Recently we had a house fire that had us living in a hotel for 5 weeks. I couldn’t take 5 weeks off of homeschooling the kids so I had to work on homeschooling away from home. There were some adjustments to be made for sure, but I think we did a great job. I wanted to share a few tips with you in case you are homeschooling away from home at all this school year.
Homeschooling Away From Home
I can only speak to our experiences but I would love to hear in the comments what you do to make homeschooling away from home go smoothly.
Manage your expectations.
When you homeschool at the house you have a great deal of resources at your fingertips. It is very simple to setup your own homeschool classroom, use different manipulatives, and make a mess if needed. When you are away from home some of these things just aren’t an option. It is so important to manage your expectations and be more realistic about what you can and can not do away from home. It doesn’t mean settling, it just means finding a new standard for this season of life.
Take advantage of resources that are available to you.
If you have a laptop and internet, you will have access to tons of great learning apps and sites. If you are in a new area, this could be a good time to take an educational field trip. For us, this meant using the library in a new city, working from the business center computer in our hotel, and doing some of our book work in a laundry room. It’s important to be willing to look at what is in your current setting and see how you can make it a learning space that works for you.
Focus on the cores.
If you are away from home it can be tempting to try and balance it all. Instead, it may be time to simplify and focus on the core subjects. What do you consider your core subjects? Should you simplify your homeschool for a season and focus on those core subjects? For us, this meant working on Math, Science, History, and Grammar with lots of extra reading time.
Know your limits.
While you can do a great deal at home, there are things that just don’t work while you are away. It could be that your kids can’t focus the way they do at home, that you can’t get as messy, or that they are in a bad place emotionally. Be prepared for these limits and be willing to work with them. If you can be honest about the limitations you will be able to make the most of homeschooling on the go.
Get organized
When you are not in your home you will need to be more organized than you are at home. This could mean having folders for all of your paperwork, making sure to have a container for pencils, or setting up specific lesson plans. For some, this may be more of a stretch than others. For me, this meant setting out lesson plans for each day and knowing what I needed in advance.
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