Traveling Intentionally as a Family
Actually enjoy traveling with kids! With Homeschool Cruises, we minimize the planning and maximize the travel.
Traveling intentionally as a family
This week on social media we shared some thoughts about traveling with children and how we plan Homeschool Cruises in a way that we can be more intentional with our learning as we travel. Let’s take a look!
If I could list the top three reasons I enjoy cruising with kids, especially as a homeschool mom, these would be it –
I do not have to cook, clean, or find activities for my family. The ship itself includes everything we need to have an enjoyable week with minimal work or planning on my part. I also do not worry about staying within a budget once we are on vacation because I have pre-paid for everything before we even get on the ship.
We do not have to pick just one place to visit. All we have to do is drive to the port, and from there the ship can take us to multiple destinations that we’d like to explore with our children.
Because I do not have to plan much for these trips, I am able to take time to prepare lessons for our children (and yours!) about the areas we will be visiting. I have found great value in exploring the area we will be visiting through at-home lessons before our trip. It amplifies the experience of visiting another country for both myself and my children, and we learn from and appreciate the travel so much more.
Learn about ecosystems, geography, topography, history, culture, and more while traveling on your Homeschool Cruise!
Let’s talk about the lessons! This is honestly my favorite part of preparing for the cruise.
As you can tell, planning for the Homeschool Cruise each year starts fairly early – a year in advance we choose the cruise, secure the group rates, and start advertising, even though final payment isn’t until November! Booking the group early is important, but it also has the benefit of giving me some free time to work on all the fun details
So what do I do with the time between now and November? I study! I’ll spend the next few months researching all there is to know about the Caribbean islands, then take what I have learned and create lessons for you to share with your family before the cruise.
We cover topics like geography and maps, topography, history, culture, and ecosystems each year. We also will have a lesson going over activities that you can do at each port that we will visit. This is a great springboard into a discussion as a family of what you’d like to explore when we stop at each island next February.
Why do I love writing the lessons? Because we learn so much, of course, myself included! But also because it allows me to be more intentional as we travel with our kids. We travel not just to go on vacation – there are a LOT of beaches we could go to, friends. We travel because we want our children to see and learn about the world. It has been so rewarding to see our kids get excited about the places we are going to visit, and then to see them engaged and thoughtful when we are there in those regions exploring.
So what would you like to learn about while on the cruise? And what are you the most excited to explore?
Enjoy group excursions with our homeschool community.
So what’s a customized excursion? Well, first, an excursion is an activity that you can choose to do at each port that you visit. These are things like tours, snorkeling, beach days, ziplining, etc. We want to design some specifically for our group that you can choose as well!
The goal is to plan excursions that families can do together to explore some of the things we learned about in the pre-cruise lessons. This could look like a historical tour, a tour of the rainforest ecosystem, a visit to a local town to learn more about the local cuisine and culture, or something else!
What would you like to be able to see or do? We are always open to ideas!
As a recap, here is a general overview of how the Homeschool Cruise timeline works – request a quote, book the cruise, learn about the Caribbean with the included lessons, pick your excursions, and explore with friends!
Please let us know what other questions you have. As always, feel free to share this Facebook group as well as our website with any of your friends. And if you aren’t an avid Facebook user, don’t forget to head to our website and subscribe to our weekly email where we share everything we’ve discussed during the week in your inbox
