Homeschool On The Go: A Checklist for What to Bring

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We’ve said you can homeschool anywhere. And we do homeschool anywhere - actually, we homeschool EVERYWHERE! When we homeschool, we are in the car, at the dinner table, on the field, at a family event, at the beach, playing in the pool - it’s all homeschooling. Just living life is a major way many of us homeschool our children. Of course most of us “official” homeschoolers do have book work in addition to finding learning and magic in everything around us…so here are some ways to enhance your mobility when it comes to that.

Cute Tote Bag for Each Person

I love a cute tote bag. The current one I use was given to me by my homeschool bestie - Coop Mom Jessica - on our Galentine’s Day. My kids also have a number of cute tote bags with homemade embellishments for the different trips we’ve taken (i.e. we all have matching donut fabric lined tote bags from our donut road trip). Keep those totes available, keep them clean, keep a filled pencil case in each one, and fill them up with 1-3 workbooks or curriculum items to take on the go. Backpacks work too - but our backpacks are small and meant only for water and snacks, so sometimes we need both. It is nice to keep water and snacks separate from your book bag in case of spillage. Make sure the books you choose aren’t the heavy ones, and also workable in the environments you are going. For example, for studying at the park, I know I need clipboards and firm workbooks. For the beach, the tote bags have our read-aloud book, and mostly our Dailies. Just gauge what to bring according to where you are headed.

Explorer’s Basket

We keep an Explorer’s Basket in one of our homeschool bookshelves (that are in the garage) that includes our nature journals, whistles, compasses, gardening gloves, magnifying glasses, hand wipes, a few sets of sharp colored pencils (and hand sharpener), a small baby blanket, a box of band-aids, and small reference brochures for birds and bugs. We just grab what we need from the basket when heading out, or we just throw the whole basket in the car if we know we are going on a nature adventure for the day. I also have nature books at my fingertips that can be thrown into the basket before we leave that would serve as a short read-aloud or perused while on the adventure.

Journals

About six years ago, The Homegrown Preschooler had the cutest journals for sale - when my kids were preschoolers - but I just made them myself, since I know how to sew and have a machine. Cut in half about 7 pieces of cheap printer paper (total 14 sheets), sandwich that with a piece of cardstock cut in half, grab a 1-1.5 inch wide strip of your favorite fabric and put on top where you’d sew, and simply just sew them all together. It makes for a super cute journal. Before the year starts, I typically make at least a dozen of these journals. I keep some in the Explorer’s Basket. I randomly use them as nature journals, doodle books and story-writing books for the car, and more. I now have a comb binding machine, so I don’t need to sew any now unless I want to, but the sewn ones are definitely cuter. It’s just nice to have a supply of cheap, happy journals in the moment to grab one when you need it for a adventure or homeschool outing.

Extra Colored Pencils

I have learned the hard way that crayons are not your traveling friend. Let’s just say, even though I have three young children, I do not allow any eating in our van. We bought the van brand new right when my now eight-year-old was born. I also had a two-year old at the time…and I can count almost on just one hand the number of times I have allowed my kids to eat in the van - even on road trips with driving eight hours one way - I still don’t allow it. It’s the only way to keep your van smelling fresh, looking like new (almost), and feeling not-disgusting after almost nine years of owning it. I digress - but can you imagine how I felt when I found a MELTED CRAYON in my child’s cup holder that no car detailing has ever been able to restore to its original glory?!?! So, when you go anywhere that is worthy of a nature journal or drawing experience (art museums, aquariums, etc.), only bring leaded pencils, colored pencils, and non-electric sharpeners. Make sure every kid has their own set too in their own little pencil case that brings them joy. Very important: These extra pencils are ONLY for use for when you are on the go - not for at home. It’s just not as easy to be mobile if you are constantly having to collect all the different preferred colors from around the house on a regular basis.

Your Book

So many times I have been somewhere that my kids do not need me or want me at all - and I’m just stuck looking at my phone to give me something to do. Keep a book that you are reading in your on-the-go tote bag or in the car. Let that be the book you read only when you are out-and-about. Have a different one for inside your house. That way, you always have a back up book to fill your cup. Or, if you prefer audio books or podcasts, keep an extra set of headphones in the car or in your tote, so that you have that option as well. Once I learned this little simple tip, it was so nice to be at our San Diego New Children’s Museum, letting my kids enjoy this one exhibit of a giant hammock for literally 2.5 hours while getting to read my book.

Kid’s Read-Aloud Book

This one is probably on-going, so you may have to transport this back and forth, but you may just want to have a mobile read aloud book in your tote or in the car. If you last minute stop at the beach or park on your way home from music class, you can still get in your read-aloud time while sitting on the beach as your littles dig in the sand. Even just one chapter will make you feel like you really accomplished a lot.

Snack Bag Back-Up

No matter what, I almost never bring enough snacks. Or sometimes, I don’t count on being out more than a few hours but then it becomes all day. Thank goodness for my trusty car snack bag. It’s just a large slider Ziplock bag with the date written in the “Memo” space (just so I can keep track of freshness), filled with a bunch of non-melt-able snacks. We use plain ole granola bars, fig bars, animal crackers (one bag for each kid), pretzel bags (one bag for each kid), and maybe some fruit leathers. We keep it in my little bin in the car where I keep the sunblock, wipes, trampoline park socks, baseball caps, and extra trash bags near the front van seat. It probably takes us about 3-5 months eat the contents, and it’s always a nice cushion when we are in such a big rush and forget to bring a snack to the beach.

Water Bottles Back-Up

Caveat: I do totally care about the environment, and I do not believe in single-use plastic…but I also believe in avoiding dehydration when our reusable water bottles are empty and we have no other access to water. Or, we forget to bring our reusable bottles all together. So, water bottles are kept in the trunk of our van. Thirst and dehydrated kids throwing up in the van are not a problem for us.

Thick Table Cloth

Keep this in your car. It’s thinner than a blanket, but can work for sitting on the grass or avoiding the dirty on the dirty picnic table wherever you go. Also, I have found that by just throwing a happy table cloth on a park’s picnic table not only reserves the table for you while you are pushing your littles on the swings, but also just makes it more cozy…and a happier event.

Rolling Cart

During the Covid quarantine, our school room became my husband’s office - so that room became mostly off-limits to us since he needed to be on numerous Zoom meetings daily. So, we set-up shop in the dining room. After having piles of table messes, and even using an ironing board as a place to pile our books and art supplies, I finally got us two carts. One is an Art Cart, and the other is the Homeschool Cart for all our homeschool books, workbooks, Dailies, curriculum, extra paper, incomplete projects, and etc. It was the fastest and easiest way to be able to clean off the dining room table. But, what I love about the cart solution, is that it’s mobile. It can move all around the house, and we can even take it outside to our deck to enjoy a homeschool day outside with our beautiful view of local farms and hills. These are the ones I bought on Amazon, and they were on sale too!

An Open Mind

Remember, anywhere you are, you are homeschooling. Your kids can learn almost every subject wherever they go - without opening a textbook, workbook, or assigned reading. Letting your kids have the freedom to explore without your hovering, without requirements to achieve some milestone or finish some page in their textbook, can actually produce a bigger learning experience. The world is their education - the books just capture a bit of it and put it in one place. We need all types of learning - passively through being told things you never even asked about, assertively by self-directing your own study, and experientially - by living it. You know eventually the book work will get done - but the living is often sacrificed for it. Be open. Be daring to let the world do its job.

“Children learn from anything and everything they see. They learn wherever they are, not just in special learning places.”

John Holt