Why the big trip??

Many people are probably wondering- what are we doing?? Loading up a 34 foot camper, going halfway across the country with 3 kids, being gone for a month, sounds crazy!!

I agree!! 

But why are we doing it??

This trip has been in the works for years. Matt has always wanted to make a big trip with the family.  When he was younger, his family took two trips to Florida.  They drove both times.  Matt has always said that those were the best memories of his childhood and he wants to do the same for his kids.

Three things played into our decision to go this year.

1.  Pets. We had always wanted to go, but we didn't want to take our dog along and we didn't really want to take her to a kennel, so we never went.  Unfortunately, we had to put our dog down in April, so we don't have a pet to worry about anymore (well, except for Courtney's fish!)

2.  Matt's job.  Matt has always worked in an office until this year.  For the past six months, he has worked from home and I think he is going to continue to work from home the next six months.  Because of this, he is able to work from the road.  He purchased a hot spot and is going to work about 20 hours a week from the camper.  Again, we would not be able to be gone so long if worked at an office.

3.  School.  As many of you know, we homeschool and absolutely love it!!  One of the many things we love about it is the flexibility we have when it comes to scheduling.  Who says we need to follow the public school calendar?? The law states that my children need to go to school 1032 hours between July 1st and June 31st of the following year.  With this being said, we did two weeks of school in July and August and we will pick it back up when we get home.  I think we will be going to school until June 31st of next year!

All three of these things lined up and Matt and I decided to jump on this great opportunity to take a trip.

But why the east coast? We threw around many ideas.  East Coast, Florida, Grand Canyon, etc. We decided to go big and stay on the road awhile.  We finally decided on the east coast because of what we are studying in American History with Megan's curriculum.  Last year we studied American history from the Native Americans until 1850( this year we will be covering 1850 until modern times.)  We learned all about the colonies, Jamestown, Pilgrims, Puritans, Boston Tea Party and the Revolutionary War. We then learned about how they wrote the Constitution in Philadelphia and how it rules our country.  When we ended our study last year, we were learning about the homesteaders and the great migration across the country.

Because of all this, we decided to head to the east coast and check out all these sites. Another reason we are heading there is for me. :)  It has been my dream since about 3rd grade to see the Statue of Liberty, we are finally going there!!! I told Matt that if that is all we do in New York City, then I will be happy.  Matt's wants to go to the east coast to see the ocean- he says the ocean is absolutely beautiful! We have studied a lot about animals, so I think it will be awesome to walk along the seashore and find animals and study them.  We may even bring a few home, who knows!

And of course, we will be learning about geography, math, English, and everything else along the way.

As somebody said, this will be an "education vacation!"