Let’s be real. Not too many of us
actually do 100 percent of our schooling at home. Even when our family had one
car, which my husband drove to work every day, the girls and I rarely spent
every day of every week inside of our house. It helped that we lived in walking
distance of the park, our church, and a number of other places in town.
Aside
from co-ops, many of us find ourselves dragging younger kids to the older kids’
sports or drama practices. Or, we may find ourselves frequenting doctors’
offices. So, how can we maintain even a semblance of order to our schooling
schedules in these circumstances?
One
answer may be to organize the materials we need for schooling on the go. Decide
what is absolutely essential and only pack those items. The last thing we need
is to be carting around stuff that we won’t actually use. We can utilize the
same general principles as we would for co-ops by having a separate bag or
container ready to whisk into the car at a moment’s notice. One important
addition, though, is a pencil case. It should be stocked with pencils, pens,
erasers, a pencil sharpener (or extra lead for mechanical pencils), and
whatever else is regularly needed for each child to do his schoolwork. If
possible, each child should have his own small pencil case for his things, even
if all of the stuff is in one central bag. In addition, be sure to stock extra
filler paper, crayons, a coloring book (for the younger set), a fun reading
book, and a puzzle book in the bag.
The
car-school bag should be used only for taking schoolwork on the go. Leave as
many basic supplies in it as possible, so no one is running around looking for
a pencil when you’re already ten minutes late for the doctor’s appointment.
Before it’s time to walk out the door, have each child collect a reasonable
amount of school work to put in the bag(s).
To
ward off the claims of not knowing what they’re supposed to do, either make
sure they pack their own planners, or make sure that you throw your family
homeschool planner in the bag. While I love online planners, they’re not very
practical for on-the-go use, unless you have an iPad with 3G access. I suggest
printing out the schedule for a week at a time, that way it’s ready to grab on
the go.
Q4U: For real, how much time do you spend in the car during school?
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