# Home Schooling While Cruising



## [email protected]

We are planning a year long cruise with our three children (12, 10 and 4 yr old) and would greatly appreciate information from other cruisers regarding the home schooling process for the different grade levels. Do you purchase a cirriculum or make up your own, and recommendations for non-religious cirriculums to purchase for computer software as well
Thanks


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## Goodnewsboy

I have not home schooled anyone myself (Don't say old), but I have five nieces who are doing K-12, and their work has produced some very impressive scholars. I believe they all purchase curriculum for structure and scope. They tell me that one of the keys to their success is regular field trips to events and locations associated with their studies. Your cruise itinerary might include many of those. A year of school ship experience sounds great to me. What kid could resist?

There is no shortage of excellent home schooling curriculum available. It is predominantly published by Christian sources, since Christian families have been the pioneers of the movement. Check the internet under "home schooling curriculum".


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## labatt

We'll be doing a 1-1.5 year long cruise of our own so we're looking into the same subject. My wife is more up on it than me. One item that we found out for these "short" cruises - in New York at least - is that you have to have the curriculum approved by your local school district if you want your kid to re-integrate at the appropriate grade level when you return.


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## svs3

Try the Calvert School Calvert Homeschooling

Sam


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## wind_magic

I read somewhere that the key to success with home schooling while cruising was thinking about what was going to happen when you get back. If you already know what school they are going to go to when they get back, call that school and tell them what is going on, and work out a deal to "transfer the credit" to that school when you return. They might have some kind of requirements. I remember reading that one family home schooled and the requirement was that their children, upon returning, be able to maintain the same grade level for at least one semester (or maybe it was a year) at their new school in order for all their grades to be valid from when they were cruising. Maybe the new school would want them to pass a test to prove they learned something while cruising ? I don't know anything about it really.


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## kd3pc

I will 2nd the Calvert School, very complete down to pencils and paper and ruler. You will not be disappointed. No problems with xfers as they are fully accredited.

dave


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## kmclarke

We are also going to be cruising with two children ages 10 and 11, and are in need of info for home schooling . We are albertans so that will make a difference as all students have to stick to the curriculem of their state / province. The thing that will be different for us vs the majority of home schoolers is that we will leave for our cruise in Oct and return in April so our boys will be starting and finishing the school year in their own schools. Our hope is that they will be able to send a photo journal to their classes while they are away, thus enhancing everyones learning experience.

Cheers KC


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## magnusmurphy

Hi there

We are also in Alberta (Calgary) and also planning a cruise with children. We have two daughters aged 11 and 13 but since our cruise will start November or December, they'll be 12 and 14.

We bought a boat in Rhode Island and plan to cruise down the ICW - to the Bahamas and back to the US in June 2008.

Where do you plan to cruise, when and from where?

We are also trying to figure out the homeschooling issues. Our kids are in Webber Academy so we're hoping the school will let us do what you mentioned - start in their grades and then reintegrate the year after. We've had a meeting with the CBE homeschool division but I must say that just confused us. It seems the best curriculum is the Internet one, but you HAVE to have regular Internet access - obviously not possible when cruising. An alternative is a correspondence course but they have not updated that and it really looks very dry and frankly - boring. So we're hoping to follow Webber's curriculum and supplement. We're waiting for them to let us know if that will be acceptable.

Let us know what you plan to do.

Magnus Murphy


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## TSOJOURNER

You might check out http://www.flvs.net/ for some good links and the program itself. We have home schooled all our children and we use the Florida Virtual School for some courses. You can just teach them yourself. Are you homeschooling now?


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## TSOJOURNER

Oh, I forgot to mention, "Religions of the World" is standard study for most students. It's going to be hard to find a purely Atheistic curriculum. Although some might argue that Atheism is a religion unto itself.


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## kmclarke

I wonder if there are any truly atheist sailors. I am not religous but I do have a strong faith, the strengh ? it depends how bad the weather is.

KC


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## kmclarke

I wonder if there are any truly atheist sailors. I am not religous but I do have a strong faith, the strengh ? it depends how bad the weather is.

KC
All I want is warm toes.


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## JagsBch

I am looking to home school my Daughter while on the surf expedition, any suggestions on how to pull this off would be greatly appreciated. Rachel Hope is 14 and will be starting the 9th grade next year. I plan on trying to get her Highschool education under way while we are cruising the Islands mon. There are lots of options just from my initial feelers, I have a few months to make this decision, and would love to find the perfect school.

This is one of the schools we are looking into traversing. Welcome to Florida Virtual School


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## TSOJOURNER

I used to work for a large school system in MD, and part of my job was to evaluate home school programs and make sure families were truly educating their kids, not just allowing them to stay home. The two most comprehensive programs I saw were Calvert for elem and middle, and Univ of Nebraska HS for high school. Just one person's opinion.


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## blt2ski

also check with your school district, as some, many around the puget sound area have home school programs within the district, and can set up the ciriculum while you are gone. 

I have 2 duaghters using local district programs, that is working a LOT better than when EE was deciding the program. It takes a lot of work from the parents to succeed!

Marty


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## tigerregis

About 3 years ago one of my dockmates sent their kid to be a midshipman. He was home schooled ex his Sr year in HS. His parents were educated formally, but chose the cruiser/liveaboard life. Sometime later I enquired of a mutual friend, how the kid made out. I was informed that 11 of the class were home schooled and that they stood out, heads above the regular HS graduates. Not only academically, but in life skills ie. tenacity, judgement, and getting along. Instilling virtue is the prime objective of any normal parent and if you have the modelling at hand, why fear the endeavour? Apprenticeship is still the best teacher with a proper mentor.


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## cruisingmom

Hello all I am back. I posted back in 2006, went on a years cruise, and hope to go out again. 
What we did was develop a curriculum with the help of our schools. The kdis did fine. I integrated alot of historical fiction related to the areas that we were traveling. Also a book called " What your fifth grader needs to know" for grades up to 6 HIGHLY recommended. Focused on reading, reading aloud, writing, math every day.
(P.s nothing against religion, made my kids study all. Visit churches, etc. Just wanted one a little less biased to one)

Now my problem is thus, we hope to head out again and have student in high school. A junior. serious stuff. I want to purchase a curriculum to be safe. Anyone out there with a high school they could recommend? I would like to avoid internet based, knowing how reception can be spotty.

P.s our canadian friends were able to access full curriculum from their schools. Check that out first if you are from Canada!


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## kd3pc

mom

the Calvert School (in Baltimore, MD) has a complete self contained - down to the paper and pencils course that we used for my son...was awesome.

check them out..

dave


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## gathhill

*Calvert?*



kd3pc said:


> mom
> 
> the Calvert School (in Baltimore, MD) has a complete self contained - down to the paper and pencils course that we used for my son...was awesome.
> 
> check them out..
> 
> dave


 I too am looking at possible H.S. curriculum for a sophmore. I thought Calvert was only K-8. I did find one called Nebraska H.S. I believe? Google it. Courses were around $260 per subject each. Probably a couple thousand a year for H.S. Seems a bit steep for me, but I haven't looked into it much before. Good luck.


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## Cruisingdad

cruisingmom said:


> Hello all I am back. I posted back in 2006, went on a years cruise, and hope to go out again.
> What we did was develop a curriculum with the help of our schools. The kdis did fine. I integrated alot of historical fiction related to the areas that we were traveling. Also a book called " What your fifth grader needs to know" for grades up to 6 HIGHLY recommended. Focused on reading, reading aloud, writing, math every day.
> (P.s nothing against religion, made my kids study all. Visit churches, etc. Just wanted one a little less biased to one)
> 
> Now my problem is thus, we hope to head out again and have student in high school. A junior. serious stuff. I want to purchase a curriculum to be safe. Anyone out there with a high school they could recommend? I would like to avoid internet based, knowing how reception can be spotty.
> 
> P.s our canadian friends were able to access full curriculum from their schools. Check that out first if you are from Canada!


Very nice of you to reply back.

Brian

PS Nice name! (No, fellow members, that is NOT my wife... I don't think!?)


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## Parclan

[email protected] said:


> We are planning a year long cruise with our three children (12, 10 and 4 yr old) and would greatly appreciate information from other cruisers regarding the home schooling process for the different grade levels. Do you purchase a cirriculum or make up your own, and recommendations for non-religious cirriculums to purchase for computer software as well
> Thanks


We can help! After 21 years of home schooling from K-12th w/ kids into great colleges, plus teaching our own special needs kid, plus severe learning disabled kids, plus normal kids, tutoring young adults, plus serving on various state and regional boards, plus we're sailors(!), we can give you a few pointers. We've probably used, tried, or seen much of the curriculum choices out there. PM us and we can answer questions or point you in the right direction. Hope we can help. Located in TX gulf coast.
CP


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## cruisingmom

*Parclan*

Thanks for your help. I will try to post a private message.

Right now looking at University of Nebraska for high school. and will be doing my own curriculum, with purchased materials for the younger grades.

I am reading alot about different learning styles and, truthfully, from my successes and failures of the last homeschooling year.
My eldest did well in her academic transition to high school, except for math, which is MY weakest area.

WE did a great deal of reading aloud, visiting museums together, and writing and math problems. One things the kids did develop was a curiosity and the ability to ask good questions. They developed a love of history, esp my middle child.

ONe thing I did poorly is that I skipped around a fair bit, thus I want to follow a planned out curriculum, even if I adapt it to the areas we are traveling. 
I had the kids study the history of each area, in text and historical fiction.

One other thing I did poorly was adapt to the learning needs of my middle son. He is bright but very active. He learns best in brief, pointed lessons, and he needs structure. Hands on, active experience works best for him, rather than a dirge of math problems, which is what I gave him.

I hope to do better this time.


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## cruisingmom

Thanks cruising dad ( for the record, we are not married! In fact my husband, since he and I share an email address, uses this name as well. )


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## Parclan

Got your PM and will try and respond


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## Parclan

If the PM won't work, I will respond here later today


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## sailingdog

One thing that might be a good resource for homeschooling on a boat is a DVD-ROM based encyclopedia. I just gave the Encyclopedia Britannica to my nephews....and it is very useful, especially since you don't need an on-line connection for it to work.


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## blt2ski

parcian,

You may need to get to "10"posts to respond to a pm, altho that might be doing links, and 4-5 posts for a pm. 

As far as home schooling goes, been there did that done that. My youngest is actually doing better in a school system program........but I will not go the rest of the way re what type and style, just do not do what folks call "unschooling" which is really no curriculum per say. 

Marty


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## Undine

Check this thread in the Living Aboard form, Kids Aboard.

Living Aboard Forums: Free Home schooling for livaboards


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## Parclan

Hi "Cruisingmom",
This is the other half of Parclan….mom. By way of further introduction, so you know where my experience comes from – we have seven kids, six boys and one girl. Ages 25 to 8. One is mildly dyslexic. One is severely dyslexic. One is ADD – this is a child who just now, at age 8, can attend to things that interest him for longer than 2 minutes – no exaggeration, and my daughter has Down Syndrome. The oldest 3 have graduated high school (home school). Our eldest received a congressional appointment to and was graduated from a federal academy. All 3 took dual credit college courses beginning in their junior year of high school and just sailed through (pun intended) college level work with no problems at all. You will be impressed at how many colleges today very actively seek home school kids.

I’ll put this response in 3 pieces since it is rather long. Here is part 1:

Teaching Textbooks is an excellent math program for us math challenged parents (or those who can’t remember that far back!) It is quite thorough, written specifically with home schooling families in mind (assumes NO prior knowledge or teacher present), and has the option of the student following the textbook for explanation, or ‘watching’ the lesson (it’s like watching a power point presentation) on the computer from a CD – no internet required. 
My kids liked it, even my math averse son, because it is sort of light-hearted and unintimidating in presentation. That doesn’t mean it is not sound teaching, just presented in a friendly manner. Each practice problem and ‘homework’ problem, along with the test problems are worked out, in case the student needs to see where he went wrong.
We used Algebra I, II, and Geometry. Now they have multiple lower levels as well. It isn’t high-tech graphics by any stretch of the imagination – simple layout without much distracting stuff on the page. That was a plus for us.
Your middle son might like MathUSee, which uses manipulatives to teach concepts, along with an instructional DVD. It might be a bit of a challenge to start mid-stream with MUS, because it covers topics in a non-traditional order, but wiggly, active learners typically like it. We use this in the younger grades. Personally, I prefer a traditional textbook, but then, I’m not the student MUS is out of my comfort zone, but I feel okay with it because of the DVD.


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## Parclan

Part2:
It sounds like you did a great job in incorporating your travels with their studies. Smart move! I think that’s a positive reason to skip around. We get a lot of bang for our buck when we take advantage of learning something that is relevant at the moment.

You mentioned that you do a lot of reading aloud, with a focus on history. Even though you prefer a non-sectarian curriculum, I would still check out Sonlight. It is written from a Christian perspective, but you could easily disregard the Bible portion and any discussion questions that relate what is being read to a Biblical issue. 
It is literature based with high interest books – usually Newberry or other classic literature. Good prompts for discussion, good prompts for writing about what you’re reading. Easily used by an older student for self-directed study. Mom just eliminates any assignments she doesn’t like. Lots of material……by that I mean if you did everything, you could easily cover more than a typical year’s worth of study. It is very well laid out for someone to pick it up and go. The readers are usually easily found a used book stores, Goodwill, etc. 

Sonlight is also adaptable to various age levels covering the same topic at the same time. Their website can be sort of intimidating, so I’d suggest getting the catalog to read first. If nothing else, the catalog is an excellent resource for suggestions on great books to read.


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## Parclan

And Part 3:
Institute for Excellence in Writing is a super, super writing program. The biggest downside is that is requires that the parent invest some time in watching the instructional DVD’s (6 of them), but it is well worth the time. We’ve used our share of writing programs, and this one covers all ages, you don’t have to have special textbooks, and I especially like the fact that the gentleman on the video understands why kids often don’t like to write. This one scores as my favorite writing curriculum. It does not give you specific daily lesson plans. I like this fact because I have the kids write about whatever we’re studying in science, history, or literature. They do have an additional program available that gives daily lesson plans, called Student Writing Intensive or Theme Based Writing.

Calvert is the granddaddy of all home schooling curriculum. We used it for multiple kids for a couple of years and loved it, but it has been a while, so I can’t really speak about it from experience any longer. Back then, it was excellent. Non-sectarian. Wonderful teacher’s manual. It only goes to 8th grade, so it wouldn’t be appropriate for your daughter. I wouldn’t recommend it for an active boy, unless you took it in small bites.

Texas Tech and University of Texas also have correspondence high school programs that might be worth your consideration for your daughter.

Good luck out there!


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## cruisingmom

Thank you thank you thank you thank you!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
You have my admiration for your successes!
I will check out both the teaching textbooks and the writing instruction. Thank you so very very much for your time.!!!!!!!


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## Schleprock

Tons of resources out there


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