We will be traveling on a US tour adventure starting withing the next year. The plan is to road school 1 high school and 1 elem while also teaching online from the road. We own a minivan but are thinking we should downgrade to an efficiency and tow behind a class A or C. I thought this would make for better visiting while rv is parked. We are wanting to keep it under $50 K and are bargain hunting. Most families I have seen blogging have a fifth wheel.
Any advice or suggestions?????
jayc said
06:53 PM Nov 28, 2014
We've been full-timing in a fifth wheel for 6 years. We like the fifth wheel for it's comfort, storage and the "homey feeling" of one. In a motorhome you will have a bathroom available while driving as well as the kitchen/fridge but we stop to walk around and break up the trip every couple of hours. With a truck and trailer, we only have to maintain one motor vehicle where with a motorhome w/towed vehicle you must insure and maintain two. We get somewhere between 10-12 MPG towing where a MH gets 6-8 or so.
The choice is yours. I believe that there are more people in 5'ers but have no statistical data to back this up, just MHO. Good luck.
kb0zke said
09:14 PM Nov 28, 2014
You raise some interesting points. Some of them are common to anyone thinking about full-timing, and some of them are unique to the homeschooling aspect.
The first issue that you will need to address is that of private space. Most coaches, whether a 5'er, a MH, or a TT, are set up for two adults. There are bunkhouse coaches, though, and that may be what you need. You mention an age range, but don't say whether your two children are of the same sex. That may complicate things a bit, although I know of a homeschooling family with two middle school age children, one boy and one girl, who just bought a MH.
If you are going to be like many homeschoolers, much of your teaching will take place outside of your coach. You will need to figure out how long you will stay in one place and how often you will be traveling. The conventional wisdom is that if you are going to stay in one place for a month or more on a regular basis a towable is the better choice, and if you will be moving more often than once a month a drivable coach is the better choice. In your case, though, finding a suitable floor plan may have to take precedence.
I'm sure that you are aware of the homeschooling laws in your home state. If your state isn't friendly to homeschoolers, you might want to consider changing your domicile to one that is. I would also suggest that you pay particular attention to what actions might make a state consider you to be a resident of that state. Although this is generally thought of in terms of taxes, it is possible that you may run into some difficulties in homeschooling. If you aren't already a member of HSLDA you might want to consider becoming a member.
We homeschooled our three children all the way though high school, but both of us are certified teachers, and at least one of us was always employed as a teacher during that whole time, so we didn't have anyone question us. Also, Missouri has one of the better homeschooling laws in the country, or at least when we were homeschooling it was. Haven't checked it lately. We wish that we could have afforded to do as you are going to do, but we were doing well to do what we did.
sissy70 said
07:19 PM Dec 2, 2014
Thank you for all of the awesome information. I too am a certified teacher. We currently live in NC and the HS laws are quite lenient, but our schooling never included long term travel. I can't believe the restrictions on parents to do what is best for their own children. I plan to have the High Schooler take his core classes online to ensure graduation. I will be teaching online as well for our spending money. The Elem child will be schooled by me for now.
I've seen the coaches with bunks online. I like those. We haven't done any walk throughs yet, just online browsing. The 5th wheeler seem like a great option, but hubby doesn't want to buy a new truck to haul it.
I guess we are just going to do some shopping around. Thank you again. Any other words of wisdom would be great! Sissy
We will be traveling on a US tour adventure starting withing the next year. The plan is to road school 1 high school and 1 elem while also teaching online from the road. We own a minivan but are thinking we should downgrade to an efficiency and tow behind a class A or C. I thought this would make for better visiting while rv is parked. We are wanting to keep it under $50 K and are bargain hunting. Most families I have seen blogging have a fifth wheel.
Any advice or suggestions?????
We've been full-timing in a fifth wheel for 6 years. We like the fifth wheel for it's comfort, storage and the "homey feeling" of one. In a motorhome you will have a bathroom available while driving as well as the kitchen/fridge but we stop to walk around and break up the trip every couple of hours. With a truck and trailer, we only have to maintain one motor vehicle where with a motorhome w/towed vehicle you must insure and maintain two. We get somewhere between 10-12 MPG towing where a MH gets 6-8 or so.
The choice is yours. I believe that there are more people in 5'ers but have no statistical data to back this up, just MHO. Good luck.
The first issue that you will need to address is that of private space. Most coaches, whether a 5'er, a MH, or a TT, are set up for two adults. There are bunkhouse coaches, though, and that may be what you need. You mention an age range, but don't say whether your two children are of the same sex. That may complicate things a bit, although I know of a homeschooling family with two middle school age children, one boy and one girl, who just bought a MH.
If you are going to be like many homeschoolers, much of your teaching will take place outside of your coach. You will need to figure out how long you will stay in one place and how often you will be traveling. The conventional wisdom is that if you are going to stay in one place for a month or more on a regular basis a towable is the better choice, and if you will be moving more often than once a month a drivable coach is the better choice. In your case, though, finding a suitable floor plan may have to take precedence.
I'm sure that you are aware of the homeschooling laws in your home state. If your state isn't friendly to homeschoolers, you might want to consider changing your domicile to one that is. I would also suggest that you pay particular attention to what actions might make a state consider you to be a resident of that state. Although this is generally thought of in terms of taxes, it is possible that you may run into some difficulties in homeschooling. If you aren't already a member of HSLDA you might want to consider becoming a member.
We homeschooled our three children all the way though high school, but both of us are certified teachers, and at least one of us was always employed as a teacher during that whole time, so we didn't have anyone question us. Also, Missouri has one of the better homeschooling laws in the country, or at least when we were homeschooling it was. Haven't checked it lately. We wish that we could have afforded to do as you are going to do, but we were doing well to do what we did.
Thank you for all of the awesome information. I too am a certified teacher. We currently live in NC and the HS laws are quite lenient, but our schooling never included long term travel. I can't believe the restrictions on parents to do what is best for their own children. I plan to have the High Schooler take his core classes online to ensure graduation. I will be teaching online as well for our spending money. The Elem child will be schooled by me for now.
I've seen the coaches with bunks online. I like those. We haven't done any walk throughs yet, just online browsing. The 5th wheeler seem like a great option, but hubby doesn't want to buy a new truck to haul it.
I guess we are just going to do some shopping around. Thank you again. Any other words of wisdom would be great! Sissy