| Author | Message | ||
| JW Smythe (Jwsmythe)
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A slightly off topic question. I know that this is probably outside of the demographic, but I'm hoping someone will have some advice. As I've said before, we're planning on going full time in our bus when it's done. My girlfriend has a son. We're now talking about home schooling him on the bus, giving him real world experience. An example is say Nebraska. Anyone who's gone to school may remember that the capital is Lincoln. They may know that it's primarly a farming state. They may have also seen the occasional photo showing a few rows of crops. How many people, outside of those who live in Nebraska have stood in a corn field, seen a cow give birth, or know that it takes x hours to cross the state. My girlfriend gave another example of Washington DC. I haven't really been there since I was about 10. I've driven through, and seen the inside of Dulles several times. I can tell you they have a cool moving room on wheels between terminals. I couldn't tell you how to get from the Washington Monument to the White House. What would happen if we spent a month there, touring historical places? So the question. Does anyone here know anything about groups who may be doing the same thing? I know there are frequently groups in communities that do home schooling, but I have no clue where to start looking, other than Google. We'd like to be able to get with groups in whatever city we may be in. It may be to the point that we change our destination plans just to socialize with those people. I know I already want to stop in several obscure places, just to visit friends that I've met online, and other friends who have moved off to far off places. And... Worst case, he's not in the school here. He's in the LAUSD (Los Angeles Unified School District). He's seen drugs and gangs active IN the elementary school. The teachers with tenure don't care about anything other than union activities that will increase their pay and benefits. Students are secondary to everything. | ||
| FAST FRED Rating: N/A |
The Calvert School has a great program that might be of use. Many sailing familys use their materials with fine results. The biggest hassle is after a couple of years it is almost impossible to reintergrate a kid back in State controlled Skools with Union "teachers". Calvert has a site where you might hook up with other roadies in your situation. There are also Home Schooling sites where the socalizing is discussed. FAST FRED | ||
| Brian Brown (Blue_velvet)
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JW, we have a home-based ciriculum with one of our kids this school year, and I'll teach two of them on it next year. Ours is a state-wide, publicly-funded program called Colorado Virtual Academy offered by the K-12 folks. www.k12.com Dr. Hirsch ("What your Child Should Know for # Grade" book series) is involved in the company and program. Everything is done trhough the Internet and paper-bound materials they send to us. I have nothing but good things to say about the program and ciriculum, and our child is way ahead of where he would be now at our local bricks-and-mortar school. Plus, it gives us some freedom when we're travelling. You can see if they offer a program in your home state. Otherwise, you can pay for it... and it's probably worth it IMHO. FWIW, Brian Brown | ||
| Greg Roberts (Gregeagle20)
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Brian said: "I know that this is probably outside of the demographic, but I'm hoping someone will have some advice." Translates to: My belief is that most of you are a bunch of old farts that likely no longer have kids of school age but hopefully at least one of you can still remember enough to possibly pass on some advice to a younger fellow busnut. I have a friend that home schooled his two boys and they took advantage of the Calvert School that Fred mentions. Those are two of the smartest and well mannered boys you could meet. | ||
| Brent Coursey (Busboy)
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We are now a full-timing on-the-road home schooling family...we have 4 kids. We use a curriculum called Five-In-A-Row. It is literature based education, meaning that you can get your school books at any public library. The teachers guides are minimal cost. When we had our campground in SC, we were a member of a home school group that was required by the state. Whatever state you claim residency, you will want to check on the homeschooling requirements. South Carolina is simple enough that we just have to report in once a year to our accountability group on what we are doing. My oldest kid took the Stanford test last year and was right on track and exceeded in some area. There are a bazillion different curriculums out there. We have heard of Switched on Schoolhouse that is computer based which is supposed to be really good. Let me know if you need further info. Happy Trails, Brent | ||
| JW Smythe (Jwsmythe)
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> I know that this is probably outside of the > demographic, but I'm hoping someone will have > some advice. Greg, That was actually my quote.  Most age references I've seen are indicating folks are retired. I know it's frequently true that people are either retired and ready to travel, or young without any hard ties to keep them home. It's hard to tell from people writing to how old they are. The guy at the shop working on my bus was thrown by my age. He knew the bus was to be converted into an RV. He expected a retired guy wanting to do it. I hadn't expected it to need to go to the shop, so the decision was made on a Friday evening, and I flew out Sunday, so a friend drove it to the shop on Monday. He had my written instructions, and verbal instructions from my friend, but hadn't met me until a month later. I'm far from retired, but I'll probably still be working when I'm 90. My work is Internet based, and the last of the equipment that tied me to this area moved up to Toronto last summer. When I go out to a site with our equipment, it means flying, living in a hotel, and driving a rented car. I know this makes me the exception to the rule. Most people have offices where they need to spend face time with the bosses and staff. My bosses and other staff are scattered all over the world. Some, I've never met in person. I only heard the voice of one guy from Russia a few months ago, when he called me for the first time, even though we've worked on stuff at length via email, our internal message boards, and ICQ. Getting the bosses together is frequently a hard task. In the last 3 trips back to the "home office", I think we managed 4 hours in the same place, and we were still short two important people in the company. Everyone had somewhere else they had to be, including myself. The bosses still think I'm crazy for considering doing this. They do like the idea that I can show up at our various sites for weeks or months, without them needing to buy a plane ticket. The last big trip to a remote site lasted two months, and cost a fortune for them, for the hotel and car. | ||
| Ed Roelle (Ed_roelle)
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I know at least 2 other families besides us that home school and have buses. None happen to be full timers. In fact, it may be as abnormal to home school as it is to own a bus as an RV. We homeschooled our first three children until they entered the public highschool in 9th grade. We did not fulltime. We considered the travelling very educational. Also, tiem at home helping their dad and myself with everyday living plus building a house and helping to redo a bus, was very educational. These skills were realized as very helpful when they went to school and college. Homeschooling affords us the ability to travel when places are not as busy. We can school while driving and they have real experiences, not only book experiences. I remember one July 4th when we had breakfast in the parking lot of Mount Rushmore. First, you need to find out the requirements in your state to HS. You should also try to get his school records for future needs. At one time, we looked for an RV group that HS, but no luck. Ed Roelle Flint, MI | ||
| chris dusty (Chris)
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The only advice I can give you on finding groups along the way is to do wahat you have already done, google. The couple of groups we are involved in use yahoo to establish e-mail loops. As for curricula, We switched to SOS(Switched on Schoolhouse)a few years ago with our four children and have been rather pleased with it. Being computer based it is easy to use as well as easy to grade and maintain. The information is generally good and relevant without too many glaring informative defects. Hope that helps, Chris | ||
| JW Smythe (Jwsmythe)
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Thanks everyone for the input. We've found a few sources for info so far. Yours will be very helpful as we research this more over the next few months. We had a little dispute over here this evening on the topic. I'm not the father of the kid. My girlfriend (his mother, obviously) was concerned about us going fulltime in the bus and leaving him behind. She came up with the homeschool option on her own, and I agree with doing it. I like the kid, I have no problem with bringing him along everywhere we go, and think it'll be educational for him, to say the least. His father thinks being part of the establishment is important. What if he doesn't learn, and never gets a highschool diploma? What about social interaction? He'll never get into college, or be able to function as part of society. I pointed out a few good facts. I never finished high school because ... well ... because the establishment failed me. Because I wasn't a prefered student, and teachers formed opinions of me based on misconceptions, I was relegated to being a C-D-F student rather than an A student. If I had been a football player, I would have been an A-B student. The schools have priorities that don't necessarly lean towards the good of the students. When the school decided I needed 2 more years of highschool, I dropped out, got my GED, and left for college. My close social circle was maybe 5 or 6 people. I am successful. At least successful enough to keep up with my job that I've been at for years, plus even consider doing the bus. I've tracked down a few of the "better" students from high school. I spotted the valedictorian from one school I was attending was working at Wendy's. I worked in law enforcement for a very short time, and came across the arrest records of two of the top of our class who were expected to be the most successful. One guy I went to high school got into college football, but I have no idea what happened with that (I'm not much of a sports fan). Before anyone asks, yes, I worked a lot of different jobs over the years. Some out of desperation. Some out of inspiration which was less than gracefully shot down once I actually saw first hand out it worked (like law enforcement). What I do now wasn't my first choice, but my high school choice would have likely had me flying a crop duster in Kansas, and now I know would have never lead to where I wanted. Based on what I see students coming out of school with now, I'm sure I can teach better. I'd have the distinct advantage of teaching 2 on 1, rather than 1 on 30 or more per class (or over 150 students per day). Not too many teachers care when a student (ahh, like me?) fall through the cracks. They're hopeful that their top students do well, when they don't realize that their teaching methods are failing, and many of us who fell through the cracks are actually going to be the most successful they'll ever see. And, in a vain attempt to stay on topic.... My bus is still in the shop. I'm still waiting for a quote from the contractors on the interior. I really want to get working hard on it. I'm looking at eBay almost every day at parts, but I know I have to hold out a little while longer until the bus is sitting where it belongs, so I at least have somewhere to put the parts so I can work on it. I'm still looking at photos of everyone elses work on a regular basis, but I'm not making a lot major design change decisions. There's a GMC RTS up on eBay that has a window in the rear where the stock air handler was. I looked, I reconsidered, and I'm still sure that's where my generator is going. I like darkness in the place I'll be sleeping. That's just a bit too much sunlight. | ||
| Steve Padgett Rating: N/A |
I'm not a fulltimer or even a true busnut. (I do drive passenger buses and also work for Sika an adhesive that many busnuts use, so maybe I do sort of qualify) I am a homeschool dad with 11 years experience and 4 kids though. Number one. Contact Home School Legal Defense Association www.hslda.org and join. Some states are pretty weird about homeschooling and given your busnut lifestyle, you might take a little heat for that. They will be able to offer any legal advice you may require. There are any number of homeschool groups out there. Since few of us register with the government, it's sort of a loose confederation. I think if you were to go to a museum during the day and look for a gaggle of kids with their mom, you'd find a homeschool family and maybe be able to find info about a local group HSLDA also publishes a book called The Right Choice about why homeschooling is a great educational choice. Get it, read it and send it on to the child's father. If his mind is not welded shut, it should ease his mind considerably. Above all, have fun with it. you'll learn as much as he does. | ||
| FAST FRED Rating: N/A |
"Some states are pretty weird about homeschooling" Feeding union teachers from taxing folks homes is BIG BUSINESS! Some states see every lost "lost" as a blow to their budget authority . The fact that the Home Skooled kids have a far better education means NOTHING to them. FAST FRED | ||
| Doug Dickinson (Dougd470)
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I feel I need to enter the discussion a bit here. As the father or step father to 7 (all of them grew up with me around) I feel I have some experience - mostly in what doesn't work. I was also one of the many kids left out because I wasn't one of the "chosen" (i.e. sports or a straight A student). Such was the plight of A.D.D. affected kids 40 years ago. 5 of the 7 have ADD and we have been able to make a difference because of our experiences (wife also had same experience and has A.D.D.). Given all that - here is my take on the home school issue: 1) Home school allows one to closely taylor what is taught to a kid - be it good or bad. Since there is no real authority, let's just leave it as that! Be careful. 2) Homeschooling on a coach has some distinct advantages - IF you plan to use them. I think you have. 3) Homeschooling removes a kid from socialization. It was mentioned that 2 homeschooled kids are the most polite he has seen. (This may well be, but rebellion is part of the maturation process. It just has to be guided and steered.) They will need those skills later in life to be fully successful (that means realizing their potential). You might figure out how to accomplish that. Good luck. 4) The point for many in homeschooling is to restrict viewpoints or outside influences. This can also backfire. Caution is advised. While we all want to do the best for our kids, sometimes this zeal works against our best efforts. Again, caution advised. I may not be of a viewpoint on a subject, but I still learn about it so I know WHY I don't agree. "Fear is based in ignorance - not in what is known". I don't want a fearful kid - I want a knowlegable kid. 5) Make sure you use several resources to develop the knowledge base you want to impart to the boy. It sounds like there were several mentioned in this discussion. 6) As a potential step-parent to this boy, your input is valuable - but the natural parents have to make the decisions. You can more influence this by your presence than by a "decision". Step-parenting is far more difficult than birth-parenting. Been there - done that. Advice - DON'T GIVE UP. I don't have all the answers. Nobody does. Take the above, mix it with other input - sift it through your filters, and do it your way. Just like converting a coach - there is not a real method or direction that works for all. Good luck. Doug St Louis MC9 | ||
| JW Smythe (Jwsmythe)
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Doug, Thanks. I'll start answering at #6. I've been "step parent" to a lot of kids over the years. Mostly, due to either really close friends, or women I have dated. My relationships either last for about 2 weeks, or for years. I don't end up with much grey area there. I'm mostly a father to two 15 year old girls, and three boys between 9 and 12. I have two sons of my own, which unfortunately I don't spend a lot of time with. There's a huge drama behind that one, that I really don't want to get into. I'd love to bring my real sons along on the bus, but I know it's going to stir up WAY too much drama between me and my ex. I told both my girlfriend, and her ex that I really have no right to tell them how to raise their son. They firmly discussed the matter for a while. Once the louder parts were settled down, I gave my input. Right now, we're at the tenative agreement that he will be homeschooled over summer vacation. We'll do our best to get with local groups. I already found that the local YMCA (1 mile from our house) has a PhysEd class for homeschooled kids. While on the road, I'm sure he'll have socialization. A very close friend of mine in Florida has a 11 year old son too. I was around him since he was 1, and he considers another dad, and friend. Knowing both boys, they'll get along very well. I hope to spend a good bit of time there, as I also have a lot of friends there myself. There are other places that we'll be going, where other friends with kids live. I don't want to try to force situations for him, but the kids I want him to be around are VERY friendly and sociable. They're good influences for a lot of reasons. I just spent some of my bus money on other stuff, so hopefully I can help guide my girlfriend's son a bit more. He is really into the military (little boys playing war? Who could imagine). I just bought us both a full set of BDU's, and I'm going to take him out in the woods for a few days at a time. He spends too much time inside watching TV and playing video games. I think it's time for him to learn that hiking in the mountains is exhausting. I'm going to teach him what MRE's taste like, and what it's like to sleep on the ground in a tent, when you're so far away from civilization that you can't hear a car or see another person for days. Oh ya and pesky little skills like map reading and reading a compass. | ||
| Charli Hull
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To start off, I have never read anything else on this bus board. My father has been reading advice from all of you for years, and he forwarded this thread to me, hoping I could give a little bit of personal experience. I am 19 years old, and I am what I would like to call a homeschool success story. And yes, I grew up in a converted school bus. I have just finished my first year at an elite small college, and I am off to a great start in the so called "real world." I have a strange background, so I will address that quickly before I move into my advice. From the time I was two until I was ten, my parents traveled with me in our RV (first a trailer and then a converted school bus) around to Antique and Collectible Flea Markets. This was all much to my grandparent’s dismay. "She'll never do well in school, she won't get a diploma." These are words I have heard uttered so many times they do not even phase me anymore. I loved what would have been my elementary school years. I would not change them for the world. I made friends with kids my age (some that were homeschooled, others that were on summer vacations with grandparents-the best relationships for a homeschooler just HAPPEN. They cannot be planned by an organization or homeschool group. As a matter of fact, where I am living now, I wouldn't touch our homeschool group with a ten-foot pole. But then again I live in Iowa.) Not only did I make friends with kids, I made friends with adults. And I mean friends. Not just me standing there starring up in fear and awe like many public schooled kids do. I would actually talk to them. To this day I am still told I am mature for my age, and I attribute that to the adults that I made friends with along the way. Each one taught me something different. That is also one thing to keep in mind as you are homeschooling a student-Every person you come across-the cashier at the convience store, the tour guide on the battle field of Gettysburg, the mother that is letting her children experience the natural history museum-they are all people to learn from. I was never sheltered. The only words I can think of to describe this is Thank God. "Don't lie to kids." This is one phrase that I stand by and I think is very reinforced by homeschooling. If the child is old enough to ask the question, then they should be old enough to hear the answer. Okay, back to topic. When I was ten, I begged to be in public school (now that I can see back, this wasn't the smartest idea... but I got the experience and I'm thankful for that). We had been visiting friends in Iowa, and found a place to live and I enrolled in a very small school district. If you were to look only at my 4th grade year, you would think I would not do very well in school. I was behind in my spelling, so they placed me in a remedial spelling class. After a year of that, I was one of the best spellers in the class-I had merely missed the basics. Regardless of my spelling, I was a better reader than most. I was one of the few kids who did not fear answering or especially asking questions. I looked at my teacher as someone I could use to my advantage, someone who should be able to answer my questions on anything. However, most of the class (and I still believe that this is instilled by the public school system and has to be broken when kids hit college) saw her as an authority figure that they could not approach. I looked like a brown noser for quite a while, until I figured out that it wasn't "cool" to be smart. I left that phase rather quickly and went back to asking questions and following my passions. From 4th through 8th grades I stayed in this same school district. By the middle of 8th grade, I was being teased to such an extreme for the things that I excelled at, I left the school and started homeschooling again at the high school level. Throughout high school, I homeschooled, however I did chose to take a couple of my courses at another local (and larger) high school such as Spanish and Chemistry. I didn't really feel like teaching myself those. That brings me to another point. When I tell people I'm homeschooled, the question that inevitably follows is "Oh, your mom teaches you then?" It's kind of difficult to explain to someone that you teach yourself. This is what I did through high school. You did not mention how old your girlfriend's son is, however, once they hit a certain point in their studies (and it is different for every area of study) they will become self directed. This is because they find their passion in it, and follow it. This, to me, is one of the most outstanding things about homeschooling. I guess my advice to summarize is that I do not believe in an organized method to your homeschooling. However, if you are new to homeschooling, it is best to start out a little bit tighter and loosen up than the other way around. Set a curriculum, then possibly later you can change it around a little bit. States laws vary, as have been shown before. I forget what it takes to declare residency in a state, but I believe we just had a post office box as our permanent address and that was our state of residency. Many states require you to pass an aptitude test once a year, or turn in a portfolio to a homeschool coordinator. Look into your options and weigh them carefully. If you have no idea how to go about teaching the basics (and again, this depends on the age of the child) then you may want to use a set curriculum from a school. However, this is not what I recommend. If you know or can find books that show you what your child should know, then collect your own library and teach them that way. (The books that were mentioned earlier "What your Child Should Know for # Grade" book series have been referred to me before as great resources.) And finally, to combat that ultimate question "He'll never get a high school diploma!": I used American School high school homeschool correspondence school. This is a set curriculum (I know, I'm contradicting myself, but hang on) that sends you the books and the tests, you do them and send them back. They grade the tests and keep grades, and issue a diploma when you are done. This has not been an intensive course for me, and can be completed quite quickly if one wishes to. The reason I chose this one is because I wanted to have time to pursue my own interests for my career. I am a photography major, and I have worked for four different studios and now own my own business because I could take my own time and experiment. The homeschooler that is doing an intensive high school program never has time to get out and experience life. Oh, and that socialization issue. Please excuse my language for a moment here, but the fact that people think homeschoolers aren't socialized is bullshit. I have more very close friends from more backgrounds than anyone I know, and that is because I was willing to take advantage of every person around me to educate me. Sorry about such a long post, but I hope it helped answer some questions and inspire you that what you are trying to do is the best thing for the child. Good luck, and have fun! Education is everywhere. ~Charli | ||
| JW Smythe (Jwsmythe)
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Thanks Charli. I'm really glad you responded. I'm sending your message over to his father right now. I guess I forgot to mention my girlfriend's son's age. He's 11. The rest of us (my girlfriend, her son's dad, and I) are in our early 30's. I think a lot of the difference in our opinions is where we ended up. He's running two businesses right now, both of which are 9 to 5 type of jobs. He alternates between them, but it's still the good old traditional kind of work. I work on the Internet, primarly from home. I do travel to various locations to get things done, but not much ties me down to times or locations. Take yesterday for an example. I fielded a dozen phone calls, asking for progress on various projects, advice with obscure problems, and adding one email account. The people I work with know I prefer to work late at night, so they're nice enough to hold off on the calls til around noon. I helpd with two obscure server problems with a friend of mine. I swear, email problems are the worst, because we have to depend on so many outside people. 15 minutes into it, I positively identified it wasn't our problem, but was able to point the client to the right direction. Last night I was programming an encryptions, to make very secure private messaging possible without needing anything installed on the user's computer. I was up until 4am working on it. This was for practice, and for fun. This particular one would allow anyone to use 10 layers of encryption using any combination of 19 encryption alogrithms (and one cipher always used). I also run a news site, which gets a lot of my attention, but others working with me handle things when I'm busy. My girlfriend has been doing her own thing for quite a while. She was making custom dog collars, and selling them online. Frustrations with fraudlent customers and the amount of work involved in them made her stop that. She's now working on a new pet accessories site, and will be doing more once she's satisfied with this one. She's not a webmaster exactly, but I programmed a nice little framework for her to work in that's doing well. We're in LA, and she works as an extra also. It's a nice way for her to get out of the house and meet new people. Today, she left at about 11am to go sit on the set of "Weeds" (Showtime). Last week she was seen very briefly on the open of CSI:NY (the episode the the bomber), where she was in the street party scene with our dog. If you watch carefully, you'll spot our dog, it's a grey and white siberian huskey. They had to dub in barking, because she rarely barks. She'll be home around midnight tonight. He's never said it, but I know it must be irritating that we don't have to work 9 to 5 jobs, and we do have the option of going on the road for months or years at a time. I'll be able to work anywhere there is Internet service. With the bus, I'll be able to show up to our remote locations. The big qualifications to my work are that I have Internet and phone access all the time (or pretty close to it). She'll be able to update her sites any time we have Internet access, and can work as an extra in several cities whenever she wants. At very least she can work major productions in Los Angeles, New York, Toronto, and Vancouver. We're not dependant on her income, but a few hundred bucks here and there are always nice. Her son's dad is at work right now. He probably got there at 8am, and will be working until 8pm, and it will repeat every week day for the rest of his life. I spent a little time today looking at a very likely bogus alternative fuel thing. They're having a conference in July. I'm considering going to see if their device really works as they claim. As long as I bring my cell phone and laptop, it doesn't matter that I'll be in Utah. I've done work all over the country, and it's no different than being at home or at one of our offices. People call or email, and I get the work done. No one realized that I took 4 days in Oregon last week. I think being able to bring the kid along will be great for him. While in Portland, we went to the Japanese gardens, with a friend of mine who spent several of his younger years in Japan. What could a 11 year old kid learn from someone who lived in Japan? Sure, we might run into someone here that lived in Japan, but would they be the ones to open up and tell life experiences to strangers? If we stay here, he'll definately never soak up experiences all over the country. I'm really trying to get the news site to grow. I still need to get "press credentials" together, so we're honestly allowed to cross police lines to cover the news. Which is more interesting, to see the 15 second blurb on TV, or see things first hand? His writing needs work, but I think given time and encouragement, he could be writing for me. If we never tell anyone that an 11 year old is writing the stories, and I edit well, no one would ever know. Hell, about half the news stories I read, look like they were written by drunken monkeys. | ||
| Jack Conrad (Jackconrad)
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JW. Reminds me of when my younger brother was a freshman in college. There was a writing contest and his roommate wanted him to write something to enter in the contest. My brother said he was not interested in entering any contest and did not have time to write something for the contest. After more badgering from his roommate, he handed a novel he had written to his roommate and told him to enter it in the contest. My brother won that contest and did not have the heart to tell the judges he had written it when he was in 8th grade. Jack |