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.
We have a better handle on how to plan our days as we travel and homeschool. The ideal scenario for us is the drive a couple of hours and stay at a particular destination for the night, then explore the following day. We’ve followed this plan for a couple of days now and it’s been better for all of us.
An example of this working well is when we spent the day in Sault Ste. Marie after arriving the day before. It was nice not rushing around or scrambling to do things. Same for today as we made our way to Sudbury.
Morning
Last night before bed, Ethan really wanted some apple. So the first thing he asked for when he got up was, of course, apple. Apple and reading on the Kindle was a pretty nice way to start the day.
We got ready a little earlier than usual and were pulling out of the Walmart parking lot in Sault Ste. Marie by 10am. But we immediately stopped because we wanted to try the homemade bread from the bakery right next to Walmart.
That proved to be a great idea, as we picked up a fresh loaf of bread and some goodies for later in the day.
Now it was time for the drive to Sudbury. We left early enough that we felt we could get to Science North with enough time for Ethan to have a look around.
The Science World membership has made it easier to find educational experiences for Ethan, and he was looking forward to visiting Science North.
One other thing we’ve been doing is driving slower to save gas. And it’s working. Driving 90km/h might be a bit frustrating for people behind us, but it’s the speed limit and it’s helped add about 150 to 200km per tank of gas.
That’s a lot when you’ve got almost 3500km to go. It’s also a much quieter and relaxing pace. As for other drivers, no one actually cares, since there are ample passing opportunities.
Since Ethan has been practicing French, he likes to test Dong Eun by saying thank you and trying to get her to say “you’re welcome” in French. It’s been a fun way to get him to learn some French.
Afternoon
We arrived in Sudbury after 2:30pm and headed straight for Science North. We got there with an hour to go before closing. Not a big deal, as we already planned to stay the night in Sudbury and go back to Science North on Friday.
Getting in with our temporary memberships was easy. We showed the email with the membership card, showed my ID, then signed in and that was it. Easy, and saved us $40 for an adult plus a child.
Ethan loved Science North. There were so many interesting exhibits. He particularly liked the butterfly habitat and the insect area.
Getting to see just how big moose antlers are was also fun and educational.
Since we only had an hour, we’re heading back on Friday for a longer stay. This is something very cool about unschooling…the freedom to spend time doing activities like this and allowing Ethan to get completely immersed in the experience.
He’s so excited to go back and was happy to hear that we will be visiting more science centres during our trip. We should’ve gotten he membership before we left so we could have visited more places. But anyway…
After Science North it was time to buy some food for dinner. We then headed over to the library for some computer time and reading.
Evening
Dong Eun cooked a yummy chicken stew with rice for dinner. We had room left over for the donut and apple fritter we bought this morning. Wow! Those were good treats. We’re certainly not suffering on this trip.
And since our fridge magically started working again, we have more choices in terms of food, which is always a good thing.
We enjoyed our dessert and went back into the library to do some more work and reading. This particular library closed at 9pm so it was perfect for us. Ethan made a new optical illusions book and published it to the blog. Check it out here.
We made our way over to the local Walmart to spend the night and pick up some milk and oatmeal to make breakfast. After parking, I was walking into the store and a man joked that I chose the worst possible spot in the lot when there were so many other empty spots available. I explained that we were camping so wanted a quieter location.
We later saw the same man and his wife and struck up a conversation about our trip. They had recently bought a fifth wheel and were thinking about traveling with it. We encouraged them to go and said that the best time is now. They were an older couple; the man was a realtor and the wife ran her own business. Hopefully, they take the plunge and go for it.
It’s interactions like those and meeting people like Krista from back home that have made the trip that much more enjoyable. It’s also great for Ethan to see us talking to people and seeing how excited people are to hear about our journey. He mentioned how people we always talk to people and also mentioned Krista. Perhaps this will also encourage him to talk to others, too, as it’s a way for him to develop his social skills. And it’s just a lot of fun.
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