We all have our favorite authors who write about far away places. We can study History, Geography, Art, Culture from books, movies, the internet and that's great. But there is nothing quite like actually going to those places. Imagine the possibilities if you take your homeschool on the road. We have done just that -many times. There are many of us who take their homeschooling "on the road". Over the years I have met them. They are at highway rest stops, marinas, camp grounds, airports, train stations. You know them when you see them, when you engage in conversation with them. They will be some of the most interesting people you have ever met. They are the people who will tell you about the "good stuff".

You don't need to be a jet setter to add travel to your curriculum. You just need imagination and determination. I once edited and produced a homeschool support group newsletter where I rarely received contributions from the other members, so instead of sending out a slim two page newsletter for the 12 dollars everyone spent, I filled it with what I thought were interesting topics that were local, regional and national. One item was about an Art show where a rather large collection of Impressionist Art was going to be displayed at a museum that was in another state and would have taken 8 hours to drive to see it. A comment from one of the members of the group was that they didn't like to see items like that because it made them feel bad that some group members may not be able to go to things like that. I understood the sentiment, but needless to say I didn't understand the idea behind keeping an item like that out of the newsletter for the reason stated. Just the idea of travel inspires the imagination towards possibilities.

There are plenty of people who make a living telling other people how to travel economically, OK, cheap. There are even more who will tell you how to spend a lot of money on travel. But it really gets down to how brave you really are. Do you need to insulate your experience with expensive amenities? Do snakes really bother you? Can you deal with a place that doesn't speak the language you do? There are degrees of bravery and with each adventure, you can chip away another fear. The most important question to ask yourself: Are you willing to be one of those who take fullest advantage of the beauty of homeschooling by actually going to the places that many school children only read about? If you answered "yes", then perhaps you aren't the armchair tourist you thought you were. You just need an idea and the will to go. The rest will fall into place, I guarantee it.

Below are the notes I have managed to keep and how I have blended the travel with the schooling. I have seen my student grow in many ways in our travels. We travel "cheap", we travel expensively. Sometimes we travel to a place to do nothing more than - nothing. We take our travel very seriously. You won't find tips on how to budget or plan your travel here, I'll leave that to your imagination. I just hope to inspire you to add travel to your curriculum.