I'm a wanna-be/gonna-be - RV-Dreams Community Forum

salemanna · RV-Dreams Community Member

I'm a wanna-be/gonna-be

GSF63 · RV-Dreams Community Member

Welcome to RV-Dreams. You will be able to learn just about anything you need to know about rv travels. I'm a gonna-be also but I'm not waiting to travel. We go on as many trips a year as possible. We see lots of families like us doing the holiday weekend runs. We do all we can with a two week summer trip as that's all I can take at a time. Starting to travel earlier will let you get your feet wet with less expence than a full time rig. The main thing to do first is what you have already done, try to learn all you can before you jump in.

Terry and Jo · RV-Dreams Family Member

Welcome to the forums, Anna. If you've been looking any to start with, you probably realize that there are a lot of knowledgeable folks here. Plus, they are friendly and helpful to boot.

Feel free to ask questions and make comments. While you obviously have quite a while before the really serious traveling starts, it never hurts to get a "starter" unit and begin to live part of the life by camping in parks and on vacations. That is about the way we started. Now, we're about prepared to begin full time in an RV, although we will still be in one location until we retire in a few years.

You have the luxury of being able to "pick brains" and look around. Enjoy the "tire-kicking" experiences.

Terry

Waggin Tails · RV-Dreams Family Member

Welcome to the forum. With the kids being 5 and 3, it will be 15 years before they move out. That seems like a long time to wait for the dream. Why not turn the dream into reality by roadschooling the kids. Rather than read about American History in the books, they can live it on the road. Here is just one of many websites that discuss this idea. http://www.familiesontheroad.com/roadschooling.html

Idaho556 · RV-Dreams Family Member

Anna it is fun to dream and learn, the hard part for me is the waiting still have 6years 7 and half month to go yet, so keep on dreaming and have a plan, best of luck.

karen948 · RV-Dreams Family Member

Welcome to the forum, I think now is the perfect time to get a weekender RV to enjoy with your kids. We bought our first RV when our twins were babies and camped as often as we could. Some of our best family memories are from those camping trips. Our family motto was "the family that plays together stays together".

Karen

LadyO · RV-Dreams Community Member

I have noticed a couple of people are waiting for their children to grow up and leave before starting out. Which is making me question, why wait, if you don't want to? With today's technology a student can attend virtual school all the way through 12th grade and never have to step foot onto an actual campus.

Travel is an awesome teacher. I would think there are many retired teachers RVing, that would do some tutoring, if needed. I know I was considering putting out a tutoring shingle, if and when we hit the road. I think, if I were just starting with my kids now, with today's technology and my current frame of mind, I would try to talk my hubby into and go for it.

Now, I am trying to convince my hubby into chucking everything and hitting the road.( Our youngest daughter graduates high school, May 25th, woohoo!!!!and is off to college. ) I haven't convinced him yet on full-time RVing but I have sold him on selling the big house and getting a condo. Baby steps.

Anyway, got off point there, my question to myself is, would it had been easier to convince him to go for it when we had kids (all things being equal for education) then now when he has 30 years with his company and doesn't want to give it up yet?

Just thinking out loud,

Tracy

Jake62 · RV-Dreams Family Member

Tracy,

You make some excellent points. My wife is a teacher also who retires this month. My daughter just graduated from college and my son is a senior in college so we're fairly free to travel right now, although I still enjoy my job so full-time travel will wait another four years. As for your post and, Anna's original question on traveling with younger children I believe that's a personal question of "Pros/Cons."

This would be like how many, including a number of our friends, "Home School" their children. We decided not to home school believing in Public Education; however, that's not right for every parent/family/child. The only difference with RVing & Home Schooling is that most Home Schooling families reach out and form "groups" for their children to socialize in and among during these formative years. Much more difficult with RVing if you're really traveling every week to form these types of relationships.

We have friends who took their children on the road this last year in a Prevost and the wife home-schooled the children the entire time. I saw them recently and they loved the entire year, but noted they gave up some things their kids missed, such as: Long-Term Friends; Sports Teams in school/recreational; and, if you're a church-goer, somewhere for their kids to integrate their faith with other like-minded children. Bottom line, it's a personal decision, not right or wrong, just different for every family. We believe we made the right decision not traveling full-time when our kids were younger, but that's us.

Good luck Anna in your decision making process.

-- Edited by Jake62 on Sunday 15th of May 2011 08:04:52 AM

-- Edited by Jake62 on Sunday 15th of May 2011 08:08:27 AM

LadyO · RV-Dreams Community Member

Jake,

Totally agree. The decision to home school or through virtual school is huge. A parent taking on that responsibility must be prepared in numerous ways to handle their child's education. Technology just makes it more doable.

Truthfully, in my 20/30's I am not sure I would have had the courage to travel and educate my children. At 50, I am a whole lot more confident in abilities.

You bring up a good point about the social issues for traveling children. Social issues could possibly be a bigger problem than the academic ones.

What is really cool, is that we as citizens and parents have choices. We can reach out in forums like this and discuss and learn from each other's experiences and wisdoms.

Tracy