Friday, July 12, 2019

Wherever We Go

We just did a LOT of traveling. A LOT. It wasn't even just one long trip, but a few back to back things that had us living out of luggage and on the go pretty consistently over the course of a few weeks.

I know it's summer now, but the flexibility of homeschooling means that we can do this whenever we want, and now the girls are really able to handle it.

But there are a few things we need to make sure we can always do on the road.

We are backseat masters when it comes to packing, keeping the girls occupied, and even dealing with trash. The girls have become responsible for their own things, and even charging their devices, which helps a HUGE amount. They can (almost) pack themselves - I help make the list and then check their work.

First, car schooling. We don't get behind, even when we're on the go. We're actually pretty good at this now. I can have the girls do their independent work AND do some actual instruction with very minimal planning. For us, the keys to this are good audiobooks or CDs, a well stocked backpack, a tablet that I may hotspot if necessary, and a lap tray. I don't get too ambitious (most of the time), but there are days when we can do our entire day's to do list before we've reached our next destination.

And just when I thought I'd mastered everything we need, dance ramped up. I shouldn't be surprised, since dance has always been a huge part of Madison's life. But now she can't get away with taking a few days off from stretching or practicing without losing ground. She needs to keep up.

So we pack a little more. She has a stretch band, a couple of yoga blocks and a mat, and a turning dot that come with us. Obviously, she can't do any of this when we're actually on the road, but she can make great use of them wherever we stop. She has a pretty good routine, but she can also watch YouTube videos if she wants a little more guidance for practicing basics.

And when we're on the road, she makes use of technology. When she was younger, her teachers would often have the parents come in and record the end of her lessons so they would practice accurately. As they've gotten older, they do that less. The girls do miss it, because on a night when you're learning parts of several dances, it can get confusing when you go to practice the next day. So her team started gathering in the changing area right after class and recording themselves doing the new sections. So although she can't dance in the car, she can watch and talk through the routines, and most of the time, this makes a huge difference. She retains it well even without physically dancing it as often as she'd like.

I might have a lot of miles on the car, but we aren't getting bogged down in anything else!
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