The Great American Unschooling Tour

It’s no secret that I’ve stepped outside the system in many aspects of my life. I’ve been fortunate enough to be able to live out my dreams because of the choices I made years ago to extricate myself from the way most folks are living their lives.

So it will probably come as little surprise that I’ve decided to set off on a new adventure with my youngest daughter.

Tomorrow, we’re heading out on a road trip of more than 10,000 miles.

The Great American Unschooling Tour

This year, we decided to completely part ways with the school system in all forms. We decided to unschool. (Here, I wrote in more detail about what unschooling is.)

And what better way to celebrate our freedom and encourage curiosity than an epic road trip?

Saint Augustine said, “The world is a book, and those who do not travel read only one page.”

So we decided to take him seriously. We’re traveling the United States by Jeep, visiting historic places and geological wonders. We’re taking our time doing it, with no set schedule.

I have a feeling that my 15-year-old will learn more over the course of this adventure than she would have learned in 3 years of classroom education. Plus, there are the skills she’ll learn that are becoming somewhat obsolete:

• How to navigate using a paper map
• How to figure out the amount of time it will take to get from Point A to Point B
• How to seek information about the things that strike her fancy
• How to deal with the practical aspects of travel, like making reservations, packing efficiently, and eating healthfully on the road
• How to manage a travel budget
• How to spark curiosity in others
• How to immerse yourself in local cultures
• How to stay safe in unfamiliar places
• How to find off-beat hidden treasures
• How freakin’ awesome our country really is

And for those who are more interested subjects that tie into a more formal education, we’ll be studying:

• History – what better way to learn about the things that happened in our country than to actually see where they happened and walk the same paths that others did?
• Geography – duh. Driving around the perimeter of the United States will definitely help with that!
• Cool facts about different states
• Geology – we’ll get up close and personal to many natural wonders
• Literature – my bookworm kid has already mapped the stomping grounds of famous authors – we’ll be reading their books before visiting their homes
• Math – Calculating times and distances, managing a budget – these things will be her responsibility
• Entrepreneurship – How to run a website and online business (She’s starting her own over the course of our journey)

I hope you’ll follow along in our journey. (For reasons of safety, we’ll be posting after we leave an area.)  I’ll be updating some stuff here, but if you really want to see the fun day-to-day stuff, follow me on Instagram and Facebook.