Homeschooling + Cruising

[ardeur]

Are there any homeschooling families who have gone on a cruise for educational purposes?

 

Some of those "World Cruises" seem like such a wonderful learning opportunity for both adults and children! Has anyone tried it? Homeschooling would make it possible to be "on vacation" for 30+ days without missing school -- just bring it along and schedule it into the day.

 

I would love to hear your story if you've tried something like this.

[SadieN]

We don't home school but have been on several trips with families that have. One family on HAL the kids were already four star Mariners.

 

It probably depends on what homeschool arrangements are in place.

[cb at sea]

There are TONS of "home-schoolers" on ships....sure...you can "vacation" all year round, if you're home-schooling.... many do!

 

Kids can learn anywhere, if someone is really teaching them!

[JP4GA]

We have family members that homeschool and they use some of their trips for hands-on-historical and cultural lessons. They book educational excursions (ruins, historical sites, villiages) and then throughout the day the kids work on other assignments (reading, math, English). Its do able.

[OCruisers]

We were with a group (they had special teacher for some things together by age group ... Spanish, etc.) of 21 "home schooled" children on a 10 day Panama Canal cruise. They were a joy to be around and honestly enthusiast about what they were learning. All lessons in every subject were related to the cruise in one way or another. :)

[kitty9]

World cruises are wonderful experiences, but are usually 100 days in length, and you'd have to be an especially close family to be on a ship that long with kids. You can take segments of world cruises if you don't think the kiddies could handle that much time away from home. But no matter what, you'll usually find lots of like-minded people on regular cruises.

[airlink diva]

I don't have kids, but on my 14 day cruise a few years back, there was a family with five kids that were homeschool.

They where in the Lido in the late afternoon doing schoolwork. Other times, in one of the smaller lounges.

I can recall on the HAL world cruise, there were a few children who did the whole 112 days. I can only guess the parents did classes each day for a certain amount.

I would start with a 10 day, and build from that to see if your kids can handle being on a sea for long periods of time.

[Jasalth]

I think it all depends on home schooled vs cyber schooled also what can be done.

 

My oldest (and youngest for our next scheduled cruise) are both going to be in cyber school at that time. My oldest got to readjust some of his classwork for our last cruise for most of his major subjects to include things about his vacation. Happily this school is pretty lax, as long as you get the work done on time which is nice. We will be gone 14 days next time, and plan on buying an internet package so they can "attend" school a few of those days, which is a matter of just logging into their web site. In the situation of a world cruise for a family.. what is another couple hundred or even $1000 for internet time? :) For our 11 day southern, my then 15 yr old will have a photography course in high school, so we are going to arrange he does the whole 1/2 year worth of course work in those 11 days. I also made him do his writing assignments during downtime on our last cruise, then it was as simple as typing them up when we got home and them all being done. Same with his few reading assignments.

 

I would love to do a world cruise with my family, but alas it isn't anywhere near our budget. In this day and age, it is a really easy thing to vacation and have kids in school. Every time I see someone post anymore about how there are less kids on XYZ sailing cause of the time I laugh, cause that will become a thing of the past soon enough. My kids just had to take the state assessment tests a few weeks ago. 4 testing sites in a 45 min drive from us, the one we went to.. had over 300 kids there everyday for it and we don't live in a very large city as it is!

[onthelake]

My DS is about to graduate from high school and we homeschooled from grade 5 thru 10. This allowed cruises of 30+ days. We have seen much of the world including Europe, the Middle East, Asia, South America, and two crossings each of the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans. We planned both his school work and our trips so that he did not have assignments during the trips but was completely free to enjoy the experiences. He completed all courses each year on time and with excellent results. Certainly, the homeschool option takes dedication and focus but it really allowed DS the opportunity to see the world and it's wonders instead of just reading about them. I think seeing other cultures really provides an appreciation of other ways of life and religions that is impossible to impart any other way.