As you can imagine we have been meeting a lot of people on the road. If you know us you know that there isn't a single one of us who does not have the gift of gab and we'll talk to pretty much anyone, so we strike up conversations with park rangers, other campers, baristas, security guards, people walking in the same direction as us...you get the picture.
For me, this is one of the most fun and interesting things about the road trip. It's interesting to listen to what people choose to talk about or share about their lives in a ten minute exchange, or to discover commonality with someone who appears to be different than you. I love the small bits of wisdom that people are willing to impart on our children (or sometimes on John and I) and all of the teachable moments that come from meeting new people.
Of course, we usually end up sharing our own story with the people we meet and this often leads to a longer conversation than initially anticipated.
We have started to notice some repeat questions, so I thought I'd answer some of those questions on here, since some of our new friends are following our Facebook/blog.
For me, this is one of the most fun and interesting things about the road trip. It's interesting to listen to what people choose to talk about or share about their lives in a ten minute exchange, or to discover commonality with someone who appears to be different than you. I love the small bits of wisdom that people are willing to impart on our children (or sometimes on John and I) and all of the teachable moments that come from meeting new people.
Of course, we usually end up sharing our own story with the people we meet and this often leads to a longer conversation than initially anticipated.
We have started to notice some repeat questions, so I thought I'd answer some of those questions on here, since some of our new friends are following our Facebook/blog.
1. How do you afford to not have jobs?
It makes sense to me that this is the first question people ask. It's the first question I would ask too. Most of you already know, but in case you don't -- John retired from the Army with very reasonable compensation. It's not a ton of money and we watch our budget very closely, but we're determined to make this work, so we practice good stewardship. We joined a discout RV club, do most of our shopping at Costco, and look for inexpensive ways to enjoy the places that we visit.
It makes sense to me that this is the first question people ask. It's the first question I would ask too. Most of you already know, but in case you don't -- John retired from the Army with very reasonable compensation. It's not a ton of money and we watch our budget very closely, but we're determined to make this work, so we practice good stewardship. We joined a discout RV club, do most of our shopping at Costco, and look for inexpensive ways to enjoy the places that we visit.
2. What about school?
Another not surprising question. I always tell people that we've always homeschooled and that lent itself easily to roadschool. For some reason I think that going on the road the first year you homeschool would be crazy. :)
Another not surprising question. I always tell people that we've always homeschooled and that lent itself easily to roadschool. For some reason I think that going on the road the first year you homeschool would be crazy. :)
3. So, you unschool?
I've been surprised at how often people have asked if (or assumed that) we unschool. Just a few years ago unschool was sort of an unknown facet of homeschool, but more people have asked us about it on this trip so far than I thought actually knew what it was, so it's clearly growing in popularity. I have noticed that a lot of full time RVing families do unschool, and it makes sense to me that the unschool lifestyle would fit well with the wandering lifestyle. We, however, do not unschool. We're committed to our Classical Education and while its face obviously had to change to adjust to our new lifestyle, we have been able to stick with it on the road.
4. How do you keep the kids entertained in the car?
I think that people ask me this a lot because they think that if you spend a lot of time in the car you must have some super secret strategy for car peace, but the truth is that I actually don't feel like we spend a lot of time in the car. So far we have almost always gone by the 'five hour, two day' rule. We don't drive more than five hours a day or stop for less than two nights. Five hours of driving time turns into about eight hours from point A to point B with a lengthy lunch stop and several potty breaks, which I think are both key to keeping them from getting too antsy in the car. When we reach a destination we stay two nights. This means that no matter what they get a full day without a long drive, and lends itself more easily to ensuring that school gets done. A two day stay has been rare, though, and we have been staying most places for at least four days.
But, we do spend a fair amount of time in the car and we have to put some thought into what is going to happen during long drives. When we first starting planning to roadschool I had this grand idea that the big kids would do school in the car, I made them fancy notebooks with pockets for pencils and rotating schoolwork. This was a fail from the start. With them in the back of the car and me in the front it was very easy for them to get distracted. At the end of the day I would find that their folders that been put on the floorboard and had been walked over or spilled on. And, at least one kid struggles occassionally with motion sickness. To maintain everyone's sanity I gave up on this idea while we were still in Canada. Instead, I read a great book about carschooling and discovered a ton of ways to make sure that learning was happening in the car, even without a pencil and paper (at least them), Now we do a lot of games -- we spell words using road signs, do math problems using the number sequences from license plates, and challenge the kids to find a word that we don't know the definition of for vocabulary. Also, when the bigs and I found a good routine and I was convinced that they were actually going to learn while we were traveling I decided to focus most of our car learning time to preschool learning, so we all play games like I Spy or Car Color Bingo that helps Rogue to learn her colors, shapes, and more about the world around her.
While notebooks and worksheets in the car were a bust, reading books are still a big car entertainer. Our big kids will get in the car with a book and read it until completion, so this is a no brainer. Rogue will look at as many books as she has, and books even keep S entertained a fair amount of the time. We have also listened to a lot of audiobooks, ranging from the 20 minute reading of storybooks we've picked up at B & N to classics like Swiss Family Robinson and Treasure Island. Some of our cirriculum comes with CD's (like Latin), so we listen to those as well as a few CD's we have from the Wee Sing Series that are full of fairy tales and preschool songs for the little girls. And because one can only take so much of those happy sing-song voices, we listen to a sermon almost everyday. We're big fans of the podcasts available from RC Sproul, Ravi Zaccharias, and John MacArthur.
And yes, we do have a DVD player in the car, but we have the '4 o'clock' rule. We've usually reached our destination by two or three, so if we're still driving at four we turn on a movie.
5. How long are you going to travel?
Another tricky question that we have had to change the answer to. When we left Alaska in September our answer was that we were going to travel for a year, starting in January. If you've been following us, you know that we weren't able to start until Feburary, and that the logistics have not gone as smoothly as we had hoped. It's not that big a deal, really. Everything that we have had to adjust has adjusted smoothly and we are learning to be more flexible, and I am learning to be less anxious about not having a five point plan for everyday of my life. We feel strongly that God has opened the doors for us to embrace the wandering lifestyle and has been faithful to provide everything that we need to sustain it, so our new answer to "how long are you going to travel?" is "until we're done".
6. What are you going to do when you're done?
When people ask me this I always tell them that when I close my eyes and imagine where we'll be at the end of this adventure I see a quaint house on a dirt road, with a big school room, and chickens in the backyard. Where that house is, I'm not really sure. And neither is John. Our hearts desire is for it to be back in Alaska, but part of the reason we felt like taking this trip was the best thing for our family is because it's the first time in our adult lives that we are putting down solid roots. For that reason, we wanted to be able to have time to think about, talk about, and pray about what things we want for our family and for our children in the post-Army life. So far we've been able to have long conversation about it, pray about it regularly, and consider some things that we had not previously considered. Each time one of those things comes to light I thank the Lord that we have been given the chance to consider these things rather than having jumped into something -- a job, a house -- out of fear or panic only to regret it later.
So, there you have it. The questions that we have been asked most often by friends and strangers alike. Of course, the most common question is if we're crazy, but I think we covered that on the blog when we were back in Canada. While we were at Joshua Tree a lady asked my favorite question -- "do you have t-shirts?". It was deflating to have to tell her no, so I think that there might be McBean Classical School t-shirts in the fire teams future!
Thanks for reading, friends. Our exploring is slow going while we are at home taking care of some logistics, but we'll be on the road again as soon as we can be. Next on our itinerary are Glacier and Yellowstone National Parks, so if you're in the know about those parks please gift us with your insight!
6. What are you going to do when you're done?
When people ask me this I always tell them that when I close my eyes and imagine where we'll be at the end of this adventure I see a quaint house on a dirt road, with a big school room, and chickens in the backyard. Where that house is, I'm not really sure. And neither is John. Our hearts desire is for it to be back in Alaska, but part of the reason we felt like taking this trip was the best thing for our family is because it's the first time in our adult lives that we are putting down solid roots. For that reason, we wanted to be able to have time to think about, talk about, and pray about what things we want for our family and for our children in the post-Army life. So far we've been able to have long conversation about it, pray about it regularly, and consider some things that we had not previously considered. Each time one of those things comes to light I thank the Lord that we have been given the chance to consider these things rather than having jumped into something -- a job, a house -- out of fear or panic only to regret it later.
So, there you have it. The questions that we have been asked most often by friends and strangers alike. Of course, the most common question is if we're crazy, but I think we covered that on the blog when we were back in Canada. While we were at Joshua Tree a lady asked my favorite question -- "do you have t-shirts?". It was deflating to have to tell her no, so I think that there might be McBean Classical School t-shirts in the fire teams future!
Thanks for reading, friends. Our exploring is slow going while we are at home taking care of some logistics, but we'll be on the road again as soon as we can be. Next on our itinerary are Glacier and Yellowstone National Parks, so if you're in the know about those parks please gift us with your insight!
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