Whether you travel frequently for work, split time between residences, or simply wish to maintain a travel-heavy lifestyle, homeschooling is often the solution to many difficulties presented by doing these things with children. And using a private educator to homeschool can ensure that your child’s education doesn’t just continue while on the road, but is actually enhanced by it.
Reasons to Consider Homeschooling While Traveling
Traveling for Work
Families who may want to consider homeschooling while on the road include:
- artists on tour,
- parents filming or working on location, or
- those needing to take frequent or extended business trips
just to name a few.
With a private educator, you can take your family with you without the concern of taking your children out of school or interrupting their academic studies. You can maintain your family dynamic and routine no matter where work takes you or for how long, and unexpected work delays won’t dictate whether your child will be able to resume school on time.
Dual Residences
Whether you maintain a bicoastal lifestyle, like to spend time in the city and the country, or even share custody of your child with a parent who lives elsewhere – a private educator ensures continuity in your child’s education no matter the location.
Your child can maintain the same teacher, same curriculum, same schedule and routine even when everything else changes. This provides exceptionally important peace of mind and stability for children, helping ground them in an otherwise changing situation.
Travel Lifestyle
Certainly the most exciting reason to use a homeschool teacher is the opportunity it affords to travel whenever, wherever, and however often you choose. A literal world of opportunity opens up when it’s no longer necessary to conform to a school’s schedule or agonize over having your child make up work they’ve missed.
If you live a travel-heavy lifestyle, or would like to, a private educator could be the perfect compliment, allowing your family to experience the world without sacrificing your child’s education.
Using Homeschooling with a Private Educator to Enhance Your Child’s Education
Roadschooling – as traveling while homeschooling is called – means not just taking your child’s studies wherever they go, but incorporating those travels into their education. Many families choose to travel just for the purpose of enhancing their children’s education.
With travel, lessons come alive as your child visits the Acropolis while studying Socrates, reads the actual Constitution with their own eyes, and stands on the edge of the Grand Canyon instead of just looking at pictures. Architectural wonders, historical places, artistic masterpieces, geographic features–all of these can be experienced first-hand. And even more, children can immerse themselves in cultures and study languages unmediated, through personal experience.
This is where having a dedicated homeschool teacher shows its greatest benefit. A private educator should research travel destinations and points of interest in advance, planning lessons that prepare your child for where they will be going. Then, on the road, your teacher should be able to continue the studies with relevant day trips and excursions. Imagine your child being able to learn about the Colosseum over breakfast and then visit it later that day, walk in the footsteps of the Emperors, and see the art they commissioned first-hand. Your educator can then wrap up the learning when the trip is over with projects and activities that internalize the experience for your child as a life-long memory, not just a school project.
Hiring a Private Educator for Travel
When interviewing a private educator with travel in mind there are a few special considerations, including whether or not it’s required that your educator travel with you.
Depending on your family’s needs, the age and independence of your children, and the frequency and duration with which you travel, it may be possible to homeschool successfully on the road even if your private educator doesn’t travel with you.
For shorter trips, your homeschool teacher may be able to prepare lessons for your child to take with them and complete while away, even working with your child on assignments via Zoom or e-mail.
However, the preferred situation for many families is that their educator travels with them. This ensures the highest quality educational experience and maximizes the benefits to your child of homeschooling on the road.
Be sure to discuss your preferences and requirements with potential educators during the interview process in order to select a candidate with the willingness and availability to travel. Other qualities to look for include:
- Having a flexible and easy going nature,
- A willingness to adapt and go with the flow of last-minute trips or changes to plans,
- Creativity when lesson planning and an ability to tailor lessons around travel destinations and points of interest.
Whether you travel out of necessity, for travel’s own sake, or choose to do so specifically for the educational opportunities it provides, homeschooling with a private educator will make it an experience your child will always remember.
To find out more about homeschooling with a private educator and the benefits it brings, visit our Private Educator page or contact us to learn more.