I never even considered that I would homeschool my children. I was a staunch supporter of public school and believed that the social aspect of school was a mandatory component of the life of children. After a few years of public school interspersed
Had you also asked me five years ago whether I would consider not working “full-time” (which in my world far exceeded forty hours per week), not riding horses and travel the world, I would have also emphatically said; “No!”.
However, after 18 months of a major life change, I certainly have no regrets.
Boatschooling has been a great success! We have employed a system whereby we do school every single day (weekends/summer etc.) This way it is an expected routine and provides consistently. On the odd occasion where we have a big excursion or trying conditions under sail, we will forego school without fear.
We do 2-3 hours of schoolwork a day including a combination of Math, Language Arts, Cursive practice, Creating writing, History, Science, French, Typing practice, Art, and Early Coding. I have sourced these from a variety of different sources and thus far we have found curriculums that are challenging but fun and engaging.
The most impactful part that we have found that is unique to our position is the ability to cover history that is pertinent to our given location and then go and explore places that we have covered. The “living history” found by exploring St Nicolas Island, four of the seven ancient wonders of the world, Rome and it’s surrounding ruins, the famous pass of the Punic wars, Napoleon’s, walking in the footsteps of Galileo in Florence and Pisa and many more is something we are so incredibly fortunate to experience.
Our initial rule when we started this adventure is: We go until we don’t want to go anymore or until the boys are in High School. Education is fundamentally important for us. That said, thanks to the pandemic, remote learning and homeschooling is becoming more recognized and more resources are available, so maybe this plan gets modified down the road.
For now, we will continue on with our immersive educational experience.