Homeschooling in an RV

We have officially become RV owners (again) which = we are Homeschooling in an RV! Being a family of 5 takes its toll on the budget when it comes to vacations. Everything is 2 rooms, 2 cabins, 2 this, 2 that. When we ran into a snafu at Easter time, we had to rework our plans which lead me to mention “it would be nice to have our rv again.” That lead to a journey to find the best suited one for us. Prior to this cute camper, we owned a 26′ travel trailer that weighed almost 8,000 lbs. We only had one child at the time. It was over the top for sure. When it came to this purchase, we wanted something lightweight, easy to pull by both vehicles or a rental, and that had the necessities (i.e.- a slide, air conditioning, bathroom, and storage). Amazingly, we found it in this little bit of fun. Meet our 2016 Clipper Classic 1285SST. If you count the two beds on the ends, our RV Living space is less than 175 square feet.

Homeschooling in an RV

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Less than 175 sq. ft. of living (homeschooling) space!

LL&L RV

Check out this amazing location we found!

Welcome to Miami!

You can’t even see part of the RV because it is covered in lush landscaping.

Hola la casa de la suegra. (Hello Mother-in-Law’s House).

RV Living!

LL&L RV Image3 Excuse these crummy photos (poor lighting with a cell phone).

 

I am pretty sure the bees were just trying to make me happy, but they all did their work without whining or pushing back. Vacation makes my crew lazy and they don’t always want to work. They knew that if they wanted to have a good time and enjoy hanging out with their cousins and friends then they had to get it done. And done correctly. So how does a typical day work for us? Thanks to the canvas lining, we were awake pretty early. Well Marty and I were. We weren’t on the side with all the lush trees. Their side was dark and ours was light. However, the kids started moving earlier than normal. They immediately got dressed. We had breakfast (mostly Cheerios because it is easier). We have a 3 burner gas stove (the bananas are sitting on the cover for it in the photo below). Neither one of us wanted to use the stove in the morning so cereal was the go-to. They brushed their teeth afterwards and the school day begins. We do a complete run down of work like we do in our house. There is no changes to it. I have found the bees do their work faster in the rv than they do in the house. I may park the rv in the driveway and teach in there if it gets our days running smoothly. Watch out neighbors!

5 people with 175 sq. ft.?

LL&L RV Image Layout

Interested in our layout? With the beds and slide completely out, we have about 175 square feet. That number is counting the bed’s square footage as well. Each end has a king size bed. The mattresses are heated and help for those chilly nights when the furnace or space heater will be too warm. Currently, all three bees can sleep comfortably on a king. Marty and I sleep on the other. Depending on the night, we will switch it up to watch movies with the kids. Then it’s a sleep wherever you land type of situation. The table is fairly large. It accommodates us all. They store their school work in the storage below the seats. This part is huge. There is storage all over the place. We are very organized when it comes to living in less than 175sq ft. You have to be. I feel like I could be a spokesperson for IKEA. Seriously. If you follow my Homeschooling On The Go posts, then you read that we use only a book bag to transport all of the work the kids will need. It has to fit inside the book bag for any of this to work. We wouldn’t be able to function on the road or in such a tight space with papers and textbooks everywhere.

Where do we go? This is a very recent purchase for us. We picked this baby up on April 7th. We loaded up immediately and headed for fun. Our first stop was Cocoa Beach (east coast of Florida). We hadn’t planned to stop there but it seemed fun for the kids. We’ve been before but the beach is always cool. And they wanted to stop at the Ron Jon Surf Shop. After our first night in the rv, we packed up and went on to Miami. We were there for 5 days. Cocoa Beach taught us a lot about pop ups that we didn’t know. Miami was where we fine tuned our living arrangements and really made the “tight space” work. I put that in quotes but in reality, it wasn’t tight. I never felt like we were squeezed in there. At one point, we had 9 people in there at the same time. We all fit without it being tight.

Pop up campers are not popular in Miami…

Pop up campers are not popular in the south due to the humidity. They are definitely not popular in Miami. We had people stop by to see it. Some were curious about the price or maybe they wanted to buy it. That I am not too sure of that situation still. People would drive by slowly and back again. It was funny. We parked our camper in my mother-in-law’s yard. That was for a few reasons.
  • One: we didn’t pay to stay there. But most places range from $25-$75 a night (depending on location, season, the type of amenities, etc.).
  • Two: it is completely fenced in and the gate is locked. We didn’t have to worry about anything because it was inside the property.
  • Three: Have you see the landscaping? That made it worth it completely.
  • Four: It is centrally located to everyone and everything we wanted or needed to do while there.
  • Five: I don’t have a five.
A side note: We didn’t have any internet access. Okay, we had our phones. But we had no way of using our computer to get work done. It wasn’t awful but it was interesting. I didn’t blog or do much on social media that week. I found myself coloring in adult coloring books, spending more quality time with my bees, and pouring in to their schoolwork.

When you have limited space and no distractions, life with the bees is richer.

  LL&L RV Image2

Read about Coachmen Clipper Classic 1285SST’s!

 

 

The giveaway has ended. To enter, just fill out the Rafflecopter form below.  I know that sometimes these giveaways may seem a little overwhelming with all of the entries, but we try our best to keep them to a minimum all the while still being able to giveaway some great prizes.  Just remember that these bloggers are putting forth their own money in order to give away these prizes and just as we hope to bless you, you are blessing us in return by visiting our blogs and entering.  Thank you and Happy Mother’s Day!   a Rafflecopter giveaway This giveaway is open to U.S. residents only.  Selected winners will have 48 hours to respond to email notification to claim their prizes or another winner will be drawn. Colors and models of prizes may vary from pictures.  Giveaway ends May 7th at 11:59pm EDT.

4 Comments

  1. Thanks so much for the giveaway – What a great prize. To answer the giveaway question – I was 20 when I first became a mom and my husband and I have 4 children. So I totally get the having to get 2 hotel rooms when you travel thing 🙂 We bought a camper last year and it has made vacationing so much more affordable for our family.

  2. Jackie Creese says:

    I was 21 years old when I had my first little girl and I was young and dumb!!! LOL, now I have 3 little girls, 14 years later and I am 6 weeks pregnant with 4th baby! Now, I can say, I am a “seasoned mom”. lol

  3. This was a great idea! Having homeschooling in an RV requires a little extra work. This was all great thanks for sharing!

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