Boat Schooling

It’s funny when we meet new people on the dock or in our dingy the first thing that always comes up is: “do you homeschool?” Some people look at us like they are ready to report us to child services. Our kids are all below school age but yes, we homeschool. I follow the Sonlight curriculum for Kindergarten. Both girls learn at the same time, when needed I supplement Wag’s worksheets with more age appropriate ones from Kumon or other PreK books. We’re not a religious family but I do like we have the opportunity to teach our kids about God with Sonlight, we will also be teaching them about other religions so they can make their own decision's on the subject

I was so scared of taking the leap into homeschooling but now that I have started I’m so glad. I’m such a proud mumma when my girls take something we’ve learnt in school time into the outside world or include it in everyday conversation.

Wags: “mumma the vacuum is a potato (tornado), it sucks everything up!”

Pri: “yeah but it doesn’t spit it out, so it’s not really a tornado”

Even though our girls are only (almost) 5 and 3 they are extremely interested in learning and LOVE “school time” in the mornings. I want to ease them into learning so we do 1-2 hours every morning. I know you must be thinking they’re way too young to be forced into structured learning but I’m no strict school mistress. If they aren’t into it or tired we skip it or pick out some fun stuff and leave the more technical sections, like handwriting for another day. I also follow through with the rest of the day pointing out letters and having the girls tell Carl over lunch what they learnt today. We also do field trips to museums and take the classroom outside to the beach. Everyday and every moment is a learning experience onboard Salty.