Learning On The Road Through The Eyes Of A 10 Year Old
When you are traveling it is hard to go to a school, so we (Susan, Lucy, Edmund and I) get homeschooled. It can occasionally be boring, but most of the time it is fun.
Three times when we’ve stopped for a while we have a look a the schools and stay for a couple of weeks. Then when we are back travelling we go back to homeschooling. Homeschooling usually is very fun. Occassionally we get to use the computer or ipad to go on maths or spelling games. By doing this, I’ve got to be good at my maths, as well as Susan.
Sometimes we do a spelling test. I like them, but Susan doesn’t really like them (Susan: Liar! I do like them! Liar liar pants on fire!). Because of our homeeschooling, Susan and I have gotten to know Latin. Latin is an ancient language that was spoken by the Romans. We’ve learnt how to make each other angry by calling each other names in Latin. Mum and Dad send us to bed when we do this, but other than that it’s usually pretty funny.
At Andamooka, I was telling everyone about it and when I told people that a single word could aggrevate me from Susan she started calling me “puella” (girl), “fenestra” (window) and “porta” (gate) and the other kids and teachers were laughing so much that there weren’t white faces, just red faces from laughing so hard. After that, all the boys were calling the girls “puers” (boys) and the girls were calling the boys puellas. Mum’s just got us a book called “How to insult, abuse, and insinuate in Classical Latin”, and I’ve been calling Susan a “mala pituita nasi” (nasty snot-nose) so she’s been calling me “foetorem extremaz latrinas” (You are the stench of a low-life latrine!).
When we are doing school, my favourite subjects are geography, history, and science. It really fascinates me to think how people like Thomas Alva Eddison can invent things like the light bulb when no one had even seen one before. I like it that he annoyed his teachers when he was my age by asking his teachers questions that they couldn’t answer like “Can we change water into electricity?” When we are learning about history, which is usually in the car while we are travelling, we will put on an audiobook and listen to it. The audiobooks we listen to for this are things like “Who Was … “, “Sterling Biographies …” and “Modern Scholar … ” from Audible.com.
We learn science by listening to audiobooks like the “Modern Scholar …” and some of the audio biographies about famous scientists and their discoveries like Albert Einstein, Thomas Alva Eddison, and Alexander Graham Bell. We also chat about things when we notice them. My grandmother was surprised that I could talk to her about how the trucks tail-gate each other to stay in the slipstream to get less wind resistance and friction so they use less fuel.
We usually use school books for Latin, spelling, story writing, and maths. For maths we use the Math U See blocks and books, and the Right Start books. For Latin, we use little books with worksheets in them (Mum: Latin For Children), and for spelling we use the Spell To Write and Read book, and I am up to list P3.
I’ve been surprised to learn by travelling that the desert can be so green. I would never have guessed living in Melbourne that it could be so green, I always thought that it would be browny-black (Susan: Why don’t you use the words grey and bleak for it, Peter?) with a bit of red dust. It’s particularly green at the moment because of the rainfall. There are some little water channels that wouldn’t normally be here, but are here because of the flooding. At Uluru, I was surprized that there were waterholes around it, and I got to see it with so many waterfalls coming off it. Also, I got to see the rock-art that the Aborigines had made thousands of years before and were still in great condition.
Peter has since started blogging at Adventurous Childhood his own website, partly for fun, and partly for his education.
Latest posts by Peter (see all)
- Peter’s View On Homeschooling - May 28, 2011
- A Child’s Thoughts On Fulltime Travel - May 21, 2011
I love Peters view of homeschooling. I travelled for 10 years in a campervan with my family from ages 5-15 and would have much preferred to be home schooled. Instead we were put into the local school at each stop. I got to meet a lot of kids I suppose. Your children sound like they are really learning a lot and I love the way you are using such a wide array of tools to make it interesting for them.
Twitter: livinontheroad
says:
I listened to them on the phone last night to Grandma. “What have you been doing for school lately?” “Oh, not much. Mum just assigned us this book, and we had to do a little maths. But not much.” I know they are learning, but they aren’t realising it.
Nice! It’s so interesting to see what they point out (the funny, silly stuff). Sounds so like my 10yo son!
Twitter: livinontheroad
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Yes, it would be nice if they noticed the beautiful as well as the silly :)
Great writing Peter. I just learnt some Latin from you but you didn’t tell us how you can use if in everyday English. You are learning a lot.
Twitter: livinontheroad
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I’ll answer as his mother instead of handballing this one to him: They use it primarily to insult each other. They apply it to English generally when I’m not expecting it. When they saw the word maritime they linked that to the Latin word mar for ocean.
Peter, I am so glad you like travel as much as you do. My daughter Kiera also gets carsick sometimes, so that isn’t fun. What has been the best thing about living in the campervan?
Usually when I get carsick it is because I am reading so I ask Mum to put on an audiobook.
The best thing about living in a campervan is that we can go almost anywhere and still be at home. If I get hungry, I can just go into the campervan and get something instead of having to wait or buy something.
My children are only in their 3rd year of homeschooling, but I have much too look forward to seeing what a bright boy you are!
Thank you. I’ve been homeschooling for four years.
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Excellent blog! My wife homeschooled our three teenage sons before we left on our around the world trek, so they were able to take a year off. They liked that a lot. We spent two months in Australia and enjoyed every minute. Safe travels and keep learning. As I always like to say, “Travel is the ultimate education.” You and your siblings and Morgan, Zach and Harrison are living proof.
Hey guys, just wondering what place you get your school resources from? (books)
Twitter: livinontheroad
says:
We generally get the books from the kindle store http://amzn.to/mT4VVG if they are available or audible or librivox if they are audiobooks … or at least, that’s for the books that we use that are for a Charlotte Mason-like program from somewhere like amblesideonline.com . Others we generally get straight from the person who writes it … Classical Writing, Latin for Children, RightStart and MathUSee we all get directly from the publisher.
He is so clever – I love how they are using Latin words to communicate. Sure beats schooling anyday Love it xx.
Thank you. Latin is interesting to learn.
Great post! I love to read about different HS journeys through the eyes of the student!
Thank you.
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I suspect my Latin-loving child would LOVE that book!
Maddy’s newest obsession: German. She wants to learn German.
I bet she would if she likes Latin, but try not to give it to her or she’ll be insulting people in Latin. Peter.
Great post, Peter! You express yourself very well. Teaching my kids to insult each other in a different language might just be what it takes to get them interested in learning Spanish! I look forward to reading more of your posts.
I learnt Latin because Latin is one of the mother tongues and it can help you learn more other languages. That makes it easier for me to learn more languages later. Peter.
Nicely done Peter, and to you for your interjections, Susan You gave hubby and I a chuckle.
Thank you, Peter
Love reading about your perspective on being homeschooled! Sounds like you are having quite the adventure! I hope you make another guest appearance on the blog….you did a great job
Thank you, and I’ll try to make another appearance on the blog. Peter.
Hey Peter
Kids have the most exotic and innocent view about anything. When i was a kid I had similar questions in mind like u have. You have presented this post wonderfully well. Look forward to more stuff from you.