Homeschool,  Travel

Happily Uprooted answers WHY

March 19, 2013 / 13 Comments

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We have been on the road for over a year and a half traveling with my husband’s job. Sometimes we are at a job site for two weeks and sometimes we are there for a few months. We have criss-crossed the US four times and visited 23 states and Puerto Rico. No matter where we go or who we meet we get a few of the same question over and over… today Happily Uprooted answers the WHY!

Why do you travel?

Why did you chose this life over a “normal” life?

Why don’t you have a “normal” house?

Why do you home school?

Why are you doing this to your kids?

First things first… we travel out of necessity. We travel to keep our family together. We believe it is important to have a present mother and father in the home. The last thing my children needed was to have their father absent from their lives for 200+ days a year. We’ve done that, been there. My kids are so much better off knowing that daddy will be home every evening and I am thankful for that. We travel because my husband CHOSE this job. He LOVES his job and that happiness flows over into our daily lives.

 

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What is normal? Is normal a big house on land, mom and dad at work 40 plus hours a week, once a year vacations (MAYBE), someone else schooling and raising your children, rooms overflowing with excess toys and electronics? If that is normal… we don’t want it!

We choose to collect memories and not things.

We choose to spend as much time with our children as possible before they move on to their own lives.

We choose to live in 400 square feet.

We CHOOSE this life!

Our lifestyle isn’t for everyone, but it is PERFECT for us!

You know that saying “love grows best in tiny houses”? That is how we feel! As a family we are closer than we have ever been… not just physically, but emotionally. Our home is small… and we like it that way! We have less junk cluttering our home. The boys have very few toys. They prefer to dig in the ditches, go on a treasure hunt in the desert, ride their bikes, swim in the lake, build forts with rocks, play a multigenerational game of ladder ball and EXPLORE!

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What is YOUR favorite memory from your childhood? If you asked me I would tell you I remember fishing in the Gulf of Mexico into the night, collecting starfish on the beach, celebrities in Las Vegas, my dad cooking breakfast on our tiny Coleman grill, sand in my tent, and the sounds and smell of the early morning at the beach. When I was a child my brother and I LIVED for summer vacation! We loved that one or two times a year we would pack up the car and tent and go camping with my parents! We didn’t have much money growing up and that was fine! Our vacations didn’t have to be fancy to be wonderful! Before living our life on the road there was very little hope of giving my children a vacation at all. Now every weekend is a new adventure… our LIFE is a vacation.

 

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Why2

Home-schooling, or as we like to call it: Road-schooling, was never something we planned to do. When we had kids we just assumed that they would be going to public school like everyone else we knew. It wasn’t until my husband was offered this amazing job opportunity that we even THOUGHT about home school! At first I was so nervous! All the nay-sayers got to me. Told me I couldn’t do it. “Your kids will be weird” they would say. “Your kids will be behind” they said. After almost 2 years of home schooling I have come to the conclusion that only WE know what is best for our children. My children are two grade levels ahead of most of their peers. They are well-traveled, cultured, super social and know their states better than most children… because they have actually BEEN there… not because they read about it in a book sitting in a classroom. If that makes them “weird” then so be it! If weird means they are not average; that they are ABOVE average… I am PROUD to have “weird” children!

Why4
Why8
When my husband was working 50 plus hours a week, exhausted and barely making ends meet we KNEW there had to be a better way to live our lives and we found it. Our goal is to continue traveling, 100% debt free and raising bright, amazing boys… and we are doing it! We are accomplishing those goals at light speed!

 

Why3

I think the real question should be “WHY NOT??” Honestly… we are HAPPY… really, really HAPPY with our lives. I would hope that everyone could say the same about their lives.

Why5
 

 

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