Worldschooling on a Budget

Posted on January 1, 2016 by Christina C

Our family loves to travel. We love to feast our eyes on new landscapes, taste new foods, and immerse ourselves in different experiences.

I got bitten by the travel bug when I was too young to remember. Fortunately for me, I had parents that were willing to indulge my passion and they made it possible for me to have many travel opportunities. I did three exchange programs, two to France and one to Italy, starting in the 8th grade. I took a semester off from college and set off on a two month jaunt through Europe, with no itinerary.

Those trips shaped my life in immeasurable ways. My husband and I decided that we want the same for our children. We want them to have a broader, more worldly perspective on life. But, we are a single-income family. We cannot simply indulge our every single travel whim!

My husband was born in Turkey and came to live in the United States when he was 11 years old. He remembers his traveling adventures around Turkey very fondly. He also has a very unique World view because of his experiences, one that he is eager to share with me and our children.

We have had some great successes with traveling on a small budget so far, like two weeks at Disney with a 10-day park pass for under $4k, a week at Williamsburg / Busch Gardens for under $700, two weeks in a beautifully appointed townhome on Hilton Head Island, SC for the price of one week, and we are planning a 5-week trip to Ireland / Scotland / Wales for under $7K. I will blog about each of these trips, and others, in the near future. I wanted to share our general travel tips here:

You have to be flexible. Let me write that again. YOU HAVE TO BE FLEXIBLE. That means that you may not get to go to the exact destination of your dreams on the exact dates that work best for you for the exact price that you want to pay. You may have to be willing to drive or travel to another airport as well. One of our favorite things about homeschooling is that we have travel flexibility. We have saved a ton of money by traveling during the off season. So, there are three main areas to consider: your budget, your destination, and your dates. Start planning by choosing one area in which you are the least flexible. Then start your research. But you must then be more flexible in the other two areas.
Avoid staying in hotels, if you can. Even when you get a good deal, they can be pricey. There are sites where you can rent time shares from agencies or owners. We have done that in Orlando and Williamsburg. Because my husband works for the government, he has access to timeshare rentals around the World. But you can rent timeshares as well on sites such as timeshare-resale-rental.com, tug2.com and redweek.com. We have also had great experiences with Trip Advisor and VRBO for house/condo rentals (we have traveled to Hilton Head Island, SC and Martha’s Vineyard by renting vacation homes from owners). Some of the perks of staying in a house or condo is that you get a fully-appointed kitchen and, in most cases, a washer and dryer. This is so immensely helpful for families, especially on extended trips. Imagine how you can save on packing space if you have a washer and dryer! For the times when you are only going to be at a destination for a night or two and you must stay in a hotel, compare prices on places like kayak.com to make sure you are getting the best deal.
Eat in at least once per day. I can tell you that we have saved a mint by at least eating breakfast in our rental place. It also helps to prepare lunches for the day and take them along if you can. We saved hundreds of dollars by doing this at Disney World. This is also where having a condo or house helps. Having a fully-appointed kitchen is a luxury that saves a ton of money.
Plan ahead, especially for international travel. We started planning our trip to Ireland about a year ahead of time. This allowed us to spend some time tracking prices of things like flights. Airfare is often the biggest expense, especially for large families. My husband studied flight prices over the past year and was able to determine the time of year that flights were cheaper for certain destinations. His favorite sites for doing this are Google Flights and Kayak. A first look at Google flights shows DC to Paris at over $4,000 for 2 adults and 3 kids. This is a nice overview since we can see prices with just one click for any city. It is slow to load the prices but eventually, if you leave the map up, it will load the prices for all the places on the map.

We change to graph view and see that flights are $2,000 cheaper if we fly 11 days later. Click on that date and it will move your trip forward that many days.

If you go back to map view London is now also a lot cheaper. We saved almost $2,000 just by moving forward 11 days. One problem with this is that monthly housing is usually rented from the start to end of the month. But, you can take that $2k and make other plans with it. We have found that owners are usually pretty flexible and will work with you.
But be ready to jump when the deal is hot! This is another area in which you must be flexible. If you want to see the World, especially on a budget, sometimes you have to be ready to grab an opportunity. For example, during a Periscope presentation my husband found a direct flight to London from Washington, D.C. for $2,200.00 for a family of five! That is a phenomenal deal and if London is a place that you dream about going to, that’s a deal you may want to jump on. We happened to pick Ireland in this manner. We stumbled upon our cottage and the price made us take the plunge. The owner was flexible on dates since we were booking so far in advance so we had the time to watch flight prices.

All of these tips go hand in hand and compliment each other in many ways. They have helped us save incredible amounts of money and take trips, even long ones, that we would otherwise not be able to afford. So, we wanted to share our tips with everyone in the hopes that we can get the word out that, with a little time, effort, and the right resources, Worldschooling is within reach!

Bringing History to Life – Part 2

Posted on December 21, 2015 by Christina C

Traveling through time to a century and a half later, we entered the town of Williamsburg in the year 1773. There, we meandered down brick pathways through a living Colonial town.

One of our first stops was at a shoemaker’s shop. There we saw how shoes were made in Colonial America. We learned that shoemakers had a 12-year apprenticeship. Shoe shops imported leather from England because it was of better quality than leather from America. Additionally, shoemakers only made and sold men’s shoes – women’s and children’s shoes were made of fabric and were not well crafted, like men’s leather shoes.

Next, we had the pleasure of dining by candlelight in Chowning’s Tavern. There, we were entertained by guitar music and readings by Edward Chowning, the tavern owner’s nephew. We dined on Shepherd’s Pie and sampled homemade ales and hot cider.

A stop in the marketplace turned into an afternoon of shopping for local wares, game playing, and a lively game of “baseball,” the way Colonial children might have played it.

We met some very interesting folks during our stroll through town. One gentleman even taught my sons how to march like soldiers!

On the way down Duke of Gloucester Street, we stopped at the courthouse and had a chat with a clerk. He informed us about the law and how it was carried out in Colonial times…

We took a grand tour of the Governor’s Palace,

which included a tour of the kitchen. We got to visually sample a five-course meal that might have been served to guests of the palace.

We walked through the parlor, offices, bed chambers, and the ballroom…

The finale was a visit to a woodworking shop, where a wheelwright was fastening the final pegs into a cart wheel. We learned that all wheels were made of ash, oak, and elm. It took two weeks to make one wheel!

Reading about history is wonderful and can be very interesting and engaging. But actually living it, seeing it in action, walking amongst it, is an altogether different experience. My children and I will remember this experience in all of its vivid splendor for a very long time…

Bringing History to Life – Part 1

Posted on December 20, 2015 by Christina C

Our family loves history. We love to read encyclopedias, historical fiction, myths and legends. We love to watch period films. We recently had the pleasure of visiting the Historic Settlement at Jamestown outside of Williamsburg, Virginia. Stepping back in time to the year 1607, my children got to frolic around a Powhatan Indian village, board two ships that brought English settlers and merchants across the Atlantic, and explore an English settlement. They made tools out of rock and animal bone, loaded and pretended to fire a swivel gun from the side of a ship, and watched a settler make meat and fruit pies. The got to see history come to life, be a part of it, live it – if just for a day.

Traveling Back to The Middle Ages

Posted on October 25, 2015 by Christina C

We are currently reading about The Middle Ages in History. For our spine, we are using The Story of the World by Susan Wise Bauer, which we love! For those of you who haven’t experienced this series, it takes you from Pre-Historic times through The Modern Era in story-like fashion. There are four volumes and separate activity guides that accompany each one, for those that like to include written activities, mapwork, crafts, and additional reading. At the end of this post, I am including a list of some living read-alouds for this time period.

We thought we would bring our reading to life by visiting our local annual Renaissance Festival!

Of course, we had to dress the part! Introducing my little Knight, King, and Lady! We were immediately greeted by jesters, knights, and other Medieval characters selling their food and wares. From costumes, wooden swords, jewelry, tapestries, clay pottery, drinking horns, turkey legs and more, it was like stepping back into a Medieval village!

We meandered through the crowded streets and came upon this…

An outdoor theater where Much Ado About Nothing, by William Shakespeare, was being performed! Stories become so much more meaningful when they are brought to life!

We also happened upon some acrobats and comedies being performed as well.

This was followed by more wandering, meeting interesting folks, and seeing the amazing sights and sounds of a real Medieval town.

And we even got to meet and chat with the King himself!

Imagine what imaginative places the kids will have now in their minds when we sit together and read about these interesting, colorful times! If only for a day, they have lived it themselves. They have been there. This is the closest thing we have to traveling through time…

These are some of our favorite living read-alouds for this time period. We have read and loved some and look forward to others as our studies progress:

(The following pictures contain links to Amazon.com. Should you decide to purchase any of the books, Thankfully Home will receive a small commission. This will not cost you anything at all! It helps us buy books for our family, so thank you!)

When it’s Time to Reboot

Posted on October 24, 2015 by Christina C

We as parents are well-intentioned. We want the best for our children. Every day. But I have to be honest. I am human. Sometimes I get tired (often, actually). Sometimes I get cranky. Sometimes I can be unkind and ungrateful. Sometimes I love my children but I forget to cherish them.

My family has been so doggone busy for the last couple of months. Between art classes, science center classes, piano lessons, musical theater classes, and visits with friends and family, I feel like I am being stretched in a medieval rack. I am not usually the type of person who books our schedule full. I don’t thrive in that way. My kids don’t either. We like having things to do and people to see, but sometimes we just like staying home and having quiet time. We like the freedom that our homeschooling life affords us of being able to pick up and go where the wind blows us. We like to go down rabbit trails when we are beckoned.

I knew we reached a place of discomfort for everyone because the short tempers were flaring at the drop of a hat. We were not in a place of happiness or respect. We were not gracious. There was no peace. It was time to unplug and reconnect. It was time to remember and acknowledge the things we are thankful for. It was time for a reboot…

So, we put away the curriculum. We put away the books (well, not the poetry ones or the read-alouds, or the bed-time favorites – we could NEVER do that!), the worksheets, and the agenda. We dropped it all in favor of some impromptu fun. We piled into the car…

And headed out to the country. It is beautiful this time of year in South Central Pennsylvania. The leaves have changed and are vibrant hues of red, orange, yellow, burgundy, and gold. As we headed North-West, the rolling hills spread out before us. The drive was spectacular!

Finally, we arrived at Boyer’s in Bigglerville.

Is there a better way to appreciate the fall than to go apple picking in the country?

The fresh air, the rows and rows of beautiful trees, the smell of grass, the backdrop of rolling hills dotted with colorful leaves. It was nothing less than exhilarating!

The kids darted up and down the rows, in awe of all of the beautiful fruit hanging from the trees. They started filling their bags. My heart felt so thankful to have this time with them, watching them select, pluck, and admire their choices.

When the bags were full of beautiful Fuji and York Empire apples, they were dragged back to the car and proudly heaved into the back. Each child was very protective of their bag of apples!

Time to head back to the market to have our haul weighed…

This was our drive. Isn’t it exquisite? This photo doesn’t due justice to the beauty of this countryside…

The kids had their haul weighed proudly – 35 pounds of apples! Yes, 35!

We decided to stop for lunch on our hour-long way home. We spent the time reconnecting. Talking. Listening. Remembering what it is that we love about being a family.

When we got home, we peeled, boiled, and pureed our hearts out and made the most delicious applesauce! My daughter got out her Raddish kit and made us a scrumptious Dutch Apple Pancake! I have to say, the “fruits” of our labor were well worth it, both literally and figuratively.

Now I know that there will come a time when we need another reboot. That’s ok. For now, this is enough…