Renee, her husband and their five kids have been full-time RVers for three years. With a lifelong goal to learn, see and experience as much as possible, their family mission is to expand their minds, compassion, curiosity, and their world view through travel.
As a homeschooling family, one of the many reasons we love RV travel is for the rich variety of learning opportunities. RV travel naturally fosters continuous learning and with the addition of a few items you can easily add another layer of education and enjoyment to your adventures.
The number one item that I recommend for any family looking for educational RV opportunities is to have an America The Beautiful Pass. This pass gives you access to over 2,000 federally run recreational areas, such as national parks, monuments, and forests. Passes can be purchased for $80 at most national parks, some monuments, and at REI.
Nature walks are a perfect way of turning outdoor explorations into organic learning opportunities, fueling curiosity and a love of nature. Fill a field bag with binoculars, magnifying glass, compass, notebook, pencils, and a few field guides to level up your nature explorations.
The Association of Science & Technology Centers Passport gives free or discounted access to the 350+ participating museums, planetariums, and science centers nation-wide. The ASTC Pass is included when you buy a year membership to a participating location and because of this, membership costs vary from $100-$200. This pass is a fantastic way to explore museums and learning centers during your travels, while also keeping to a budget.
Of course you need something to listen to all of those audiobooks in peace. Having a few good quality noise-canceling headphones on hand is a necessity for our RV family and they have saved the day more than once. Headphones, concentration music, and a picnic table create a pretty great office or school space.
Audio books aren't the only space-saving format for enjoying books. An e-reader is a great addition to any roadschool lineup. We borrow ebooks through our local library on the Libby app and can send them directly to our Kindle. If you don’t want to wait when the book you want isn’t available you can add a Kindle Unlimited subscription to instantly borrow whatever book you would like to read.
These little reusable writing and drawing devices are the perfect companion for road tripping, on-the-go learning, and small space creativity. Instead of hauling around a pile of notebooks, loose paper, and coloring pages, pack a few of these into your RV for anything from working out math problems to sketching the scenery.
Think legos and RV life don’t mix? Think again! Keeping small building toys in space-saving storage bags allows curious minds to build on-the-go, without taking up too much space. We also like to keep a bin full of Magformers in our RV since they are sturdy, fun for all ages, and work well being played with outside when campground friends come to play.
Having a place to put educational supplies is imperative for learning on the road. Some of our favorites are this craft supply organizer for pencils, pens, paintbrushes, scissors, etc. We like that it is very easy to transport outside for arts and crafts time and can be stored in a cabinet when not in use. This pencil roll is fantastic for keeping art pencils in one place and we often throw it in a backpack for doing art out in nature. For storing our school books we use these foldable book bins that fit well in shallow RV cabinets and are also easily movable from one place to another.
Travel trailers are the most popular type of non-motorized RV. No doubt you’ve seen one pulled down the highway hitched to a car or pickup. Travel trailers come in all sizes including tiny jellybean-shaped models with a chuckwagon kitchen in the rear to the massive house-on-wheels with picture windows and a sliding glass patio door.
Whether you're new to the world of RVing or you're ready to narrow your search, we're here to help you sort through it all and find the RV that's right for you. Explore RVs based off of your lifestyle and the features important to you.
