This is Homeschool!

Freedom and flexibility are two of the foremost benefits of homeschooling. With so many ideas of what homeschool is actually like, I want to share the side that doesn’t often come to mind when people think of homeschool.

We homeschool year round. And since we are not bound by school schedules another major benefit is traveling during the off season. The best learning we do is when we are out experiencing the world, especially traveling. In 2018, we went on the mother of all field trips… A Transatlantic European cruise on The Carnival Horizon (Bells, whistles, horns, and symbols clambering)!!! A 14 day adventure leaving from Barcelona and traveling to Malaga, Gibraltar, Lisbon,Portugal and Vigo,Spain before heading to Halifax,Canada and ending in New York.

We spent the weeks before our trip covering Spain related topics. We learned how to count in Spanish, how to identify a strait, and studied continents. I also made a pamphlet for everyone to reference and complete while we were away. As for school supplies, I didn’t pack much. They each had their notebooks with their pamphlets inserted in the back, a community box of pencils and markers, our reading comprehension cubes, sight word flash cards, and my oldest had his chapter book for reading.

The ship had a Dr. Seuss library that I utilized for the other children’s reading material. I’m not a Dr. Seuss fan per se but the goal was to have them read so that purpose was served. And the reptile book my son read was pretty informative. A break from the typical Lox in Sox on box on Fox type of thing. It was also a great place to let baby play while they worked.

The way our itinerary went, I knew I wouldn’t be doing a formal lesson everyday. The experience of it was the predominant part of the learning. The first 3 days of the trip we were in ports so we set out on adventures.

We didn’t get a chance to explore Barcelona unfortunately. We only had enough time to fly in and board the ship. Our first port of call was Malaga,Spain. If you are familiar with cruising you know that shore excursions can be costly, especially with a large family. So we didn’t book many excursions through Carnival. We set out on our own and found that the same Hop on Hop off tour Carnival offered was also offered by a vendor once we got off the ship. And we were able to bargain for a better rate! The way the Hop on Hop off tour works is you get on a double decker bus and hop off at sites you want to see. Once you’re done you hop on the next bus that comes along.

Part of our curriculum included Picasso and he was born in Malaga, so I definitely wanted the children to experience some of his work. So the first stop we hopped off at was Plaza de la Merced. This is where the Fundacion Picasso is located.

As for the museum experience, there was much to be desired. Kids are free but they don’t get listening devices for the exhibits so I found myself relaying the information I was hearing. And all the labels for the works were in Spanish so they couldn’t necessarily read it for themselves. But I tried to explain as much as I could. The building is actually his childhood home and that part is what the children found most interesting. I thought it was pretty cool myself.

After we left the museum we explored the plaza a bit. We fed some birds, took pictures and then it was time for a snack.

A very friendly gentleman waved us over to his establishment and yelled,” I have 8 seats right here!” He was either watching us or counting fast. Lol. Either way we accepted the invitation and sat down. I introduced tapas as part of our curriculum so of course this opportunity was too hard tapas up. I couldn’t resist. We ordered about 9 different tapas to share. I didn’t get a picture of our spread unfortunately (baby was a handful). As for the experience, let’s be frank, it was bar food. The kids tried a few things but weren’t really into it. My teenage cousins, who we adopted for this trip, were less than impressed as well. But it was all good. We tried it! And that was the point.

After we finished there, it was time to Hop back on the bus. The buses didn’t come so frequently either. So we threw our money on the table (paid the check) and ran like crazy people to catch the bus that was just approaching. And don’t you know, when we boarded the bus the rest of our family who traveled with us was on the bus. Reunited, we headed back to the ship. Next stop, Gibraltar!

We did book a Carnival excursion in Gibraltar and I’m so glad we did. We went on the Barbary Ape/St. Michael’s Cave tour. I chose it because it touched on zoology and speleology. In other words they got to see animals and caves! And the tour was only an hour and a half. A six hour tour with kids including a toddler and no food would not have been a good idea (there was an option like this).

We set out to meet the tour and this day we adopted yet another cousin to take along. We had a few hiccups before we disembarked. Someone’s ticket was missing, I was waiting for a parent to give their child spending money, and they tried to put us on separate buses. I’m mentioning this for reality’s sake. It rarely went smoothly or without a tad bit of chaos but it was okay. We met up with our tour bus and all was well…NOT! They told me I couldn’t take the baby stroller on the bus (more like a shuttle). First because it wouldn’t fit, then because it wasn’t safe. In the end the very accommodating driver managed to fit it in the trunk and even offered to take it out as needed when we stopped. See, all good.

Our first stop was the lighthouse. Now the completely fascinating part about Gibraltar for us was how close it is to Africa. We could see the other continent from this one point. It was about 18 miles away. So cool.

Next we set out to go to the top of the rock. As we drove, there was a crossing that we had to stop at. Not a railroad crossing, a runway crossing. We had to stop and wait for planes to land! In Gibraltar they drive across this active airport runway. So we got to see a plane land right in front of us! Awesome.The gates lifted and we proceeded across. (See video).

We stopped at this cozy little fisher’s village called Catalan Bay. It was so quaint and colorful. The large white building to the far left in the photo is Hotel Caleta. This is the second largest beach in Gibraltar and gets pretty crowded during the summer. It was Spring and quite chilly while we visited but that didn’t stop people from venturing into the water as seen below.

Our last stop on the tour was at the top of the rock. It’s outside the rock or cave that the Barbary Apes roam freely. That’s right, no cages or trainers. They just walked and climbed around at will.

Once we exited the bus we immediately encountered the apes walking on railings and obliging photo ops with the tourists. On the way in I handed my husband some wet ones to wipe little hands if they touched the apes. He promptly shoved them in his back pocket. As we walked up the incline to enter the cave, one of the apes came running past me and towards my husband a few steps ahead of me. Next thing I heard was my husband yell,”Hey!” The ape had run behind him and snatched the wipes out of his pocket. Apparently he thought it was a snack. He ripped into it with his ape teeth, smelled the disappointment of the non-edible wipes and tossed it on the ground. Shocked and amused,we proceeded into the cave. It was quite slippery so we walked slowly and carefully. The cave was illuminated by colorful lights that highlighted each peak and crevice.

After we walked through the cave, it was time to go. The ship was leaving in 30 minutes and we still needed to drive back. As we made our way towards the bus, the tour guide pointed out one of the apes nursing her 1 year old baby. I too was still nursing my 1 year old baby and happened to be wearing her at that moment. I couldn’t pass up the opportunity to take a picture with the mama ape, so I did!!

This was the only Carnival tour we booked and all praises to The Most High that we did. If you book your tours with Carnival, they will wait for you to get back should you run late. Not so if you book privately or venture out on your own. Which is fine, you just need to allow yourself extra time whenever you’re doing your own thing. Because that ship will leave without you! (A member of our party was left on a previous vacation). Anyway, we were late getting back and the ship was still there. The crew at the dock was fun and lighthearted about our tardiness. Check out our return to the ship below.

Gibraltar was eventful but it was time to sail on to Lisbon,Portugal. We had no planned itinerary whatsoever for Lisbon. When we arrived we entertained doing another Hop on Hop off thingy but we got off the ship so late that our time was limited. Confession: most days we got off the ship well after noon. We are not early risers and we had a bunch of kids. Our kids and others at times, so yeah. Anywho, we paid for a Hop on tour and then the driver dropped us in a spot to catch another bus but that bus took forever to come and had we gotten on, we wouldn’t have made it back in time to catch the ship before it sailed off to the next port. So we decided to explore Lisbon ourselves, on foot. Oh my gosh it was so fun. We walked and stopped in shops, got some souvenirs, talked to locals. It was a wonderful experience.

We made another mad dash to the ship and on the way I saw this little gelato shop and I just couldn’t resist. That gelato would’ve been worth getting left. Lol. I got a lemon gelato that tasted like lemon cheesecake. Ooh so yummy! And the staff was so friendly too. Anyways, we weren’t far off from the ship at that point and we sprinted back.

Our next stop was in Vigo, Spain. My oldest daughter (6 years old) opted out of getting off the ship at this port. She saw that it was cloudy and cold and decided she rather go to camp on the ship. My mom had decided to stay behind as well (she was recuperating from walking all around Lisbon the day before) so she was on board in case anything occurred with my daughter. Now, part of me was like “You gone get this experience and get off this ship!!” But my husband and I agreed to let her decide what she wanted that day and she didn’t regret her decision. We hadn’t booked any excursions and maybe we should have because there wasn’t much to do right off the dock. It looked pretty bleak. There was a huge mall at the dock which is where we spent most of our time. There was this shop in there that had chocolate and pastries! I’m a foodie, can you tell? They had the best freshest glazed donuts. And the chocolate truffles were delicious too. The name of it I can’t recall, but it’s on the first level, to the left right before the escalator (if you’re in Vigo anytime soon).

This was a toy store inside that mall I mentioned. It was nice to see the little brown brother in the window so I snapped a shot (sorry for the glare).

After touring the mall and trying to unload some Euros we boarded the ship yet again. I recorded the following video when I got back to my cabin. It’s a mini tour of our lodging and some hacks I employed to save space and stay organized. This was the end of our European part of the trip. For the next six days we would be sailing across the Atlantic Ocean to Canada. We took that time to do our lessons and further explore the ship.

Our first day at sea, we got right to work! As I mentioned we were traveling with other children so they completed assigned school lessons and we did our homeschool curriculum. I made the children pamphlets on Spain that they could color as we reviewed the material. We stayed in the Family Harbor part of the ship which had an exclusive lounge for guests in that part of the ship. It had 24 hour ice cream (that seemed to run out often), a fridge with yogurt and milk, cabinets stocked with cereal, two areas to watch tv, a couple computers, and tables. There was one big dining table that we took advantage of often to do lessons as a group. Oh yeah, the biggest benefit is that the lounge served breakfast and lunch buffet style,and laid out snacks in between. So the children could munch while they worked, like they do at home (except I wasn’t preparing everything!).

For a change of pace we did a reading day in the Dr. Seuss library outside of Camp Ocean. When they weren’t doing lessons, they engaged in extracurricular activities. There was an elaborate sports deck with ping pong, bean bag tosses, basketball courts, exercise equipment, and all sorts of games. My youngest son got a taste of videography while recording a basketball game up there with my husband’s phone and tripod. And we discovered he has a knack for it! Now it was quite chilly so we tried the pool one day and never went back. It was just way too cold to be walking around wet.

So we deferred to dry indoor activities. There was an IMAX theatre on the ship. So we watched a movie. There was an arcade but they didn’t spend a lot of time there. And finally, Camp Ocean, which my children loved!

Now it was quite sobering to be crossing the ocean along the same route as our ancestors, many of whom’s remains rested at the bottom of the ocean. The days at sea were rainy at times, choppy and made for good days to reflect and be grateful that The Most High chose us to awaken. HalleluYah!

While we are sailing (theoretically) let’s talk about Shabbat on the ship. We avoided having people serve us as much as possible. We didn’t do sit down meals where we were served. Instead we served ourselves at the buffet and the kids didn’t go to Camp Ocean until after Shabbat was over. Anytime we are away on Shabbat it’s difficult to cover all bases for me. I feel like I’m constantly missing something, which I do believe is partially the point. It is a sign of our covenant with The Most High but constantly falling short helps me maintain humility as well.

After our sixth day at sea we arrived in Halifax!

It was quite breezy but we ventured out in foot and did some local exploring. The ship docked at a touristy pier so we just walked along the pier to see what we could get into. There were a lot of street performers to our surprise. I almost felt like I was in New York (except it was a lot cleaner- I can say that because I’m a native New Yorker). We noticed this huge green double decker bus and decided to inquire as to what it was. It was an amphibian called The Harbor Hopper. We thought that would be a good way to see local sights so we bought tickets and waited 2 hours for the next tour. The pier had food and we had stomachs and kids so we purchased some local fare. PSA: the food at the pier in Halifax was overpriced and pretty gross. We had slushees, fries, a smoothie, and I forget what else. But it cost about $50, all of which I was quite underwhelmed by. The tour however was great. We received a family rate which was a much better deal than the per person rate. We had our children plus a couple more cousins with us. After the tour we had to get back to the ship. We boarded and we were headed back to our final destination, New York.

It was a wonderful trip and the kids still talk about it to this day. If you’ve read this far, gold star for hanging in there!! Lol. It was a 14 day trip so there was a lot to share. If you weren’t already aware of this side of homeschool life, I hope I was able to show you something new. Please like, share or leave comments below. I’d love to hear your thoughts.

Be blessed and Shalom!