A Homeschool Year Traveling Around the U.S.

A friend of mine has a niece who will be shortly leaving for a new adventure... homeschooling by car! This got me thinking. And I couldn't resist planning. Because that is just how my brain is wired and I've learned to accept that!

If you took the nine months of the school year, September through May, and visited the 49 states that are accessible by car, plus Canada and Mexico, that would be six a month September/October/November and January/February/March/April/May and three in December with a nice long break to see family for Christmas. But just five days per state (or country).

Not that I think many people out there are in the position to leave their houses and just get in a car with a tent, groceries, sleeping bags, a camp stove, a first aid kit and a crank flashlight, and so on BUT, if you are, here are some thoughts about how you could organize such an excursion. And wouldn't it be a homeschool year to remember!!!

If you were going on this *mythical* trip, what are your must-see sights?

I would love to walk across the Golden Gate Bridge, take a tour of the White House (yes, I know I grew up in MD but I never have been inside the White House), go up into a lighthouse on the rocky shores of Maine, see the Kentucky Derby run in May and visit New Orleans at Mardi Gras, see the San Diego Zoo and Area 51 and Prince Edward Island, walk around a ghost town from the silver mining heyday, go whale watching, see Glacier National Park and Bryce Canyon and Alcatraz, take a ride in a glass bottom boat in Key West, eat barbecue in Memphis and cheese curds in Wisconsin, tour Harvard and Yale and Brown and Stanford, ride on a steam engine train and a paddle wheel boat, and go sky diving over Moab.

I've organized the states roughly by region (although I didn't take the time to list the states in order). And, for us, we would be leaving from Illinois to head out on this trip which is why it is included in the first group, Appalachia.

September
Appalachia
IL IN KY TN OH WV

October
Mid-Atlantic
NC VA MD DE PA NJ
Washington DC

November
New England
ME RI VT NH MA CT

December
Great Lakes
NY WI MI

January
Heartland
IA MO AR OK KS NE

February
Deep South
SC FL GA AL MS LA

March
Four Corners
TX CO NM AZ UT Mexico

April
Pacific Northwest
NV CA OR WA AK Canada

May
North
ID MT WY ND SD MN