It鈥檚 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 that鈥檚 not what my morning has in store. Instead, I鈥檓 spending it struggling to explain the concepts of equivalent fractions, common denominators, and cross-multiplying to my clearly frustrated 10-year-old daughter, who鈥檚 telling me I鈥檓 doing a terrible job trying to keep it simple.
When you鈥檙e travelling the world for six months with two school-age children, homeschooling on days you鈥檇 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, we鈥檙e in Europe, a continent filled with history, geography and language, with no lack of new things to learn.
But oddly, it鈥檚 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 we鈥檇 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 鈥淣o games or movies tonight if we don鈥檛 get through these questions.鈥�
When we told friends about our plans for this trip, many said travel would be teacher enough, that they鈥檇 learn just by absorbing what鈥檚 around them. And that鈥檚 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 they鈥檙e getting it.
But other friends asked, 鈥淲hat 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?鈥�
In fact, it鈥檚 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 aren鈥檛 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.
We鈥檝e only been at this 鈥渢ravel-schooling鈥� thing a few weeks, but here鈥檚 what we鈥檝e 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, we鈥檙e getting unlimited books, and since our daughter is a big Harry Potter fan and both are in a Gordon Korman reading phase right now, it鈥檚 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 we鈥檙e just going with it. Each quiz we write has a theme to go with our locale we鈥檙e 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. They鈥檙e 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 hasn鈥檛 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, it鈥檚 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 hasn鈥檛 happened either.
So we haven鈥檛 gotten it all figured out just yet. But just like our children, we鈥檙e really learning as we go, keeping our minds open to new approaches and accepting suggestions along the way.
Check back on CTVNews.ca, where I鈥檒l be sharing my experiences regularly on Dream Big Wednesdays.
