The Pros and Cons of Road Schooling

Road schooling is one of the best ways that you can educate your children. Letting your children explore the world around them can be fun, exciting and educational for them.

As parents, it is important to keep in mind that learning can happen anywhere and especially out of a classroom. If your family can afford it, then consider taking an extended road trip or even an RV trip with your family.

My family and I are currently on an RV trip with no end in sight. We initially decided we’ll be gone a year but we are loving it so much we don’t plan to stop anytime soon.

Before reading the pros and cons of roadschooling below, make sure to read “What Is Roadschooling and How To Roaschool Your Kids“. It’ll give you a better understanding and foundation of what roadschooling is.

The Pros and Cons of Road Schooling

Pros of Road Schooling

If you are still on the fence about road schooling, here is why you should jump in:

1. Road schooling extends the learning environment for the child beyond books. Every place you visit, every interaction is a learning opportunity.

2. Road schooling allows children a hands-on learning experience. Instead of reading about things in text books, your children get a chance to see these things in person.

3. Road schooling allows traveling families to bond and have a better parent and child dynamic. When you spend all day everyday in a close environment with your child, your relationship tends to be grow stronger.

4. Road schooling gives parents a significant role in shaping their children’s education. As a parent and teacher, you get to decide what to expose your children to and what to teach them as well.

5. Road schooling allows parents to protect their children from toxic school environment and influence from things like drugs and bullying.

6. Road schooling allows you to be creative with your children’s education, trying out new things and figuring out what works for them and what doesn’t.

7. Road schooling teaches your children adaptability. They’ll learn to meet new people, live in new places, try new foods, experience different cultures, deal with travel delays and more.

8. Road schooling will teach your children minimalism. It’ll allow them to learn to live with little and be content with what they have.

9. Road schooling allows children to spend more time outdoors – hiking, biking, playing and just being kids versus in front of electronics devices all day everyday.

10. Road schooling will allow your children to make life long friends of all ages from all over the world. Some of these friendships and connections will be extremely beneficial as they get older as your children will have a wide net of friends.

Cons of Road Schooling

As much as road schooling is great, it is not for everyone. Road schooling has certain concerns every parent needs to be aware of before getting started.

1. The constant movement doesn’t always allow children the opportunity to make permanent friends hence which may be hard on their social interaction.

2. Road schooled children “may” miss on the opportunity to mingle and learn to associate with other school-going children. I say may because this isn’t always true.

3. Road schooling students in some states are not allowed to participate in extracurricular activities with school-going kids. This limits their chances of harnessing talents in sports, art, or otherwise.

4. Compared to public schools, road schooling lacks comprehensive structure.

5. Road schooling limits the milestone achievements celebration to just immediate family. Student miss out on awards, graduation, and recognition ceremonies organized in schools.

6. Road schoolers may have limited learning resources available as compared to school-goers.

7. Taking on a teaching role in addition to parenting can be too demanding and stressful for travelling families.

Bottom line on road schooling

Road schooling isn’t for everyone, however these are good pros and cons to consider when thinking about doing it.

For our family, road schooling has been an absolute joy. Aiden loves meeting new friends, traveling the U.S. and learning about everything hands on.

For every single con I have listed above, I could think about why that would be a pro for us. Aiden has made so many friends, and my husband and I have made so many friends as well. Way more than we ever had when we lived in our home.

We recently met up with several other roadschooling / full time RV families for a few weeks in Orlando during which we had several get togethers. One of them was this soup potluck – photo below.

As you can see, the full time RV community is quite a big one, and they love to get together.

I personally highly recommend it, even if it’s just for a week or even a summer! For us, the pros of road schooling outweigh the cons by far!