Homeschooling Kindergarten | Travel Schooling supplies

What is Travel Schooling

I’ve long been an advocate for using the world as a classroom and using travel to supplement a child’s schooling. The concept of travel schooling was first introduced to me on one of my favorite shows growing up, The Wild Thornerry’s. Ive been obsessed with the idea of living in a tiny home on wheels and traveling the world with my kin ever since.

My child has the luxury of having a mother who is in love with reading and a father who is married to math. So to be totally honest our method of tavel schooling is more akin to unschooling on the road. At four years old we introduced first grade english and second grade math, our idea ws that if the kid doesn’t know its hard, it won’t be.

The result is that next year i’m going to probably ask my five year old to do my taxes. They can count by twos and fives and tens and add. My kid actually finds it fun to add 3 and 4 digit numbers. The supplies we use for schooling while we travel are meant to not only enrich STEAM “lesson” but make it so we can turn any place at all into a classroom.

How far do you need to Travel?

Most of the supplies I use are small enough to throw into your bag much less an airplane carryon. Some days we travel to another continent but most days we find a way to integrate schooling into trips around the corner.

Travel sized Home Schooling Supplies

Watercolor paint set – What I love about this paint set other than its compact size is the sheer number of colors available to use. The ingenious magical brushes that come with he sets are worth their weight in gold as they remove much of the mess from the water color painting processs. Each brush can house enough water for multiple painting sessions before needing to be refilled.

Watercolor pads – I like the compact size of these pads and their hefty quality pages, it takes a lot of water to burst through them, and if you’re tiny artists is as persistent as mine this will come in handy.

Chalkboards – lets be honest I love the nostalgia of these chalkboards they bring about all my dreams of travel to far off flower fields filled with foraging and schooling. There are larger format sizes but we love the compact size of their travel set, they are one of those supplies that really enforce schooling on the road.

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Site word Flashcards – we find flashcards to be really great tangible way to reinforce word recognition as well as encourage reading and imaginative story creation. I really like this set because it covers multiple age ranges and won’t limit what your kid “should know.” Im also a huge fan of items that come with carrying cases or item specific boxes so little hands know exactly where to but them when they are done with shcooling and reading for long distance travel.

Play mat – One of the things I love the most about Montessori schooling is their emphasis on contained free play. A child normally takes outa mat plays on it then puts away all their toys when completed. These faux leather mats bring safe playtime out on the road no matter where you plan on schooling while you travel. I like this double sided option because you can wipe them down

Wooden Blocks – I love these bocks because the are magnetic and sustainably made making them perfect for building on an airplane tray table or a bedroom floor. The muted colors lead to endless possibilities of creation during free time as well as becoming the perfect tool to inform learning in more “structured” subjects. I like that each set can be used together and started off with this or this tiny sets for tiny handed toddlers to start off with.

Crayon Rocks – I love these for tiny hands. they encourage the proper way to hold a pen and/or pencil they also are a zero waste alternative to traditional crayons

Storyteller – I love this travel size screen free interactive storyteller toy.

Tablet – I’d love to say we travel school completely off of the grid, but in all actuality the use of a tablet adds so much to our “curriculum” we use the IXL app to supplement lessons and to guide our lessons on days where we need a bit of inspiration. my only qualm is that it needs wifi to function properly. It’s also a really great way to have student lead learning. My kid loves dinosaurs and actively seeks out more dinosaur information, than I could hope to learn in this lifetime myself.

Tips for successfully integrating schooling into your travel

Go with the flow – on the road timezones may change and best laid plans may not come to fruition

Embrace the little Things – Currently we’re travel schooling in Mexico where the opportunity for language immersion is all around us. Starting my child off with phrases they have to say everyday like “gracias” and “for favor” please and thank you respectively offer small opportunities to practice this new language. I also try to incorporate things my child enjoys into lessons on the go, collecting flowers turns into a perfect opportunity to reinforce number association or better still can be used in a scene session for plant parts later on in the day.

Expect tantrums – your children’s, and your own. If travel removed all the stress from schooling everyone would do it it. Don’t be fooled into thinking it does. I’ve been on the receiving end of tiny tantrums laid out in paradise on a deserted beach beside a crystal blue ocean, while working on site words. The child in my looking at the child I bore in complete awe of the fact that these are opportunities not everyone has much less I couldn’t even dream up as a kid. Then I realize that

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