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Are you tired of homeschooling in the same old place, at home? Homeschool can be fun by doing it somewhere else outside and you can start easily by doing it in a park. We give you some practical ways to make it lively and productive.
As a general rule, homeschooling outside of the home can be done in steps. First, prepare a mobile homeschooling kit, then venture out into the neighborhood to homeschool. Then you can try a room at the library, and plan to homeschool on a trip. You can also join a co-op, do it while camping or pool party, or try worldschooling.
Find a Pavillion in a Park
We like to do a Google Map search for parks with a pavilion because we enjoy doing science classes outdoors with others. A pavilion in the park does make the perfect location because it’s shaded and can keep you dry in case there is rain. This is the simplest way to get out of the house once or twice per week if you’d like.
It’s not easy to find a park in our area with a pavilion and I’m not sure why but maybe you can find a great picnic spot as well for homeschooling. As long as you don’t need a Wi-Fi connection and your lessons are mobile this is a great way to combine some social time with others as well as get out of the house.
Don’t forget to prepare bug spray, sunscreen, and some snacks. We also bring a portable USB fan just in case there’s no breeze. And if you can’t find any proper locations with benches or chairs just bring some camping chairs and a small table along.
How To Set Up A Mobile Homeschool Kit?
Once you have set up a mobile home school arrangement you’re ready to go anywhere outside of the home. It may sound obvious but it wasn’t for us at first. We assumed everything has to be done in the classroom. But it’s pretty simple to start with small carry-on luggage or in our case a rolling backpack.
The things we need as a teacher that I find helpful are a boogie board for writing outdoors, an iPad Pro with Apple Pencil, folding chairs, and a table just in case. We leave this in my car so we are ready for homeschooling on the run at any moment if we choose. We also prepare an LED light, a bug lamp, and a USB fan with an extra battery.
These are just some extra things that we keep handy just in case we need them. Of course, we just like to be prepared and you can easily keep these things in your vehicle so you don’t have to prepare them every time you want to do some homeschooling outside your home.
The benefit of having a mobile homeschool kit ready is that you can be ready to go at a moment’s notice. We find this helpful when we need to do some special errands due to our home business needs. We also have a leatherworking business and sometimes we need to do some homeschooling on the run.
Reserving a Room at the Library
The advantages of reserving a room at a local library to do homeschooling are also attractive. One of the first things I noticed with my younger son was that he grumbled less, and there were fewer temper tantrums since we were in the quiet environment of the library. You may find this helpful for younger kids to use peer pressure of the environment to keep them obedient!
The other obvious reasons are also that you can schedule a time to search for good books or do some research. Or you may just find it a great way to develop an appreciation of reading and enjoying the library. If you want to learn more about how to encourage reading in your homeschool, please read our helpful article.
In our local library, we can book various size rooms for free and there is also the option of rooms with AV equipment as well. A quick check of the local library where I grew up shows that it’s also available there as well.
Summer Homeschool Away from Home
Our favorite kind of homeschooling is summer homeschool away from our home! We love it because we can get out and enjoy a family vacation away from home but still do some light homeschooling. Remember, when you are homeschooling, you can learn anywhere and anytime.
Depending on your child’s age you can prepare their mobile homeschool kit with a few subjects worth of studies. When we travel to Florida for the summer to be with grandparents that’s how we did it. My son took three subjects at the elementary school level and it worked out very well. We stayed in a condo and there is good access to Wi-Fi.
You don’t always have to stay at home to homeschool if you make it mobile. Your children will appreciate the change of scenery and you won’t have to feel guilty for not keeping up your studies. We’re used to learning through the summer and you could try it to catch up on a subject or even get ahead.
Try a Pool Party Homeschool Event
Have you ever done homeschool at a public pool? This is one of our favorite ways to enjoy our summer with some other friends and fellow homeschoolers. You can do it any time of the year, but we like the summer because we can have a picnic, enjoy the pool and kids love to learn together like this. We do science lessons related to water or anything associated with buoyancy, displacement, or any physics principles where you can make use of the pool and do some fun experiments.
Or if any of your homeschoolers need swimming lessons use this opportunity to learn how to swim together. Kids usually learn better and get less scared of the activity if they do it with friends. The peer modeling effect lessens the fear amongst the kids learning together. And peer modeling and tutoring are also leading factors in group physical education classes, meaning they learn better together.
Camping and Homeschool are Doable
A natural extension of homeschooling in the outdoors is to go camping and homeschool. We have fun doing this a few times during the summer and winter. It’s not too hot or too cold where we live in Taiwan, and this is perfect for camping. It’s the same as homeschooling in the park except you can just stay a little bit longer to enjoy nature and The Great Outdoors.
Camping is an ideal activity to homeschool with other families. Get some social time in The Great Outdoors. Some of my best memories are camping with my family in the summer and sitting around the campfire. As homeschoolers, we can be more efficient to get some learning in as well as having fun with family and friends.
This might also be a way to introduce homeschooling to other families. When we camped with some other families, they were intrigued with homeschooling and asked many questions and became interested.
They saw that we were doing some homeschooling during the day and they were quite amazed that we did it seamlessly during our camping trip. Now they are considering homeschooling their children as well since they both work from home which is ideal for them to give it a try.
Join a Co-op a Few Days Per Week
We joined a cooperative or co-op as it’s called, and we meet with other families once per week. Check out the many options available in your neighborhood or city. Some co-ops are paid classes where you can join just 1 class and pay for it. Some co-ops require a monthly or yearly fee and also that you participate in service. For example, you have to assist or teach some classes.
The co-op we joined is a part of a church outreach program and we also get access to some fun activities. Secular co-ops can be found as well that have a focus on certain subjects and interests.
Homeschool While Traveling or Worldschooling
We have some friends that do home school while they’re traveling and that’s called worldschooling. They first flew to France and then traveled all across Europe for about six months. They also did homeschool with us but they enjoy this nomad type of life. When we see some of the photos and videos they share of their adventures, we do consider trying this in the future.
Worldschooling it’s not something new. Some families take time out of their busy lives to for on an adventure around the world. Of course, this is not for the faint-hearted. Worldschooling takes some serious planning and a budget. Do you think homeschooling is expensive? We wrote another helpful article about this.
Of course, you should consider the legality behind this depending on where you’re based. However, we find that many countries allow homeschooling, but as long as you’re just doing it while traveling it’s not a problem.
The benefit of worldschooling is that you can plan and work out a schedule to suit your budget and time needs as you live and work in another culture for a semester or more. And your kids learn and get to experience a whole new culture and language.
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