full timing with kids


D

debsaintb

New Member
I have 3 kids (7, 7 and 9 years old).We are considering full time M/H travel for 6 to 9 months. We would stop where we pleased and home-school the children. It seems like an opportunity to see the USA and Canada (it could be very educational). I can see lots of good and some big questions???
Has anyone ever attemped this?
Deb
 
full timing with kids

Well I haven't and I wouldn't. Being a man, like most men, I doubt I would have the patience for such an undertaking. Now having said that, I do have friends that are doing just that. Rounding out their childrens education and all enjoying their lives. Seems to work for them. Happy motoring, Butch - Nancy Lake, Alaska
 
full timing with kids

Butch, thank you for your reply.
Do you friends have any suggestions? Anything important they have learned from their experience?
Any special destinations?
Deb
 
full timing with kids

We haven't full-timed but have traveled/moved quite often for most of our marriage. We moved all the time and traveled extensively with one child. I will say that my daughter is now 15 and we have settled down so she can attend high school (we did homeschool at times) and have that experience. She asked us for that, saying that we had traveled so much, she just wanted to settle down for awhile and have long-term friends and attend high school and we agreed.

All told though, I believe (and she will grudgingly admit) that she is a better, more mature, more worldly child than most of her peers. She is much more knowledgeable than they when it comes to geography! Every time her class starts speaking about a certain area of the country, most of the time she can say that she's actually been there, done that.

The only drawback was that she was an only child and was lonely often. I think if she had had siblings, it would have made traveling easier in that regard. Either way, it is definately an experience that, in hindsight, was very beneficial for my daughter in many ways. Your children are not all that small (my daughter was about 4 when we started traveling) and I don't believe it should be a horrendous experience for you and can only have a positive affect on shaping the rest of their lives.
 
I did something similar a few years ago with my two kids, though we only traveled for about four months. The biggest surprise was how much the rhythm of learning shifted — mornings became school time, afternoons were spent exploring museums, parks, and historical sites. It worked well when we kept lessons light and connected them to places we visited. A chemistry magazine like this one helped us keep science interesting on the road, especially when we couldn’t access labs. The hardest part was logistics: planning stops with good Wi-Fi, balancing driving days, and making sure the kids had social time. Budgeting was also more complicated than we thought, especially fuel and campground costs. Still, the experience gave them a sense of geography and history they couldn’t get in a classroom, and we bonded in ways I didn’t expect.
 
You may connect with the Fulltime Families community website. You can find a lot of RVing families there and get suggestions from them.
 
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