What is roadschooling?

What is roadschooling?

Roadschooling is homeschooling, on the road. It means taking where you are, at any moment in time, and turning that into a learning experience. Roadschooling means recognizing that life is all about learning. It’s taking the tiny, teachable moments, and turning them into life lessons.

Find a cool piece of fungus? Research it! Pick it. Experiment with it!

A fan breaks? Fix it. 

Studying weather, rocks, erosion, weathering, life cycles, etc.? Go outside and look for examples!

Find hawk/owl pellets containing a skeleton? Put it back together and figure out what it is.

Are you traveling in an area affected by a drought? Discuss what a drought is and what signs you see of the drought. How does it affect the lives of those in the area? Repeat with tornado, flood, hurricane, etc.  

Need to go shopping? Teach your kids the life skill of reading labels and comparing prices. 

Traveling to one of America’s great wonders, like the Grand Canyon? How was it formed? Can you see the layers of sedimentary rock? 

Need to get gas? How many miles per gallon does your vehicle get? How many more does it get when you’re not towing your camper behind? 

Cooking dinner? Teach the kiddos to help. Incorporate fractions, measurement, and heat sources. 

Traveling through Gettysburg? Learn about the Civil War.

Roadschooling is meeting your children’s instructional needs in the way that’s best for them. It can be as structured or as unstructured as you want it to be. It can follow a traditional homeschool day, with set subjects at specific times. It can be more like unschooling, where children follow their own interests and learn in a more unstructured manner. Repeat this with me: there’s no right or wrong!

Wheat Free, Dairy Free, Egg Free Snickerdoodle Pancakes

Wheat Free, Dairy Free, Egg Free Pancakes

I have finally found the perfect recipe for allergy friendly pancakes. Believe it or not, it is possible to make a milk free, wheat free, egg free pancake that actually tastes great! And it only uses a few, fairly normal ingredients, so they’re easy to whip up while camping. I actually mix up several batches of the dry mix at a time and store until I’m ready to use. Then all I have to do is add milk, oil, and applesauce!

 Hunter is allergic to (let me get out my fingers here) milk, wheat, corn, soy, eggs, and rice. Finding a pancake recipe without wheat, rice, or eggs has been a nightmare! But, after much trial and error,  we have done it! It’s loosely based on Cybele Pascal’s recipe for apple pancakes… but these are more of a snickerdoodle pancake!

You will need :

1 cup oat flour (by far, the cheapest of the gluten-free flours- just pour oats, as in oatmeal out of a canister, into your blender or food processor until it resembles a fine flour)

½ tsp salt

3 tsp double acting baking powder

1 tsp cinnamon (Modify this more or less due to your own tastes

2 T sugar (Again, you can modify according to taste. )

1 cup safe milk (almond, soy, coconut, oat)

2 T oil

¼ cup applesauce (This is the egg substitute. You cannot really taste it.)

Mix dry ingredients together, then add wet. Cook on a griddle, or pour into a buttered pan and make baked pancakes. (Trust me, make the baked pancakes!) You can also double the recipe, add a little more sugar and cinnamon, pour into a pan,  and you have snickerdoodle cake!

Linking up to Allergy Friendly Thanksgiving. This will most likely be one of Hunter's desserts for Turkey Day, in cake form. 

The easiest way to make pancakes ever- Baked Pancakes

The easiest way to make pancakes ever. This will change your life. Seriously!

We love pancakes for breakfast (or dinner). Having a nice breakfast is one of the things camping is all about. But camping is also about relaxation, so sometimes it’s hard to force myself to have the long, luxurious, yummy breakfast I know we’ll all enjoy because making pancakes is a little time-consuming. We take our electric griddle, so it’s not hard to do pancakes…but some days I just wanna be lazy. You know? 

And with Hunter having allergies to wheat, dairy, and eggs, his pancakes are extra-special! Having pancakes usually means at least an hour in the kitchen. I have to cook Hunter’s first so as not to contaminate the griddle, but that means his are usually cold and have to be microwaved before we can eat. In other words pancakes= yummy headache!

But, NO MORE! Do you hear me, griddle? No more. You are officially retired from pancake making!

Thanks to Lynn’s Kitchen Adventures, I tried this tip last night. I can honestly say, I will never make another round pancake again! And the best part was, I had two pans going in the oven at once. All the pancakes were ready at the same time! Do you know how long that’s been?

All you do is make your normal pancake batter… whatever special boxed mix recipe your heart desires.

Pour your batter into a buttered 13x9 inch pan, or even a buttered cookie sheet (just be sure it has edges… they don’t have to be deep). Whatever you have in your camper. Your size pan will really depend on your amount of batter. Last night, I made about 3.5 cups of batter in a 13x9 inch pan. Next time, I will divide that into two 13 x 9 inch pans. The pancakes were great, but very thick. Hunter’s mix only made about 2 cups, and I poured his into an 8 x 10 inch pan. I could have probably done his in a 13 x 9. Lynne’s rule of thumb was 2 cups mix to one 13 x 9 pan.

***UPDATE*** I tried this on well-oiled cookie sheets last night. That is THE. WAY. TO. GO! 3.5 cups of batter worked perfectly on 2 large cookie sheets. These pancakes were the perfect combo of moist and crispy. They were truly like real pancakes in thickness. Delish!

Bake at 375 for about 10 – 15 minutes, depending on your oven. You’ll know they’re done just like a cake (which is, well, kinda what you’re making… a Pancake cake!). When your toothpick or knife pulls out clean, it’s done.

Yes, I know. They don't look beautiful. But they taste good. And that's what matters!
 Gluten free pancakes are never pretty, right?
These are in a 13 x 9 pan. 

This last step is important, IF you care how your pancakes look. I mush mine anyway, so I truly didn’t care. If you want pretty pancakes, without ragged edges, let it cool before you cut it. If you’ve got hungry kiddos salivating beside you, go ahead and cut it!

I have to say, these turned out SPECTACULAR!  Especially Hunter’s. Wheat /egg/dairy free pancakes have always come out looking misshapen and funky. These were gorgeous! They actually turned out  so well, I will probably double the recipe and let this be my new allergy-friendly cake recipe from now on.

After Halloween Frugal Christmas Gift Idea

My aunt did this a few years ago, and I was amazed. Everybody hits Walmart, Target, the grocery stores, etc. for post-Halloween clearance candy and costumes. That's fantastic. Really. But sometimes, you get what you pay for when it comes to cheap costumes.

But, not always. Instead of heading to a discount store, head to Khols (or another comparable department store). These places often carry costumes as well, but they are generally very well-made and quite pricey. That is, until after Halloween.
My aunt picked up about 10-12 extremely nice Halloween costumes for the kiddos for between $3-$6 each at Khols. She packaged them for Christmas as dress-up costumes. As a nice bonus, they also had Halloween costumes for years!

How to Make Glow Sticks Brighter

We know glow sticks are a camping must have. Sometimes they're not that bright. Especially if you buy them 15 for $1 like I do. Want some super bright glow sticks?

Store 'em in the freezer.

Now THIS is the COOLEST Non Last Minute Homemade Halloween Costume ever...

Ok, I still claim the title for the coolest last minute Halloween costume ever. Plus, I'm totally thinking of doing this again one night for all of us, when we're camping. Just for funsies.

But you must, I repeat MUST head on over to http://kitchenfunwithmy3sons.blogspot.com/2012/10/our-2012-homemade-halloween.html and check out their camper costume. Please! It totally rocks!