Doing Lessons while Traveling
- fromhometoworld
- Sep 26, 2025
- 6 min read
When I speak to other parents and they find out that my daughter and I travel often, most of them voice their concern “ how does she do her schoolwork?” I find this a rather odd question. I often think “If you travel, how do your kids do their school work?” Or do you just save all your travel for when there are school breaks and therefore you are at the mercy of the travel industry and limited locations to visit, due to the limited time off.
First off, as I've stated in other blog posts, I homeschool my daughter, so we aren’t as rigid that she has to have certain things done and completed on certain days. She just has to have a list of lessons completed every 3 weeks when we meet with her Educational Specialist. But it’s up to me (and her) as to when and how we do these assignments. When we are at home our day is obviously different than when we travel. Just like your child that goes to a physical school for someone else to teach them, there is a schedule. We too have a schedule, although I'm sure ours looks totally different from that at your child’s school. We start our day after she wakes up, she plays with her legos at the dining room table, while I read chapters for our literature book for a given unit. Play is a huge part of our schedule. We do the subjects she likes the least first, to get them out of the way. Between each subject she gets to go play. Sometimes it may only be 5-10 minutes, others it may be up to an hour. I kind of let her tell me how she's feeling that day and she normally does that with how much she wants or needs to play. This is not to say that there aren’t struggles with some days getting her to do any of her lessons. But she has learned the consequences of going a day without completing lessons, just means other days there will be more lessons and less play time to make up for it.
I have to have a lesson planner with all lessons planned out weeks in advance. So when I am preparing for us to go on a trip, I look at what those travel dates of lessons look like, and rearrange. I want to travel with the least amount of lesson supplies as possible. All of those books and workbooks get heavy quickly when walking through an airport. So if there is a workbook that I can tear pages out of then I’ll do that. Other books and things I may make photocopies. If her social studies/ geography calls for a couple pages of reading each day and sometimes out of many books, I rearrange my lesson plans and add them to another day when we’ll be back so I don't need to lug the books around or waste my printer ink making copies. I will find videos from TED-ed or Be Smart channels on Youtube of what we are discussing in place of the reading. These are a win/ win for us. My daughter feels like she's getting a treat because she gets to watch a “show” and I don’t have to carry all of the lesson books around. Plus after she has watched one video she wants to watch another one on the same subject. Sometimes I let her, sometimes I don't. When I don’t, is when I know that she is trying to get out of lessons but still play that game of “What? I’m doing lessons.” Meh.
Going back to having a schedule, we have a schedule too while we travel. When we are going somewhere we have to fly to, while flying my daughter gets to watch her shows on her tablet. That allows me to have some reading time for myself. However, she knows she doesn’t get her tablet on the flight if we have not completed her lessons for that day. We will do lessons on the floor in the airport if we can’t find a table and on the plane as well while we are waiting for everyone to board. Her tablet is her incentive to get her work done. The same is true at home, however she has to wait till the evening to get her tablet while I’m making dinner, but if she chooses to not complete her lessons that day then she doesn’t get her tablet until she does or she simply goes without.
Also, I have learned that with my daughter there is a window that is the best time to get lessons done, so I need to work on our lessons and play into this window. Because my husband does not come home from work until late, my daughter will not go to bed until after he has come home. This then leads to her staying up late for someone typically her age. However, since I don't need to get her up and ready to be on the bus by 7:15/ 7:30am she can sleep. My daughter typically gets up anywhere from 9:30am-10:30am. Because of this late start that's why the nice slow start to the day for her is important. No rushing, play with your legos while I read, little one. But for her, after 3:30pm it starts to become a downhill struggle to complete lessons. And again that's why we start our day with the subjects she likes the least and save her favorite, science for the last one.
While we are traveling, The focus is on her most important subjects. For her it’s her phonics/ speech as well as reading, writing and math. Those are just things everyone needs to do everyday. We are museum people so I do view going to a museum as a lesson too. There are so many things that she will absorb there. Most museums will have special activities just for kids. One example could be a scavenger hunt throughout the museum. University of Alaska Museum of the North in Fairbanks, has several great scavenger hunts available for kids to choose from that makes them have to go through each exhibit. The Burke Museum at the University of Washington in Seattle and The Gumbo Limbo Nature Center in Boca Raton, Florida have great ones too. The Rosicrucian Egyptian Museum in San Jose, California has a passport that the kids can stamp at each exhibit. Most museums also have craft corners, sometimes they will even have an instructor to guide the craft. The California Academy of Sciences in San Francisco offers story time and puppet shows as well crafts and hands-on explorations.
While I have found that most of the kid based activities in museums happen to be here in the United States, that doesn't mean you can not find things like these activities to do overseas. When we have been overseas, I have found that the museums don't have anything hand-on to do or give out, unless they are specifically a children's museum. With this knowledge it just takes a little more effort on your part when you are planning your trips. One thing we as a family had fun with while we were in Lisbon and Sintra this past summer was that I was able to find a scavenger hunt book for those specific cities. It was great! It listed "must-see" museums and within each museum you had to locate specific items & for each item you would accrue points. There were even some "codes" that needed to be deciphered as well. I was able to purchase this one book on Amazon (no affiliation here) https://www.amazon.com/Mission-Lisbon-Sintra-Scavenger-Adventure/dp/0999013319 There are others out there, just look for them by the city you are planning to visit.
When traveling you do need to be flexible (especially if visiting family). Things will come up that you don’t think about that may delay lessons. Or you may choose to think outside of the box and do a spelling test by writing the words out in the sand on the beach. I have been traveling with my daughter (mostly alone for work) since she was 3 months old. I have learned over the years what works for us. Some trips don’t go as smoothly as others, but thats just a typical day in the life of parenthood when dealing with your child in any capacity. When you choose to begin travel and lessons it will be bumpy, but you will figure out what works best for you, your child and your travels. The most important thing to keep in mind is to just be patient, with your child and most importantly yourself. Make it fun and keep the travel as an adventure not a chore.