10 Lessons Homelessness Taught Me About Homeschooling Through Crisis and Transition

Everyday felt like I was one tantrum away from crying my eyes out for the first few months.

We started our school year homeless. A medical condition forced us to leave our comfortable home. We scrambled to find a solution. Our family moved into an Airstream travel trailer and have relocated almost a dozen times in the last year. This was NOT how I expected to start roadschooling with my son.

My seven-year-old has needed a lot of parental guidance as we’ve gone through the school year. This experience has connected me with a lot of homeschoolers going through transition or crisis.  

One of the blessings of homeschooling, is that when the going gets tough we can stick together as a family and not miss out on school days. However, maintaining a “normal” school experience might be a little more difficult. Having the ability to bond together as a family during the last year has been so meaningful. I hope these tips will help you during transition or crisis.

10 Ways to Keep Homeschooling During Crisis or Transition:

• Keep it Light - If your child is really struggling with a concept, or resistant to learning new things, try to keep it light and fun.

• Kids respond to our stress - Children are little stress meters. They reflect how we’re feeling. Find support for you while trying to support them. Reach out to a Facebook group, homeschool co-op or support group.

• Use play - Play based learning is great when we’re overwhelmed. It’s nice to relax and just play a bit. A deck or cards or set of dominos lends itself to dozens of math-based games, wooden shapes can be used to create art scenes, and a moveable alphabet can be used to write stories.

• Have resources for on-the-go - During crisis and transition, we often end up spending a lot of time in the car. Check out our list of resources that are print & go ready and great for the car for spontaneous roadschooling.

• Use play - Play based learning is great when we’re overwhelmed. It’s nice to relax and just play a bit. A deck or cards or set of dominos lends itself to dozens of math-based games, wooden shapes can be used to create art scenes, and a moveable alphabet can be used to write stories.

• Open & Go - Using Shiller’s curriculum has been so nice. No prep work needed on my part, we can just open and go without needing to spend extra time getting ready. This is a godsend on days where we get to a new place and just don’t have time to unpack 1M+ things for school.

• Try audiobooks - Librivox.org has thousands of free classic books to download, or hop over to the library and grab some audiobooks. It’s extremely relaxing to listen to a book and draw for a bit while learning!

• Embrace nature study - Spending time outdoors is a good way to get some movement, give us time to think and learn something new. You can do nature study when you arrive in a different place or on the road. It requires nothing but our minds (and maybe a notebook and pencil to sketch).

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• Journal- Journaling helps us process our feelings and is a good way to work on writing skills. Don’t be too meticulous with your student’s grammar and spelling in their journal entries. Let them express themselves.​​​​​​​​​​​​​​

• Be grateful for what you’ve got! - If you’re moving, dealing with a natural disaster, or have lost your belongings, homeschooling can seem impossible. However, you can make learning happen with little to no materials. Make math problems with rocks, spell out words with a stick in the dirt, use food to learn adjectives- the options are endless if we take a moment to look at what is available to us. Even traditional Montessori materials can be improvised for little to no money.

• Accept help!- I know, this is hard. Often in crisis and transition, people want to help but they’re not sure how. Find some specific ways for people to help and don’t be afraid to ask.

Schooling during a crisis, transition, or even with limited funds can feel scary and overwhelming. Take it one day at a time, give your family plenty of time to communicate, process the experiences and share. You’ll get through and come out on the other end proud of what you’ve accomplished!

What has your experience been like homeschooling during hard times? Do you have any encouragement or feedback to share?  Share in the comments with us and other homeschoolers.