Yesterday was a great day, and I’ve been thinking last night and this morning about why it was so great. We spent the morning at the local library, reading books and playing toys in their awesome children’s section. The librarian on duty was incredible useful, chatty, and friendly! She even let us check out books…
I’ll admit that life can get a little rough sometimes around here. Most days between road school, cooking, laundry, exploring, cleaning up, and managing daily life I rarely get any “me” time. I viciously guard my 30-40 minutes of exercise everyday since that is my one time I get to plug my earphones in and…
Thanks!! I’ll have to look up Sands Alive. I’ve never heard of it! We do have Lego’s and my kids play a lot. We’ve just discovered that if I’m on my computer AT ALL during the day, I end up grumpy and yelling at everyone since they keep interrupting. 🙂 Sam will take the kids out for a couple of hours just to give me some space and that’s great too!ReplyCancel
Do the kids have audio books they can listen to? My older kids will listen for hours to a good story. It sounds like you’re looking for productive things for them to do so you can be more productive?
The more uninterrupted work time you get, the better. Every time you have to switch or multitask that will cut down your effectiveness. It’s not easy with kids. I sometimes have to celebrate 30 mins, without an interruption.
It’s also helpful to find ways to quickly pick up where you left off. On my most productive days, I have a short, reasonable list of the things I want to get done that day. This is outside of the daily life list that will happen, like food, dishes, etc. I only write down the priorities that will not happen without some effort on my part.
How would your mother or her mother answer this? They never entertained us, we were left to our own devices (but there were no devices – ha – I’m so funny). There are a few places where you guys park where this isn’t possible due to the crowd that is there, but most places they can wander a bit. Being bored is a good thing. It brings our their creativity.
Just like you guys have trained them up to HUGE hikes, you have to train them to spend time alone entertaining themselves. It will take training though. Baby steps, rewards for not bothering you, etc. Good luck. In a month you will be writing a “how to” guide.
Saying all that though – 4 years old is still a hard one. One of the rules will have to be that they must stick together.ReplyCancel
I knew I would homeschool before I even had kids so when naps started to go I knew I needed some time for myself to recharge. We have 1hr quiet time every school day and some weekends. Usually right after lunch. My boys have to read for one hour, without coming and asking me anything. They get ten mins extra for each time they break quiet time. It was hard at first but now it is just a normal part of our day! I like wild kratts on Netflix and the magic school bus. Lots of good documentaries also like “raccoon nation”ReplyCancel
We don’t have Netflix, so I’m not sure what kinds of shows are available, but as a teacher, I buy a lot of Bill Nye, Reading Rainbow, and Magic School Bus for our classrooms. Educational and fun! Scholastic makes some great DVD video series that are available fairly cheaply on Amazon. http://www.amazon.com/Treasury-Storybook-Classics-Dinosaurs Scholastic/dp/B001NKWLCQ/ref=pd_sxp_grid_pt_1_0
Do your children play Minecraft? My kids can play that for hours, and I consider it educational since there’s so much problem solving involved. There’s a mode with the Creeper that might be scary for younger kids, but the sandbox mode is great for any age. Also, have they tried any of the introductory coding websites? We use Scratch a lot at school. It’s created by MIT and lets kids create comics, games, and more. You can also Google to find instructional videos.
There are some great websites that read stories aloud. We love storylineonline.net at school. There’s also wegivebooks.org, but I am not sure if the website reads those aloud.
When all else fails, there’s always incentives! I’ve paid my kids by the hour to behave on a 10-hour car ride, and one time, I challenged them to go 10 days in a row without fighting on our car ride home from school, with the promise of a trip to the movies or something after they met the challenge. If they fought any day, the 10 days started over. Maybe a small treat or trip to the playground at the end of your “me time” would work.ReplyCancel
Thanks Kerri!! This is SO incredible helpful. We do play Minecraft, and although its super creative it counts as their “tablet” time and they have a limit of 30 minutes 4x per week. Any more than that and we just had cranky children. They are much happier with limits!
We also have tried http://studio.code.org/ which we found while visiting a Science Museum. We’ve talked about also giving them an hour a week of “computer” time where they can write stories for the blog, code, or even Cara has found she likes to draw shapes in Google Docs. That would increase some screen time (free time for me) but not crazily so.
Storyonline looks amazing!! Oh my goodness! Thank you so much for telling me about this. I’m really excited!! 🙂 🙂ReplyCancel
Last year when we came through Phoenix, we only spent 3 days at Usery Regional Park. We knew there were a few other parks in the area that other traveling friends loved, but we couldn’t get in as they were ALL full! Every day. Ridiculous. Since we were on a mission to get to Disneyland, it…
We definitely understand your feelings about the Phoenix area parks. Through a combination of spending time camping with friends and having to be close to Phoenix Sky Harbor Airport for a business trip we will have spent 6 of the last 8 weeks in the Phoenix area. Each park is beautiful in its own way but they are so far away from other stuff. Running errands or visiting attractions outside of each park is such a trek. Every GPS direction seems to be “make a turn and stay on this road for 8 miles”. This place is so spread out!
We have been in Lost Dutchman, McDowell Mountain, detoured to Catalina State Park near Tucson and finally White Tank back in Phoenix. Lost Dutchman is definitely our favorite of the four. We will be back but for a shorter visit the next time. Almost two weeks in each park was way too long.
We’re heading early next week to Prescott and Cottonwood for a change of scenery. See you down the road.ReplyCancel
This was such a timely piece for me! We had been struggling with the idea to head back South to warm up or stay in the beautiful scenery outside Cottonwood. You definitely spoke to some of the same things I felt while in the Phoenix area. I think we will stay up around here. So much to see and do!ReplyCancel
We are really fly-by-the-seat-of-our-pants kind of people. While we generally have routines for our days, we haven’t been strict at all. If there was something fun to go do, we did it. School for the kids was pretty loose and flexible. Some days we did a lot, some days we did none. This type of…
This is great! We have to follow a schedule in order to keep up with brick and mortar public school but so much of that schedule is just in my head. On the rare occasion that I am sick and Tim has to take a day off work and be the stay at home Dad, he feels helpless and it is because i don’t do a good job of writing anything down. We have a big wipe board to help with some things but other things should be written down too. Looks like I now have a reason to swing by Target before school pick up!ReplyCancel
Jess – You are so inspiring! It really is hard to manage a schedule with this lifestyle, or at least that’s how I’ve been feeling since we’ve started. We’ve done such little school that it’s ridiculous. Granted, we’ve only been on the road for 2 months and there have been so many things other than school that have been on our minds – settling in, repairs, a dramatic change in lifestyle, balancing work and play…
My husband and I have been talking about trying to get some sort of schedule together and this post is PERFECT! I love that you still have flexibility, which you need, with having Saturday designated as a makeup day.
Thanks Leesa!! It definitely is an ongoing battle. We did about a week of this schedule and then everyone rebelled and we took a day off! lol! Slowly, but surely we are getting into our routines though. It also helps to take a day off to earn a Jr. Ranger Badge, visit a museum or take a tour and count that as “school” for the day. It breaks things up!ReplyCancel
When we first became a full-time RVing family, we enrolled our boys in a traditional curriculum for an online school called “Connections Academy. They have one for nearly every state. The problem was I spent 12-14 hours a day trying to keep up with their curriculum which was not accommodated for my special needs boys. And then, one afternoon after about eight weeks. I was exhausted and spent Saturday also in school–making my husband help two boys get caught up while I focused on tutoring my oldest son. I finally told my husband, “I have a Master’s in Education and I can see that this is not working any better for our boys than it did when they were in public school. Plus, the school does not account for a parent’s education level!” We were literally being blocked from continuing assignments until our paperwork was mailed to the school to be graded by their teachers or specialists. Also, they set our schedule requiring us to log in at this time or that for therapy, group lessons, chatting with their teacher etc. It was frustrating that we chose this lifestyle and school was hindering us from getting outside and enjoying the environment. I did a thorough search of parents who homeschooled and found a blog from a mother that made a very enlightening comment; “If the traditional did not work before, why would it work now!” I found Time4Learning.com. You have to pay for it but it’s affordable and it is designed to work around your schedule and the kids’ progress. I supplement with lessons a few times a week to account for writing and teaching things like cursive and typing. We also work on more reading because if they cannot read, they cannot progress themselves in life. Though space is limited, they get a brand new book of their choice to work on reading strategies and reading and they get to buy their replacement when they have “graduated” from their previous selection. I love this alternative and though I moved my oldest back two grades to get his skills and strategies where I felt they needed to be for him to be successful, in four months he has finished Sicence, Social Studies, Language Arts, Language Extensions, and Math curriculum for one whole grade and we “graduated” him this weekend. He is now returning to his 3rd grade curriculum today and said, “I’m so excited Mom! Because I know I can do this! I’m ready!” This from a boy who I tested to be below Kindergarten level when we first started in September. I’m proud of him.
I admire That you have all found time for exercising. This is where I struggle the most. But I do find “me” time in writing late at night and that is going to have to be enough for a while. We did just buy a trike/stroller for our toddler to help with this and the weather is just clearing up enough for us to arrange to go back to storage for our bikes!
You are truly all inspiring to us.ReplyCancel
Much to my surprise, we have had quite a few people ask us our opinion of the Pacific Northwest (PNW). I think for some people, the PNW is like a mystical dreamland. Plenty of recreation opportunities, beautiful green landcapes, the rolling ocean and coast. It does sound pretty dreamy, right?. These people were thinking of…
I completely agree with all your points. We spent a few months in Washington & Oregon a few years ago, and while it was wonderful, the constant rain, drizzle and clouds got to me after awhile. I really need sun, and after 4 days in a row of rain or clouds I find myself feeling sad and unmotivated. I think it’s a greatl area to visit, but could never live there year round.ReplyCancel
We’re headed back to our summer spot in a Michigan town of 4K people. Once I (Mike) got over the idea of being in the same place for another 5 months some of the small-town community aspects are appealing.
Thanks for sharing this, Jess. I grew up in a small town myself, and we are in the process of selling our house in OKC to move cross-country to a town (pop: 13k) right by Lake Michigan. It’s going to be completely different, but like you, I love the idea of being active in a small town and really knowing my neighbors. My hope is to land walking distance to the library and the quaint downtown that has an old-fashioned ice cream shop. 🙂 Plus it’s just so nice for kids to grow up in the relative safety net of a small town. We’re hopeful to have the best of both worlds: traveling often, but small town roots. You guys are such an inspiration to us!
Kate
You are welcome! I’ve heard nothing but goo things about Michigan…. at least in the summer. 🙂 Best of luck!