How we did school on the road

One of the cool things about camping in general is that it forces/trains you to be adaptable, industrious, and MacGuyverish. Friday, the 13th of March, 2020 we all suddenly became homeschool teachers and home school students. Romyn was in second grade, River was in preschool, and Ryderbaby went along for the ride. We were issued school iPads and began our zoom distant-learning journey. And just like Grannie Annie predicted, schools did not open again in Fall. So our unit entered third grade, kindergarten and preschool together too.

We’ve done science experiments at the McDonald’s patio tables in Sedona (McDonald’s, like Starbucks, has speedy and consistent Wifi), completed our show and tell with huge pinecones at Athina’s Cafe in Tahoe, held our attendance call under the trees at Lake Siskiyou. We made it work, because you don’t have the option to not make it work. The number one key, and the number one catch 22 is: Wifi. We have to have Wifi so Michael can do his 2¢ for work and the girls can juggle their daily zoom calls with their “real” class. Why it’s a catch 22 is because trees don’t offer speedy internet, which means, you have to be semi-close to civilization to connect to it, which means you can’t be in places like Yellowstone or Glacier, or really majority of National Parks. Luckily, Romyn and River’s teachers were very supportive of our new nomadic lifestyle and encouraged us to try our best - so that’s what we did.

Lots of books, lots of art supplies, lots of new friends who taught them how to ride bikes without training wheels, how to pluck crabs without getting pinched, how to be patient waiting for Old Faithful to erupt. We learned a lot. We all learned a lot about each other too.