Planning Homeschool Travel with the Family

So you’re ready to started on planning homeschool travel with the family and want all the tips? You’ve come to the right place!

This article is number 3 in my 10-day Homeschool Travel Tips Series and is part of the awesome Tips for Homeschool Moms Series! I’ve joined at least a dozen other homeschool bloggers to make the Tips for Homeschool Moms Series possible, so definitely give that a look for even more helpful tips!

As so many others, my family totally loves to travel. If we were able to, we would travel somewhere new a couple times a month. We’d be exhausted (and probably poor), but we’d be happy.

When it comes to planning homeschool travel, I definitely like to include the kids in the decision making process. Not only does it let them be involved in the excitement, but it ensures that we’re creating a travel itinerary that actually interests them and lets them learn a thing or two.

Let’s Get Planning Homeschool Travel!

When we’re ready to start planning another longer-distance excursion, I find it best to first start with an approximate budget. Local travel doesn’t necessarily need a tight budget, but you can bet your booty that long distance travel does.

It’s easy to get overwhelmed, you know? So, might as well decide on the budget right away.

Do I let the kids know the budget? Yes and no.

On one hand, they’re kids and I don’t want them to worry so much about the money. I want them to be able to enjoy themselves, enjoy the experience, and not have to worry.

On the other hand, the homeschool parent in me appreciates the lifelong educational value of planning for a budget.

It’s totally a personal decision, but I do choose to share the budget with my own kids from time to time.

After choosing the budget, we’ll start to narrow down the travel destination based upon a few questions:

• How far do we want to travel? Can we budget for airfare or are we ok driving?
• What do we want to learn about?
• How long will we be in a hotel?
• Will this be a whole family vacation or will my husband stay at home? (The boys and I often travel while my husband stays home)
  • If my husband will be coming, how long will we need to board our dog?

Let’s Get Traveling!

Once we’ve decided on a destination and have booked all the necessary reservations and such (sidenote: check out these tips for making homeschool travel budget-friendly!), it’s time to get excited!

After we’ve set the exact dates of travel, my boys love to make a countdown of some sort. Sometimes they’ll do a paper chain countdown, sometimes they’ll write countdown numbers on a stack of post-it notes…it varies each time.

When the countdown is ready to go, we’ll head to YouTube to find videos about the various places we’re planning on visiting. We love learning the ins-and-outs of all the attractions and learning about travel tips specific to our destination.

For example, we recently booked our very first cruise on the Royal Caribbean Cruise Line so we’ve been watching a bunch of videos from cruise bloggers! Royal Caribbean Blog and Life Well Cruised seem to be our favorites so far. If you have ANY tips about cruising, please send them my way by emailing me or leaving a comment below. Thank you in advance!

In addition to doing a countdown and learning about our travel area, my boys also like making a travel journal! For a limited time, you can grab the set of travel printables that I made. It includes a journal page, packing page, a draw & write page, planner, and even a list for brainstorming locations for future travel!

Just click here to add the printable set to your cart!

Enjoy the Experience

Planning homeschool travel can be exhausting and overwhelming at times, but I hope you do take a breather to enjoy it from time to time. These are the moments the kids will remember and, better yet, will learn from!

Until next time, stay safe and enjoy quality time with your family,