We started our school year with a virtual Indiana charter school while we were still back in Indy.
However, the virtual school program didn’t work well for us, primarily due to the amount of time we were spending to get our prescribed lessons done. There was no efficiency to our learning, so we were often working until dinner, sometimes after dinner too. Also, it didn’t make sense to have the girls memorizing facts about the ancient Mayan empire when I knew we would be exploring the Olympic Peninsula in a matter of weeks. We quickly returned our 150 pounds of books and materials and set off on our own adventure of homeschooling.
Now that we have been back on the road for a few weeks, we are working on a good routine. We have math and language arts lessons in the mornings and then we head out in the afternoons for the closest National or State Park or museum that accepts our IN State Museum Pass. This is what the girls have to say, so far:
Carrie loves the field trips. One of her recent favorites was the Marine Life Center in Port Angeles, WA. We saw a Giant Pacific Octopus and watched her gracefully eat live crabs. It was amazing! The girls fed the anemones, eels, flounders and other fish. It was great to have the naturalist all to ourselves to answer questions. He was even able to help us solve the mystery of the “devilfish” we had just read about in “The Island of the Blue Dolphins”.
Emily likes reading together and playing math card games. We are trying to read books set in the areas where we are traveling. If you have any good suggestions, please pass them along! She is also our resident Jr. Ranger.
Natalie likes the hikes, knitting and journaling. All three girls journal about the things that we are doing.
