Our roadschooling journey and trek across Canada in our VW Westfalia has taken us to Niagara Falls. We arrived late Sunday evening and went straight for the nearest Walmart to camp for the night.
We have been a little concerned that Ethan isn’t practicing enough math or writing, so we want to find more ways to engage him in those activities.
Otherwise, the trip has so far, been awesome.
Video to come!
Morning
We woke up to a rainy morning; it poured the night before and Juju Jr.’s tent was pretty wet. We wondered if we should go to Niagara Falls or just wait until the weather cleared up, as that was what the weather forecast called for.
But first, some breakfast of turkey leftovers from Ethan’s Auntie Connie.
Ethan has been pretty good about food choices. He was never a very picky eater but he only likes to eat what he likes. He isn’t all that adventurous when it comes to food but he’s trying more and more things nowadays, especially since his appetite has increased.
But he still likes to play every chance he gets, like this time after breakfast.
Since it wasn’t very nice out, we decided to head over to the nearby Starbucks for me to catch up on work.
Using free wifi from Walmart is cool, but having a place to sit with a plug and FAST wifi is better. We stayed at Starbucks until almost 2:30, which gave me ample time to get some work done.
While I worked, Dong Eun played UNO and Monopoly Deal with Ethan. He loves these games because of the strategy. It’s probably why he enjoys playing chess, too.
But then it was time to do some Sudoku.
And to do some reading. We’d like Ethan to read more classic children’s books, as he’s now very much into stories based on Minecraft. We’ll see about downloading some age/grade appropriate books that Ethan finds interesting.
Afternoon
We’ve been wanting him to practice math more, as he really enjoys math. So Dong Eun worked on his multiplication tables using a Korean method where you sing the times tables. It was a lot of fun and helped him improve his times tables. He also worked on some 10s multiplication worksheets we brought along from home.
It was time for lunch and the turkey came to the rescue in the form of a pasta and turkey soup. We try to use up as much of our food as possible before buying more. It helps us save space and money, as well as teaching Ethan that it’s not necessary to spend money to eat.
After getting some work done and enjoying the soup, we drove over to Niagara Falls. Since it was after 3pm when we got there, we didn’t park and look around. We also noticed that paid parking seemed like the only option, so we wanted to do some homework and see if there were alternatives.
So instead of hanging out at the falls, we continued driving until we reached Niagara-on-the-Lake. We didn’t expect much but were quite surprised by the sight of large homes, wineries and the charming town area. Well, at least Dong Eun and I thought it was charming.
It was now after 5pm and we had to drive across the border into Grand Island, NY. The reason was because one of my best friends lives there and also happens to be the town supervisor, which is equivalent to a mayor. On the way, we stopped at a local farmer’s market and picked up some apples to bring as a gift. No pumpkins, though.
The border was a short drive away and we met Nathan and his family for dinner.
Evening
After dinner, Nathan invited us to town hall to show us where he worked. Before he arrived to meet us, his wife and their two boys helped us get to town hall. The boys all got along great and played in the van until Nathan arrived.
It was another example of Ethan getting along with other kids. He initially played a bit of hide and go seek in the restaurant, but then taught them origami. Nathan’s oldest son is the same age as Ethan and showed Ethan some origami that he learned in school.
But they just mostly loved playing in the van.
Once Nathan arrived, he took us for a tour of town hall. It was surreal seeing your friend in such an official setting. What was very cool was that he allowed Ethan to sit in his chair in the main hall.
After saying our goodbyes, it was still fairly early so we took advantage of the time by visiting the American Falls.
Ethan was being funny, as usual, and wanted to pose with funny faces by the falls. At least we got one photo with a normal smiley face.
We drove back over to Canada via Rainbow Bridge, which spans Niagara Falls. You can also walk across the bridge and stand between the US and Canada. Once over, we took some night photos of Horseshoe falls.
And to finish the night, we got a shot of the local Canada 150 sign, one of the main reasons for embarking on this road trip. We planned to revisit the falls in the morning, but seeing the falls at night was spectacular.
If you’re just reading this blog for the first time, we are a family of three traveling across Canada (and likely beyond) in a 1994 VW Westfalia camper van called Juju Jr. Our son Ethan, age 9, is unschooling and so we want him to learn from being on the road and traveling. So he’s also now a roadschooler and we are documenting the trip and his learning on this blog.
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