As we are traveling across Canada, we’ve been roadschooling with Ethan. Roadschooling is like homeschooling, except that every day is a field trip. It doesn’t mean we are visiting museums and historical sites every day. For us, it means experiencing new things in new places and adapting to a new set of circumstances wherever we are.
Video to come!
Morning
Roadschooling in a VW Westfalia while driving across Canada is challenging, but mostly because we’re not always sure if we’re doing enough, or even doing it “right.” One thing we added were a couple of workbooks and a math book, which I talked about previously, because Ethan loves math.
The math book has been working out well, so far, as Ethan grabbed it as soon as he got up this morning. That’s a pretty clear sign that he likes it, so we need to find other material that he’s equally excited about.
One way that the roadschooling has been helpful is meeting new friends, like Dan and Loretta. We chatted with them in the morning to see what their plans were. Ethan has been so happy to see them each day.
They were going to cross over into Nova Scotia and tour the coastal area around New Glasgow, while we had an oil change appointment at Brown’s Volkswagen in Charlottetown before going onto the ferry, too.
While performing the oil change, the service tech at Brown’s VW noticed that Juju Jr.’s serpentine belt had cracks in it. The serpentine belt controls the power steering and alternator, among other critical engine functions. The alternator charges the batteries, so we didn’t want to take a chance that the belt would break somewhere on our journey.
That gave me time to finish up some work and Ethan finished making his sign for Juju Jr. to let people know that we’re driving across Canada.
Another thing Ethan worked on was building a bridge from a single piece of paper. He folded the paper in a triangle shape to make it rigid enough to support the weight of the VW Westfalia toy van we got from the dealer.
He learned this from a magic trick video he saw on YouTube. It was cool to see him apply what he learned in a different context to a new situation.
Once Juju Jr. had been fixed up, we also managed to get a couple of gifts from Brown’s VW, which we absolutely love.
And finally, in Charlottetown, New Brunswick, after traveling over 6,000 kilometres, we let people know that we’re driving across Canada.
Afternoon
We knew that PEI was a beautiful place, so we looked for somewhere to have lunch. We found a nice quiet spot by the water with the famous red sand of PEI.
Ethan loves these kinds of places because there is always something new to discover and play with. In this case, he picked up some foam from the sea and liked how it blew away in the wind. Ethan also caught a grasshopper because he loves bugs.
For us, it was just great to be in a quiet spot on our own to have a sandwich and enjoy the view.
Ferry Time
PEI was wonderful, but we wanted to keep moving and catch the ferry to Nova Scotia. On board, we enjoyed the last couple of pieces of Loretta’s pumpkin pie and the peanut butter and chocolate chip cookies we got from the market.
Ethan spent some time reading his math book, then he and Dong Eun took a bunch of selfies out on the deck.
Evening
We thought PEI was beautiful, but so is Nova Scotia. We arrived a bit late, so we wanted to find a Walmart before it got too dark. As usual, it was getting dark before we pulled into the parking lot.
But as luck would have it, Dan and Loretta came to the same Walmart. We were meant to be friends, I guess. Ethan was very excited, of course.
Before dinner, Ethan wanted to draw some birds using some instructions he found online.
Life on the road for Ethan has been a constant learning experience and it’s been a fantastic way for all of us to make new friends.
If you’re just reading this blog for the first time, we are a family of three traveling across Canada (and likely beyond) in a 1994 VW Westfalia camper van called Juju Jr. Our son Ethan, age 9, is unschooling and so we want him to learn from being on the road and traveling. So he’s also now a roadschooler and we are documenting the trip and his learning on this blog.
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