The Mobile School Room

We thought it would be a few years before we were able to buy one, but as soon as my father-in-law caught wind that we were homeschooling, he made the move.  I can't tell you what that means to me. Him and I understand each other on quite a few levels and well, gifting us this trailer just affirms that he understands me.

You see, I struggle with being home all the time. Which makes homeschooling a little more difficult. He knew that before I even mentioned it!  He wanted to show his support in making our classroom mobile and I can't tell you how grateful I am.

Everett has named her "Rusty Spur". 

She's 24ft, which is the biggest I wanted because I will be towing her (you know Jason has to stay home and do things like work).

Even though campgrounds are closing due to the off-season, I was chomping at the bit to get her out! We took her to a local lake and parked there for three nights.

 It was cold, and rained most of the time. My step-dad let us borrow his generator. Between the generator and the Rusty Spur being self-contained, we were very comfortable.  Love this trailer!

And the kids loved roasting their hot dogs (can you spy some conversing, happy twins?!).

So, doing this myself.  Jason was gone most of the time due to work, which was good, I wanted a trial run on how I would do hitching, towing, setting up, etc.  I'll be honest, I cheated a bit as my step-dad came with me to "help" but I made him let me do it all for the practice.  It went surprisingly smooth!

What I didn't really think about was the stress of packing and planning. The poor children heard some crazy lady yelling at them while I was packing up. The good news is that it was the first trip, so I had to bring all the blankets and dishes, etc. down, so maybe it won't be as time-consuming next time?!  I'm hoping to get it down to a better routine so that I am able to take off without a ton of stress. Or yelling. :)

 I had mentioned it rained a lot.  It was frustrating to not be able to have the kids out doing their thing, however, having them all inside, cozy in their pajamas just made me appreciate Rusty a little more. What a great trial run (for the record, Everett forgot his packed clothes at home, so don't mind his continuous outfit...big family problems).

Gus. 

(he actually asked me to take this photo)

 Our friends from Southern California came up in their motorhome to join us.  It was really sweet. The kids got along wonderfully and our friends were great company. Between the two of our families, nine children occupied the campground!

Holland and Scarlett.

And some non-raining picts of Rusty...

I've been asked what amazing things we are going to do with it...you're looking at it! :)

Aside from using the yellow plaid wool to cover the mauve cushions, ripping off the ruffle curtain tops, and a small paint job over the kitchen wallpaper, I left things as is and just added extra items from the house.  

The lovely watercolor painting of Psalm 23 was from Ruth over at Grace Laced. She really inspired the boys to free paint rather than sketch before.

The trailer sleeps 7 comfortably, between bunks and fold out beds.  Everything I had been researching  slept less than that, so what an added blessing! The table pictured above can extend out to cover almost the entire couch, which means two areas of tables & seating for school work. Seriously, she's perfect for us!

So a giant, huge hug and thank you to my father-in-law.  I am so incredibly blessed that he would gift us with something that fits our family and offers much for us in the future! 

In the meantime, if you know of any amazing, primitive camping spots in California, please let me know!! I am so excited to get on the road with these kids as soon as my busy season with photos is over.

Adjustment

Six weeks in.

For some reason, I felt like God was calling me to do this to stretch me, have me grow uncomfortably. And I was okay with that and expected that.

But it's been much more different than what I expected.

While there are hard times, they're so short lived.

There have been a lot of adjustments to how I thought things would go, but that was expected as well.

The change has been mostly through curriculum and our routine.

The image above is what I witness about three quarters of the day. 

The boys just want to play (which gives me ample time to clean up after meals and such-bonus).

The beauty of this "problem" is that they want to play with their siblings and they want to be outside. 

I've gone to gather them after a fifteen minute break to find them up at the tallest point of our property "scouting out hawk nests" or setting up traps. I can't bear to interrupt them, so I let it go on for another thirty minutes. They come back a little bit dirty, bumping shoulders with one another, and even helping a flush-faced baby walk down the dirt path. It warms my heart so much.  Where I thought there would be extra sibling tension and stress is camaraderie and care. There are rarely any problems between them, and I do think that's because they've adjusted to knowing that they're stuck with each other so they may as well make it fun. :)

Oh, it's been so sweet!

I've gotten rid of most of the textbooks to a degree and have really changed a lot of the way the children have been learning. Before, we would do what the book says, and while I picked what I thought they needed to be learning, their lack of enthusiasm quickly told me otherwise.  So we changed.  And it has not only been effective, they are now creating beautiful notebooks filled with their works of art, all while learning various subjects.

It's created more work for me on Sunday nights (when I plan out their week). I am still using all of the classical books as a base for sequence and skill, yet coming up more organic exercises for them to do that tricks them into enjoying it. ;-) 

Everett was not enjoying anything that required work and practice for reading. He would get frustrated and bored.  Now we briefly go over a blend. After that,  he has to pick four words using the blend to make flash cards to teach the babies (he's super attached to them so I've been using them as motivation!).  I really think it's through his illustration and teaching that it's finally clicking.  Sitting and reading them was not.

This is one of my favorites thus far (although the pile of wonderful illustrations and paintings is becoming quite thick very quickly!)... he created a sign for his "Shell Shack".  

I had such apprehension about teaching Carter. Due to his will and his quick mind, I was afraid he would use both against me!  He's been an incredibly easy student. I don't think any type of style of teaching would really make a difference with him. He's such a sponge that he really appreciates any type of information. While he's self-proclaimed "not the creative type", I would beg to differ. His work is actually really impressive. He is an excellent little artist. So accurate.  We've learned to weave his love of facts and art all into history, geography, science and language arts. It helps keep him busy as well, because he is pretty self-led and needs to remain occupied while I work with Everett on reading and writing.  

Below is Southern England.  He loves mapping, so I use his passion to compliment what we're learning. We are reading excerpts of Mary Poppins this week, so in order to keep him engaged, he typically maps out the location of whatever we are reading about.

(ps, their goal is to start selling their paintings in order to buy a gun and a house in the high country! Ha!)

The babies and Scarlett keep themselves busy. Scarlett goes back and forth between bossing them into being her puppies or playing make believe and also wanting to take part in school.

She gets bored rather quickly and that's fine by me.  The letter-a-week was fun for just that, a week. :)  But she is practicing her leadership skills and somehow learned to spell her name in the process.  She memorizes poetry and Bible verses with the older boys as well as participates in history (and some science).

Oh, and, these images below are to show the reality of what hair and clothing look like when there's schooling going on. Goodness, self-government looks sloppy.

Because.  

This is just a small glimpse of what I've been able to experience day after day.

Hopefully this doesn't come across as bragging or boasting. I'm just so grateful that the Lord asked me to do this.  I would have never guessed that this is what he meant. 

Days like this.

Catching these moments. 

The ever-evoloving side "yard".  We have a few constantly-changing spaces in our home and property.  Keeps things fun (Jason would beg to differ)!

After school started, I wanted to put in a place for the little ones to stay nice and occupied, while encouraging discovery and tactile learning.

I thrifted a bunch of pots and pans and set up an "outdoor kitchen".

They have firewood to make pretend campfires with as well as rakes and shovels for outdoor work.

The bigger kids have set up little bird baths and sanctuaries in hopes that our feathered friends will come and linger a little longer.  It's been fulfilling to watch them experiment with different herbs and plants in efforts to observe more of their characteristics in real life. It's paid off a little bit! We have witnessed some birds bathing and some eating along this little space. 

Since we're studying animals of flight, this is the perfect supplement to our studies!

Hopefully when it cools down a bit we'll add some of their selected winter veggies for the barrels.

And so it goes. Please bear with me as I document our journey of learning.

There is no intention of this turning into a homeschooling blog, yet there has never been a specific goal or purpose for our space here anyway, other than capturing what I want to remember.

Keep in mind, I refrain from capturing what I don't want to remember (unless He tells me otherwise), so these are the good moments.  I rarely think to pick up the camera when the sink is full of dishes or when I am cooking dinner and the babies are covered in mud.  Please know that. I never want to come across as picture perfect, but the truth is, when the scene is not satisfactory, it never crosses my mind to document it.  So know the truth behind that...we have a large amount of tie-dyed shirt and unkept hair days around here (maybe that's why I only blog once a week?!).  :)