Itâs a perfectly sunny and perfectly warm, southern Spain kind of day, one that would be ideal for a morning of swimming in the Mediterranean, followed by a gelato and cafe con leche at a sidewalk cafe.
But thatâs not what my morning has in store. Instead, Iâm spending it struggling to explain the concepts of equivalent fractions, common denominators, and cross-multiplying to my clearly frustrated 10-year-old daughter, whoâs telling me Iâm doing a terrible job trying to keep it simple.
When youâre travelling the world for six months with two school-age children, homeschooling on days youâd rather be out and about are just part of the deal.
I had secretly hoped when we first hatched our big six-months-away plan that the travel itself would be education enough for our two kids, aged 10 and 8. After all, weâre in Europe, a continent filled with history, geography and language, with no lack of new things to learn.
But oddly, itâs my daughter who is insisting on these math lessons, worried as she is that she is going to fall behind in school.
So some mornings that weâd rather be spending in the surf or seeing the sights are being spent huddled over a kitchen table in our rented apartments, marking and correcting homemade worksheets, and coercing our kids with threats of âNo games or movies tonight if we donât get through these questions.â
When we told friends about our plans for this trip, many said travel would be teacher enough, that theyâd learn just by absorbing whatâs around them. And thatâs true; they are learning. I can see it in their curiosity about wanting to know how to read maps, or convert currency, or learn a few words of Spanish. Or even whenever I translate a historic plaque on a 300-year-old building. Despite their constant eye-rolling, I know theyâre getting it.
But other friends asked, âWhat about school? Are you even allowed to take them out of that long? Will they have to re-take the grade when they come back?â
In fact, itâs perfectly legal to take your kids out of school. If we were withdrawing them for a whole school year or more, we would be required to notify the school board of our plans. In our case, since we will be back by the end of the school year, we only needed to write a letter to our principal, who was as excited about our trip as we were.
Because we live in Ontario, we also arenât obligated to show the school or school board what the kids are learning or have them do any testing when they come back. Alberta, Saskatchewan and Quebec are a little different; they do require submission of formal educational plans and evidence of student progress.
Our kids are a rarity this year: found that fewer than one per cent of Canadian kids are homeschooled.
But the proportion is much higher in the U.S. -- which is great news for us. It means there are lots of great websites out there with homeschooling suggestions and study plans that we using for teaching ideas. The provinces also post their curricula online by grade for free, so we can plan ahead for the social studies and science units coming up and maybe even find new ways to learn about those things in our travels.
Weâve only been at this âtravel-schoolingâ thing a few weeks, but hereâs what weâve found has worked for keeping our kids learning:
E-readers: We decided not to pack books for this trip because we wanted to keep things light, but we did invest in a second e-reader. It was the best decision. For a monthly subscription fee, weâre getting unlimited books, and since our daughter is a big Harry Potter fan and both are in a Gordon Korman reading phase right now, itâs money well spent.
Khan Academy: This has been , and because it contains videos, quizzes and a fun point system, one kid can stay focused on the site while we work and teach the other child one-on-one.
Spelling quizzes: For some reason, our kids love spelling tests. I have no idea why but weâre just going with it. Each quiz we write has a theme to go with our locale weâre in. So the quiz in Iceland contained the words: volcano, geyser and iceberg. Meanwhile the one while we were in Paris included: Napoleon, catacombs, and skeletons. The kids compete for the highest score and relive some of their travel memories at the same time.
Duolingo: , this time for learning languages, which keeps the kids motivated with a fun point system
Workbooks: We brought a few reading comprehension workbooks that contain stories and questions asking kids to remember or analyze elements in the texts. Theyâre great but we will run through them pretty quickly. The nice thing though is they are not expensive so new ones can be bought for just a few dollars from English-language bookstores.
What hasnât worked well yet: Getting the kids writing. We had hoped each kid would keep a blog, but with only one laptop between the four of us, itâs hard enough to carve out time for the adults. We should switch to paper and pen journals, but frankly writing and editing are time-consuming and the kids dread it -- especially when the beach and the historical sites are calling.
We also hoped to get the kids making digital slideshows of their own photos, to practise their media skills and perhaps prepare for a multimedia presentation to their class when they come back. That hasnât happened either.
So we havenât gotten it all figured out just yet. But just like our children, weâre really learning as we go, keeping our minds open to new approaches and accepting suggestions along the way.
Check back on CTVNews.ca, where Iâll be sharing my experiences regularly on Dream Big Wednesdays.