Full-timing it with teenagers?? Are we crazy?

[wanderlustfam]

We are considering packing up and going full time as a family of 5 and our dog. We have always homeschooled so that is not an issue, my work schedule is on 2 weeks off 2 weeks. So we would have to stay at a RV park near work half of the time and travel the other 2 weeks. Not very many people are approving of this idea, mostly due to them thinking we are traumatizing our kids. We would be moving from a 3000 sf house into either a 5th wheel or possibly class A- thor and newmar both have toy haulers we are considering. Have we lossed our adult minds and just living in a dream? Our kids think it would be awesome and are all adventurous and love the outdoors. But reality is we are all used to luxury and space. I'm concerned what happens if we regret it, we can't get our home back. Any advice for someone who desperately has wanderlust and we are all ready to pack up, put the sign in the yard, and go. BUT the what if's have us hesitant.

Also would love some full-timers with kids advice, is it a struggle? class A or 5th wheel? What are some must haves in a RV when living full time?

[Aridon]

Heh, all I have to say is ignore the nay sayers and do whatever you guys want to do. We have done it, loved it and may go back to it after going back into a house for some time. Just so happened that home prices here shot up, we sold, RV'd for 8 years and came back in after the massive crash. Now that prices are high we are thinking about it again.

Home is where you make it. That can be an RV, a home, a shack that 8 kids share a bedroom like many of the old farts here grew up with worse. So there is no "normal" and quite frankly what is normal for many people is not for us.

There is nothing wrong with home schooling your kids and traveling. Make sure to socialize them with groups, which the Internet these days makes trivial and enjoy the time on the road, in a home or wherever you go.

[K_and_I]

Families On The Road

Kellogg Family

[Walaby]

From my perspective, home schooling is only one aspect of what OP wants to do. Important for sure, but the whole plan of two weeks out, two weeks back, jumping around, living in confined quarters with 5 people and pet, is another big aspect of it.

I find it amazing how many people think that just because they did it for a week or two at a time, and that time was great, that somehow, magically, the full time lifestyle will be just as great, all the time. There's another thread where a guy wants to do a similar thing (home school not part of it). Wants to live in the RV full time with wife, baby and three dogs, work a week, off a week. Looking at Class C size RV. Thinks because he spent time on a 70 ft boat for a couple of weeks with some other couples that it'll be just fine.

Here's the deal.. if people (in general, not just OP) don't want the opinions of others, then they ought not ask the question. Just go do it. If you (the generic you) post a question, you will get an opinion, that is just the way it is. When you change the facts and the assumptions, then the opinions will change. But don't get butt-hurt because you didn't get the answer you wanted to hear from everyone. No one ever gets a consensus, and rarely do you get even a plurality of opinions supporting one decision or another. So, just go do it and be done with it if that's what you want to do.

I do agree that home schooling, done correctly, can and usually is, better than certainly the public schools. And, there is ample opportunity in a STABLE living environment to make friends and have a social life. RV lifestyle in a nomadic existence is not a stable lifestyle for a child/teenager. Gypsies beget gypsies.

Mike

[DutchmenSport]

Wow! I empathize with the OP on this one. Folks sure seem to be cruel here with their responses.

We've run into many, many families that home school their kids. I've worked with some of their parents at my 9-5 job. We've been invited to their homes, .... um ... and their transient homes (campers) for those full timing it with kids ...

We did not home school our own kids. They were in public school all the way through. We've also followed our kids friends from school over the years and kept up on their progress in life. Some have been successful, some are a big disappointment in their (now) adult lives. They were too busy trying to impress their friends, get one step ahead of someone else, putting on false images, living up to everyone elses standards, and never could find their own identities because they were always trying to fit into some group or something. And most of the time, none of them were good enough for the group. They had the "haves" and the "have-nots" with every group, and this begins even in kindergarten. No wonder kids are miserable these days and turn to brainless, sensless, mindless activities like drowning themselves in computer and video games, and alcohol drinking, early sexual activities, and even criminal activity. Call THAT "socialization"??

But looking back at the life-styles of both groups of kids, the one observation I do have to give to home school kids (and I think all of them shared this common characteristic ... am I profiling? well ... maybe yes?)... The bottom line is... ALL the home school kids I've met over the years were gosh-dang-knee-slapping-excited-happy kids. Unlike so many of my kids friends brought up in a traditional public school, who appeared to never really display that same kind of joy and zest for life.

I use to be cynical of home schooling. I don't think I'd have the patients to do it myself. But from everything I've seen and the families I've met, it's a successfully way to raise kids and educate them. From an RV experience ... oh my! What a way to experience a childhood. And for what it's worth .... socialization is not all it's cracked up to be. Far to many of our "socialized" kids turn out to be drug addicts, engage in criminal activity, surround themselves with their own level of "friends" - some redneck - some snobbish - some criminal, and who do you think teaches these kids to become bullies? - ... you call THAT socialization? Opposed to living in the city and suburbs ... yea! I think kids living on the road from the back of an RV spares them a LOT of hurt in this world and grow up with a lot of love and happiness from everyone around them.

[2gypsies1]

I agree. Home-schooled children do extremely well in college. Here is only one of many articles on it.

http://www.usnews.com/education/high-schools/articles/2012/06/01/home-schooled-teens-ripe-for-colleg...

[KKWilliams]

tomman58 wrote:

Hog wash at best. If you live in Mississippi the worst state for education OK but anywheres else .... get a life and save your kids from YOU!

My kids are doing fine, thanks for the judgement.

[tomman58]

KKWilliams wrote:
Why is anyone's feather's getting ruffled over this? Are we all supposed to say everything the right way the first time? Give all the pertinent information up front? If it was a technical issue most people would ask clarifying questions, like about the TV, TT or 5ver. Here its a lifestyle question and no one is afforded that courtesy?

For those of you unaware homeschooling is a growing trend in the USA. Statistically homeschool kids outperform traditionally schooled kids on standardized testing for admittance into college. Road schooling is a subculture within homeschooling that allows families to travel to different places usually connected to something the kids are studying. However one of the continued criticisms homeschoolers get is socialization, usually from people who don't know our family or our kids. I don't open that up to conversation with others particularly when posting because we always get a lot of what we see in this thread. The OP shouldn't have asked that as part of the question I agree, but I don't think anything he did deserves the condemnation I see following this. To the person calling this a Soap Opera the OP posted 4 times, and had to respond to someone saying he may be attempting to control his children.

Hog wash at best. If you live in Mississippi the worst state for education OK but anywheres else .... get a life and save your kids from YOU!

[KKWilliams]

Why is anyone's feather's getting ruffled over this? Are we all supposed to say everything the right way the first time? Give all the pertinent information up front? If it was a technical issue most people would ask clarifying questions, like about the TV, TT or 5ver. Here its a lifestyle question and no one is afforded that courtesy?

For those of you unaware homeschooling is a growing trend in the USA. Statistically homeschool kids outperform traditionally schooled kids on standardized testing for admittance into college. Road schooling is a subculture within homeschooling that allows families to travel to different places usually connected to something the kids are studying. However one of the continued criticisms homeschoolers get is socialization, usually from people who don't know our family or our kids. I don't open that up to conversation with others particularly when posting because we always get a lot of what we see in this thread. The OP shouldn't have asked that as part of the question I agree, but I don't think anything he did deserves the condemnation I see following this. To the person calling this a Soap Opera the OP posted 4 times, and had to respond to someone saying he may be attempting to control his children.

[doxiemom11]

I have never talked to someone who was raised in the military life who enjoyed moving all the time, having to make new friends at each place or who enjoyed having no roots. As a matter of fact the people I have known longed to establish roots, and once they did, they had no interest in any more moving. Maybe I just haven't met the group that liked that kind of lifestyle as a child/teen.

[Old-Biscuit]

RENT AN RV...GO FOR 2 WEEK TRIP SEE HOW ALL 5 ENJOY <240sqft

BYE!

[GordonThree]

Haha, this thread is five pages now. Reading it is like watching a Soap Opera

[darsben1]

To the OP I am sorry I gave you my honest opinion which you asked for. I will be blocking your posts so I do not see them anymore as you keep adding information and changing scenarios.
BYe BYe

[ro_sie]

^5 toedtoes. I think I will amble on out with you.

[toedtoes]

Well, when you change the scenario with each and every post, and change your original question each time (from "are we crazy" to "should we rent the house out"), it makes it impossible for others to provide advice. With that, I'll sign off this one and leave it to you to figure out.