Roadschooling through Nebraska, Iowa, Illinois and Indiana

Two weeks ago my family launched a year-long, full-time RV road trip. Our first three months will take us from Utah to Maine and down the east coast which means a lot of driving through the heartland of the US – Nebraska, Iowa, Illinois and Indiana to be precise.

Having grown up in Kearney, Nebraska I love the midwest. The huge sky, land for miles, water towers dotting the landscape and friendly people – all hall marks of this beautiful part of the country. Driving through the prairie gives me a sense of just how large America is.

But it is a long drive.

So how do you entertain kids for hours in the car each day without having their brains melt from staring at a tablet screen?

By turning the drive into a roadschooling lesson.

What is Roadschooling?

Roadschooling is homeschooling for travelers. It encourages using the local area as a basis for learning.

With my fourth and first graders we are focusing on roadschooling during this year of travel, specifically using the local areas to learn about geography, ecology and history.

What my family likes about road schooling is the opportunity to really use our surroundings. We love exploring outdoors already so finding local hikes and bike rides not only fulfills a physical education requirement, but also lets us observe the landscape and native plants and animals of a place.

Roadschooling in Nebraska, Iowa, Illinois and Indiana

So how can you use the vast heartland of America in a roadschooling lesson? Here’s a few ideas:

Listen to a Historical Fiction Audiobook

Since driving through the midwest involves a lot of hours in the car I knew we’d need a good audiobook to pass the time. Give me the right audiobook and I can drive for days.

My family used the book Little House on the Prairie as the basis of our midwest Roadschooling lesson. It’s a children’s historical fiction classic originally published in the 1930s that talks about life on the prairie in the mid 1800s.

Little House on the Prairie is a great read for kids as it describes how pioneers lived, travel in a covered wagon, built a log cabin, dealt with weather and other struggles early western settlers have.

It’s especially great to read while driving through Nebraska, Illinois and Missouri since the Oregon and Mormon Trails pass through those states.

In addition to listening to Little House on the Prairie, we discussed Native Americans and how they lived to try to represent both sides of the tense period of western expansion of the mid 1800s. This gave us an opportunity to talk about stereotypes, prejudice, war and how we treat others.

Great books to read or listen to while Roadschooling in the Midwest:

• Little House on the Prairie by Laura Ingalls Wilder
• My Antonia by Willa Cather (Literary classic recommended for tweens/teens)
• Sign of the Beaver by Elizabeth George Speare
• Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian by Sherman Alexie (modern day Native American life told from the point of view of a slightly foul-mouthed teenage boy, not recommended for elementary age)
• You can also check out these Children’s Native American Books.

See all my outdoor family book recommendations here.

Psst...These are affiliate links. If you purchase something after using this link we get a small commission.

Visit a Historic Site

The midwest is a great place to visit historical sites along the Oregon Trail, and Mormon Trail. In the 1800s thousands of emigrants packed up their covered wagons and walked or rode across the prairie to settlements in Utah, Oregon and California.

Interstate 80 – the main thoroughfare through Nebraska and Iowa follows almost that exact trail along the Platte River. Because of that there are some wonderful historic sites.

• Fort Kearny in Kearney Nebraska is connected to a State Park. The fort was originally built in 1846 – there’s a small museum, replica of blacksmith shop and rebuilt stable fort. What my kids particularly liked about it though was the opportunity to dress up as pioneer settlers and army calvary complete with bonnets and jackets.
• Mormon Trail Center/Winter Quarters Monument in Omaha Nebraska. A sacred place for fellow members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, Winter Quarters monument is located on the burial grounds of Mormon pioneers forced from their homes in Illinois 1845.
• Nauvoo, Illinois Historic Sites The largest living history monument in the nation is located rural Illinois. This small town was vacated in 1845 by thousands of Mormon emigrants and many buildings still exist to show how pioneers lived at that time. A blacksmith demonstration, free horse and oxen wagon rides, tours of pioneer homes and more teach about early members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints and the beginnings of their westward migration in the mid 1800s.

Study Local Ecology

As you move east the plants, animals and geology change dramatically. Camping full-time in our RV offers lots of time to run around camp and find new and interesting plants, animals and rocks.

Since I obviously don’t know all the plants and animals in each new state (my June Become a Backyard Naturalist challenge helped with my Utah nature neighbors but that was it) I like having resources that help me learn about new plants and animals.

Here are some books and apps we recommend.

• Nature Connection  by Clare Walker Leslie
• My Adventure Journal by Backwoods Mama
• iNaturalist.org – this FREE app helps you identify plants and animals you find while roadschooling
• Merlin Bird ID from Cornell Ornithology Lab – this app can help you identify nearby birds you see and hear
• Check out more resources in my July Become a Backyard Naturalist Challenge post.

Aditional Roadschooling Lesson Ideas for Midwest Travel

1. At Nauvoo State Park in Illinois we collected seed pods from as many different trees as we could – sycamore, eastern black walnut, acorns, an apple and one my kids called the ‘green bean tree’. We diagrammed and dissected some, comparing and contrasting how different trees spread their seeds and reproduce.
2. Bake corn bread to go along with Little House on the Prairie – learn about measurements, the chemistry of cooking and history all in a tasty snack.
3. Keep a nature journal – Develop observation and art skills along with writing practice.
4. Raccoon hunt night hike near Salamonie Lake, Illinois – Just before bedtime at the campground at Salamonie Lake in Illinois my daughter asked to go on a raccoon hunt. We had spied a raccoon by accident the evening before, so we got out our flashlights and searched for signs of an animal. This let us talk about habitat for different animals and what animals are diurnal versus nocturnal.
5. Draw your own map – Growing up in Nebraska meant I looked forward to showing my kids a little personal history. – the house I grew up in, where I went to elementary school, my favorite parks to play in as a kid. A great activity that would’ve built on their geography skills of reading a map would’ve been to draw a map of Mom’s hometown. Alas I didn’t think about that until now. We’ll have to incorporate that into a later stop.

Do Your Best and Don’t Worry About The Rest

I’m a reluctant homeschooler to start with so roadschooling with my kids is a bit stressful. I often ask myself questions like:

• Are they learning what the need to?
• Are they challenged enough?
• Am I overwhelming them?
• Do I expect too much from them?
• I don’t know all of the native trees of Illinois/methods of estimating multi-factor multiplication problems/homophones in the English language. How can I teach my kids?

If you’ve ever had those questions I have one bit of advice that has really helped me.

Do Your Best and Don’t Worry About the Rest

In my many interviews with homeschooling families I’ve heard this common thread repeated over and over. As long as your kids can learn how to find their own answers to their questions – through books, personal experience, interviews, or research – they’ll do just fine in life.

I agree with that advice, but also want to do the best I can to help my kids.

One thing that has given me peace of mind was to download a copy of my state’s common core standards. Those are the guidelines of what each grade should learn during that year of school.

I like having them as a framework of what my kids should learn during this year on the road. I can adapt the content based on where we are traveling each day.

The other thing that really helps in my roadschooling is having resources I trust. I know my kids will learn the math concepts they need since their math books are the same ones they would’ve used if they were attending traditional school back home.

See all of the resources my family uses for roadschooling in this Full Time RV Living Frequently Asked Questions post.

Those are our Roadschooling adventures so far.

If you have advice on roadschooling in your state or questions don’t hesitate to reach out. Join the Mountain Mom and Tots mailing list above and I’ll send you a FREE March into Nature Scavenger hunt.

See you in the outdoors,

~Mountain Mom

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