum for the weeks we're gone. That's it, that's the system. They're so flexible and it has been the biggest gift, because it means math doesn't fall apart every time we hit the road. Each kid has their pages, they do them at the campsite table or in the bunk, and we pick right back up when we get home. If you're looking at homeschool options and travel is a big part of your life, ask about flexibility before you ask about anything else.

The backseat travel kit

Every kid has a travel kit. Coloring, a few workbook pages, something to check off. They can do it in the van without help from me, which is the requirement, because I'm driving.

On our last trip I made them a state page for every state we crossed. They colored the state the day we drove through it, so by the end of seven weeks they had a colored map they'd made themselves, one day at a time. My favorite thing we've ever done. That page is going into the roadschool guide.

The Yoto is what I call "the little square thing with the cards" and it's how the younger kids listen to chapter books on the road. Screen free, they run it themselves, and it runs off the Jackery at bedtime.

The Osmo turns the iPad into school. Math and spelling and drawing and they think it's a game.

My boys have the LeapFrog reading pen. They tap the words and it reads to them and they can color the pages, and it's gotten two of my kids reading in the backseat.

The Boogie Board is where spelling practice and tic tac toe happen with no paper on the floor.

Magformers for the littles. An hour of quiet, every time.

And a National Parks passport, because stamping it at every park is the best homework there is.

Junior Rangers

Every national park, the kids do the Junior Ranger booklet and get sworn in by a real ranger. It's free. It's science and history and the ranger makes them raise their hand and promise. My kids have a pile of badges and they can tell you which park each one came from. (The free National Parks bucket list on my email list is basically the checklist for this.)

What we're building

I've been working on a real roadschool curriculum for the van, the thing I wish somebody had handed me years ago. We tested it on our Pacific Northwest trip and the kids LOVED it. It's coming to Belle Bucket soon, and if you want to know the second it drops, get on the email list at bellebucket.com. In the meantime, start with the audiobook. Book first, place second.