Planning to cruise starting 2016

[Christi191]

I'm so glad to find this forum! We are planning to cruise starting in summer/Fall of 2016. We have two kids who will be with us full-time, a 10-year-old boy and a 9-year-old girl. I also have a 19-year-old stepson that will be with us sometimes (though that hasn't been clearly defined yet). I'm grateful to have found what I'm sure will be a lot of great advice on all things provisioning, entertainment for kids and homeschooling. It looks like we will be keeping our homestead in Minnesota, so we'll be held to our state standards. Thank you for any and all advice!

[makana]

We've been cruising with our now 12 year old daughter for the past nine years. I'm a certified and licensed secondary science-chemistry instructor. However my wife has done 95% of the "boat schooling". Our daughter is way more advanced than that of similar aged kids in public-private schools. The cruising lifestyle in itself is a hands on real life school, way better than anything taught in a structured school. My wife has met with a local school teacher to make sure she is following the standards and receives text books from the local school. Please feel free to contact us with any questions you may have.

Cheers,

Rick & Katie

[GordMay]

Greetings and welcome aboard the CF, Christi.

[om0]

Hi!
We are planning to hike with 4 children. 10, 8, 7 and 5 years.
We have the same problem.
Perhaps you'll be a little easier.

Here are the resources that we have found so far.
Homeschool.com's Homeschooling Resource Guide - Homeschooling Resources - Homeschool.com - The #1 Homeschooling Community
Accredited Homeschool | Virtual School Curriculum | Calvert Education
The 50 Best Online High School Diplomas | The Best Schools

Here is another interesting option.
https://www.hslda.org/default.aspx

As I understand it, you can simply buy books relevant curriculum and pass attestation.

If you find that a viable option - please write. It is very important for us.

[Christi191]

Okay, so after a LOT of research I'm concluding that there is too much to choose from! We are going to bypass Calvert, for now, because it is too structured and intense. That's part of what we want to leave behind! Another wrinkle - it looks like we will now rent out our homestead instead of selling it. That means we'll be bound by the Minnesota State Standards. Still, I am now leaning heavily toward unschooling for awhile, maybe the first 6 months to a year. I'd like to really get to know my kids, honestly. I want to know what THEY are interested in and allow them to learn about that. There's a great TED talks on this:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h11u3vtcpaY

It just resonates with me.

[robert.]

We sold everything and moved aboard our boat 3 months ago with our kids (3,6) and big dog. We love the life and wouldn't trade it for anything. We are presently in Islamorada, FL and we've come 1300 miles from Kemah, TX so far. We head to Havana in December. We have a extensive blog that details or planning and trip so far together with a YouTube Channel that details the video events of our journey.

I know I looked at this forum, blogs and Youtube channels while we were still on the hard and in the planning stage. Feel free to get ahold of me with any questions you have.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yTtx...FJ3s-AixQ3N3t5

[Christi191]

I will definitely check out your blog, thank you! Right now, I'll admit, this seems really far off in the future. We're looking at Summer/Fall of next year. And there's still a Minnesota winter to face. So at the moment, I'm in a bit of a limbo mode. I'm giving away my dog training business a bit at a time to another trainer I'm working with, and so my days are becoming increasingly empty. It's not a bad thing, but it certainly does lend itself to making the days seem longer. I appreciate knowing there are others who have been through this process. It's really reassuring.

[robert.]

I used to feel the same way and also very ill-prepared because we had zero sea experience. Our boat used to be on the Lake in Austin, TX. I'll admit we knew less than nothing but if we could do it, anyone could! We've met so many people who've done the exact same thing and it all turned out great. Our kids are thriving and we are more happy than we've ever been. The worst day out here is better than the best day in a neighborhood.

Our blog is down for a couple of days, due to re-design. We started it about 8 months before we left but it has all of the ups and downs that you are likely facing together with a lot of questions answered that you likely have now. We bought a bunch of things we thought we needed but never used. We've done so much more than we ever thought possible and I can say it was all easier than I ever considered. Sometimes scary, but we have great stories.

Our Youtube channel has about 11 videos from our journey and a number more from before. We will be adding new videos weekly. We are in a marina in the Keys until December but we go out for a few days each week, weather permitting.

Great to see others who want to live the dream. It seems like a brave decision but it is a very sound one, even if you don't give yourself the credit for that at this point.

[Four Coconuts]

Christi,
We did Calvert for the first two school years, but have since switched to just buying books and guiding the kids ourselves. You're right in thinking that Calvert is too structured. It put a lot of stress on everyone that wasn't necessary.

[Christi191]

Thank you for the reply. I love to hear from people who've tried various things - definitely appreciate the validation about Calvert.

[svTOTEM]

Good luck with the transition to a great lifestyle. It will be frustrating at times, but stick with it. We're about 8 years and 2 oceans in with 3 kids. Unschooling most closely resemble our approach. Every cruise-schooler we've met has a different approach. The trick is to have confidence that it'll all work out fine even if you're first approach doesn't. Our first approach bombed, but that experience helped us to find what did work.


For what it's worth - Khan Academy Lite is brilliant resource for us. The "Lite" part of that is a program that manages Khan Academy videos, has problem sets for all levels of math, and tracks progress - and all offline once you download videos. It does have bugs and could stand UI improvements, but still well worth it. And Sal Khan and his videos can teach math far better than I.

[chuckr]

Where are you planning to go? It may make a bit of a difference.

[Lagoon440Bora]

We sailed for 3 years with our twins now 5.5 y.o. Since Sept. 2015 they are going to public school in Bora-Bora. They adapted very easily and we have absolutely no concern about going back and forth between school and on board class.

We try to sell our boat here, if no success, we'll sail West for another 6-12 months.

Info about our voyage (in French, but tons of pics and Google translate works well) here: Un voyage en famille

Info about the boat (in English) here: Lagoon 440 catamaran for sale

[lifeofreilly57]

Originally Posted by svTOTEM

Good luck with the transition to a great lifestyle. It will be frustrating at times, but stick with it. We're about 8 years and 2 oceans in with 3 kids. Unschooling most closely resemble our approach. Every cruise-schooler we've met has a different approach. The trick is to have confidence that it'll all work out fine even if you're first approach doesn't. Our first approach bombed, but that experience helped us to find what did work.


For what it's worth - Khan Academy Lite is brilliant resource for us. The "Lite" part of that is a program that manages Khan Academy videos, has problem sets for all levels of math, and tracks progress - and all offline once you download videos. It does have bugs and could stand UI improvements, but still well worth it. And Sal Khan and his videos can teach math far better than I.

I had to laugh when you mentioned Khan Academy, not for my kids but for me, I had been out of college for 30 years and had been in mostly management positions, no real math used for quite while. Then I took on some project management responsibilities when the company I used to work for had a huge burst in business and couldn't find good engineers fast enough. I found that most of my hard earned math skills had vanished over those 30 years and was trying to get back up to speed while under a big workload. Then it dawned on me, Khan Academy, I had used it while helping my daughter when she was in college.
It is much better than many of the professors I had in college, I was able to get through the lessons quickly and was quite impressed with how intuitive they are. Looking back now I realize quite a few of the "teachers" I had when younger really didn't have a clue. It's a great resource.

[Nicholson58]

There are sources for assistance and mentoring for home schooling. My brother & his wife home schooled all 8 of their kids through 9th grade. They are all over-achievers. First four have won all or part scholarships to good collages. One won an appointment to West Point. All of the home schooled kids in their town place far ahead of the public schooled kids.