Life on the Road: Another Teen's Perspective

An Interview with a Homeschooled, Roadschooled Teen

You seemed to enjoy the first post in this series about our life on the road from a kids' perspective so I thought I'd continue. This week I sat down with my youngest child, my daughter and asked her some questions that she was only too eager to answer too honestly, but hey, you come here to hear what really goes on in our camper, right?! Enjoy!

Tell me about yourself.
My name is Chelsea, I’m 13 years old. I enjoy reading, writing, playing on the computer, beating my brothers on Xbox, texting my friends, listening to music and duct taping things. Oh, I’d also like to play the guitar if I knew how.

Everything is pretty self explanatory, but what’s with the duct tape?
It’s fun, it’s not your average gray duct tape, this is tie-dyed and I use it to make rings, bracelets, purses. Whatever I feel like. I want to decorate the computer I share with my brothers, but they won’t agree to it.

Describe your life on the road.
It’s boring. It’s not the funnest thing in the world to be this close to your brothers with no privacy.

Okay, now that you’ve just painted a picture of gloom, is there anything positive that you can think of to this lifestyle?
(Chuckle) Ummm…not right at the moment…no.

Anything?
(Stares at me with that deer caught in the headlights look…obviously trying to think).
It’s kind of fun to live in a home that you can drive?

Let’s try a different approach…where have you enjoyed visiting?
That's easy. Disney World. Virginia Beach. Washington D.C. was fun. Colonial Williamsburg was one of my favorites. Everywhere we went to in Virginia was fun. Virginia has the ocean, the beach and it’s funner than Alabama. Alabama just has grass, lots of grass and rocket ships. Virginia had dolphins, beach glass, sand, shells, and cool hotels with good breakfast food.

So are you saying that you prefer to stay in hotels vs. the camper?
No. I only liked the hotels on the beach. In the camper I have my own bed and I also have my own closet. I decorate my closet with autographs signed by all the band members that I’ve met at concerts. I’ve met Skillet, Decyfer Down and Remedy Drive. I also met Kimber Rising and Anthony Evans but I didn’t get their autograph…tear….I did get my picture taken with them though.

When did you go to these concerts?
This year. Since we started traveling.

So could it be that there REALLY are perks to traveling?
I guess so...there could be some. Meeting interesting people. Other homeschoolers, but I don’t meet very many girls my age. Actually I don’t meet any.

How do you stay in touch with friends and family?
I text my friends, call them, email them and keep in touch through Face book. I probably talk to them once every day.

How has your current on the road lifestyle affected your schooling?
We do less book work, but learn more because we learn a lot from the places that we go. If we are near something interesting we normally go there and afterwards we’ll look it up in books and read about it. I didn’t know anything about Civil Rights or Martin Luther King, Jr. but when we were in Atlanta we went to the Martin Luther King, Jr. National Historic site and mom made us learn about it. I didn’t even want to go and thought it would be really boring. Afterwards we watched movies,read books about that time period and talked to my Grandpa and Great Grandma about what it was like to live then. It turned out to be really interesting.

What do you do for school when you aren’t visiting interesting places?
I read a lot. I’ll read basically anything. Right now I’m reading the Redwall series. In the past few weeks I’ve also read Sense and Sensibilities and then I watched some Jane Austin movies. I enjoyed reading the Left Behind series for kids and read all 40 of them in 2 weeks. They were good and they are also small books. I’ve enjoyed the Anne of Green Gables books. My mom was reading The Chosen by Chaim Potok and let me read it when she was finished. That’s one of my favorite books. It was really good. I learned a lot from that book. I had no idea there were different types of Jews. I also learned about some of the Jewish customs.

I also do the Connect the Thoughts curriculum and The Life of Fred for math. I read the Bible. I also write, creative writing.

I’m also interning for an author, Judith Allee. She wrote Homeschooling on a Shoestring and Educational Travel on a Shoestring. I have a list of assignments to work on. That’s pretty cool that I can work for an author. It counts as some of my schooling.

I also crochet and knit. Not very often but sometimes I get in the mood and make things. A couple weeks ago I made a baby afghan for our neighbors that moved. It was a going away present and because they just found out they were having a baby.

If you read what my mom wrote the other day, you'll know why I'm teaching myself French!

Okay, I just thought of one more thing...is there anything that could make life on the road more pleasant for you?
Getting along with my brother, Josh better. We are both stubborn and we annoy each other and it really bothers me. Other than Josh annoying me, life on the road is pretty good. I enjoy going places, but I don't like staying in one place- it's better when we are moving around more. Unless we were stuck near the beach, I wouldn't mind that. I like spending time with my family, hiking, watching movies and playing games.

Well, there you have it...Life on the Road from a slightly different perspective. Did I miss something? No problem, I'll have another interview coming up with another Homeschooled, Roadschooled teen in another week or so.

Do you have a question you'd like to ask? Why not leave it in the comments below? Of course if you have a Homeschooled, Roadschooled Kid that would like to participate, let me know that too! Why should it be all about us? We're nosy and love to hear how this lifestyle works for others!