A points and miles education: An experiment in homeschooling

About 15 years ago, long before being married or having kids, my wife and I read a story in the weekend newspaper magazine about two teachers who sold their belongings, took their kids out of school, and did a bicycle trip from the northern tip of Alaska to the southern tip of Argentina, teaching their kids math through currency conversion and history hands-on. We were very inspired by the idea of homeschooling through travel, and so we dreamed of finding a way to do that even before we had kids of our own. It eventually became obvious to us that miles and points could make a grand homeschooling adventure financially feasible by using rewards to cover most of the cost of flights and hotels, but we didn’t immediately know the mechanics of how the homeschooling part would work.

This week, we made a small step forward with a temporary experiment: we disenrolled our kids from school in favor of homeschooling from the road for the next two months. This post won’t cover miles and points knowledge, but instead will share our experience taking our kids out of the classroom. Many readers have asked for details about the process when this topic has come up in the past. While I can’t guarantee that any of this will be applicable in your own circumstances, the purpose of this post is to share our experience, since I knew very little about doing this part-time until we began looking into it.

Temporary homeschooling is the key to the experiment

While the original idea was inspired by a longer-term period of homeschooling, we realize that homeschooling isn’t as easy as it sounds. The couple who inspired this journey were both teachers. We recognize the advantages they had.

Further, while we know many people who successfully homeschool year-round and understand that there are ample opportunities for most homeschool families to provide social learning opportunities, we never intended to permanently homeschool. There are advantages and disadvantages on both sides of that coin, but we want our kids to have a “school” experience, for better or worse.

One of the most intimidating things about this idea was that we had always assumed that homeschooling was an all-or-nothing proposition. We thought that we would need to pick a year for the kids to miss school entirely. However, we learned that, at least in our state (New York), it doesn’t need to be that way. Parents can choose to homeschool at any time, including in the middle of a school year. Once we realized that we could homeschool for part of a school year, the idea became far less intimidating.

Don’t get me wrong, we think we can probably handle Kindergarten and 2nd grade math and science instruction, but homeschooling for a short period (in our case, two months) meant that our kids would benefit from professionally-trained teachers for the majority of the year. By only homeschooling for a temporary period, they still get to see their friends and have all of the benefits, challenges, and growth opportunities that the school environment provides. We certainly may entertain a longer period of homeschooling in the future, but we decided that disenrolling the kids for about two months, with the intent to re-enroll in January, seemed like a good first step.

I should note that while this may be possible in some places, the practicality of homeschooling for a temporary period likely varies tremendously depending on your state and district. We live in a very rural area where there is literally one teacher for each grade (yes, that’s public school). That made this decision and process far easier than if we ran some risk of the school not having room for the kids to re-enroll and/or if they might end up in a different class when they returned. In our case, we immediately knew that the kids would seamlessly step back into the same classroom with the same teachers and classmates. Small town living has its benefits!

Maybe there will come a time when we will want to consider a longer period of homeschooling, but for this school year, we decided to start small with a two-month homeschool period.

The process: Letter of Intent and Individualized Home Instruction Program (IHIP)

The process of disenrolling the kids from school to homeschool is far easier than we would have anticipated.

The New York State Education Department maintains a page with the basic information about the legal right to pursue home instruction, and they maintain an excellent questions and answers page that addresses most questions a New York State resident may have. I imagine that most state education departments likely publish similar pages.

I can’t speak to the process in other states, but in New York State, it is as simple as sending a Letter of Intent to homeschool to the school and completing an “IHIP” (Individualized Home Instruction Program) document.

We needed to inform the school within 14 days following the commencement of home instruction (we didn’t necessarily need to inform them in advance, though we did, and I’ll come back to that).

• Law 100.10 (b) (2) Parents who determine to commence home instruction after the start of the school year, or who establish residence in the school district after the start of the school year, shall provide written notice of their intention to educate their child at home within 14 days following the commencement of home instruction within the school district.

That notice to the school is the Letter of Intent to homeschool. We emailed that to the person at the school identified as the homeschool liaison (I had called the principal to discuss our intentions, and she told me who to email). Once that is received, the school has 10 days to provide a packet sharing the information about homeschool laws.

• Law 100.10 (c ) (1) Within 10 days of receiving the LOI, the school is supposed to send you a homeschool packet informing you of NYS homeschool laws. 

Then, within 4 weeks of receiving those materials, we needed to submit an Individualized Home Instruction Program. This was not nearly as difficult as it may sound at first glance.

• Law 100.10 (c ) (2) Within four weeks of the receipt of such materials, or by August 15th, or for the 1988-89 school year by September 15, 1988, whichever is later, the parent shall submit the completed IHIP form to the school district. (The district shall provide assistance in preparation of the forms, if requested by the parents.)

I’ll add that we completed all of that at once since we had both the letter of intent and IHIP already prepared when we emailed, thanks to gathering information about this process from friends.

There is no requirement to meet with school officials (we did reach out to talk to our school administration, and we met with the teachers, but this is not required).

It is surprising how little detail is actually required in the IHIP. The official requirements note that “the IHIP must include either a list of syllabi, curriculum materials, and textbooks to be used or a plan of instruction to be followed.” While you can submit a list of textbooks, the information on the New York State site makes it clear that a plan of instruction is sufficient and that the purpose of supplying these details is not for the school to make a subjective assessment of the materials but rather an objective determination of substantial equivalence. Our experience was that it was simple to meet the requirements.

For grades one through six in New York, the IHIP requires a very basic summary about how we intend to teach the following subjects: Arithmetic, English Language (reading, spelling, writing), Geography, United States history, Science, Health and safety, Music, visual arts, and physical education. You can find more about the requirements for other grade levels here. We simply submitted a chart with the required subjects in one column and bullet points indicating our plan of instruction in a second column. Here is part of our chart:

All kids from Kindergarten through 12th grade also need to learn about patriotism and citizenship; health education regarding alcohol, drug, and tobacco misuse; highway safety and traffic regulations, including bicycle safety; and fire and arson prevention and safety. We addressed these within the bullet points of other subjects. For instance, under our “United States History”, we mentioned having regular discussions on what it means to be a model citizen and represent our country while interacting abroad.

Our plan for teaching music is:

Singing and also appreciating live music and dance in French Polynesia/ there may be opportunity to take a dance/music lesson as well.

That level of detail was sufficient for second grade since there isn’t much along the lines of specific requirements for second-grade music.

Daily walking/hiking/swimming were some of the easy ways we intended to incorporate physical education. The IHIP does not require detailed lesson planning but rather bullet points like those outlining the general ways you intend to instruct in each area. We noted our intent to use an online system called Beast Academy’s Level 2 to teach math. In reality, we also received a lot more material than we anticipated from our sons’ teachers (more on that in a minute).

Quarterly reports/tracking

Those who intend to homeschool for a longer period in New York (and I assume other states) are required to submit quarterly reports. For this reason, it is important to stay organized with a spreadsheet to track both attendance and hours. While there is no set number of hours that you must instruct (most homeschool parents we know say that they can complete the required work in far less time than that of an average school day), the idea is that it should be roughly equivalent to the instruction they would receive at school.

Those quarterly reports would be submitted every ~2.5 months. I’m not actually sure whether we’ll need to submit one of these since our kids won’t quite miss an entire quarter, but we’ll be prepared with a spreadsheet should we need to do so. This is really as simple as maintaining a daily record of attendance and the hours during which you provided instruction. Again, you don’t need to provide detailed descriptions of what you did, but rather a general description of the learning objectives you pursued during the quarter.

If we do need to submit a report, it would go to the homeschool liaison, so it is good that we identified that person through an early call to the school

Meeting with the school is not required, but it was really helpful for us

We wanted to be as collaborative as possible in this endeavor. We have been happy with our kids’ teachers, and especially due to our intention to re-enroll the kids in January, we wanted to make sure that we would keep our kids on track with the things their classmates would be learning while they are gone.

For that reason, I began this process by calling the principal. I explained the motivation behind travel homeschooling, and she was as enthusiastic about our plans as I could have hoped. My wife and I next reached out to each child’s teacher.

I should note that we didn’t need to provide an IHIP for our younger son, as he is in Kindergarten and Kindergarten is not mandatory in New York State (it is mandatory in some states).

The kids’ teachers were surprisingly responsive. Both teachers met with us to discuss our plans. We explained how our goal was to set the kids up for success when they returned and that it would be helpful to get any guidance as to important concepts they would learn while we were gone (for instance, knowing the spelling words that would be covered in class would help us make sure that our 2nd grade son knows how to spell the same words that his classmates have learned). Schools/teachers are not required to provide any of that sort of information, nor any materials. However, they can be helpful. The New York State question/answer page includes the following:

Q: May parents or students on home instruction borrow instructional items from the public school such as library books, microscopes and movie projectors?

A: Yes. Although a public school is not obligated by law to lend such items, it may allow parents or students to borrow available materials.

I had no expectation that the teachers would provide us with materials, but in our case, they were incredibly helpful. Each teacher lent us copies of textbooks they are using in class, marking the sections they intend to cover while we are away. They provided information about specific (free) online resources they are using and even stacks of handouts they expect to cover. We had already acquired a substantial set of materials, but the teachers provided us with so much that we may not have needed the materials we had sought out on our own. I certainly wouldn’t (and didn’t) expect the teachers to go so far above and beyond, but I was glad that we took the time to ask for a meeting, as they really surprised us with their enthusiasm and helpfulness. Obviously, your mileage may vary here. We lucked out!

A sampling of ways we intend to teach hands-on

As you would expect, we are using plenty of real-world daily scenarios to teach relevant concepts. For instance, as I write this, we are at Atlantis Resort in the Bahamas (using the Caesars Diamond complimentary 4-night stay, which we initially booked before our Caesars Diamond status ran out on January 31, 2025). We spent an hour one morning in the large saltwater aquarium talking about the various types of sea life and the purpose of some of their adaptations.

On Monday, my kids and wife played mini-golf while I was in the room working; later in the day, we had our 7yr old practice addition by figuring out the total cost of the round of mini golf based on the adult/kid pricing (answer: too much) and then I had him figure out how many hours he would need to work at minimum wage if he wanted to pay for that round of mini golf (I made him figure it out based on the approximate minimum wage both in New York State and the federal minimum wage, and then that led into a natural discussion about taxes, both in terms of how they mean that he wouldn’t actually take home the full amount of those wages and the purpose of taxes, etc). We’re enjoying the chance to use spontaneous situations like those to teach relevant concepts, and since we do not need to submit lesson plans, we are free to take advantage of those opportunities as they present themselves.

We’ve done things like identify the Bahamian flag to discuss the meaning of flags and the meanings of the stars and stripes in our US flag. We discussed the legend of the Lost City of Atlantis and how stories like that sometimes weave their way into popular culture. When we fly to Los Angeles this week, we’ll talk about time zones. When we visit Christmas markets in Europe next month, we’ll talk about holiday traditions and world religions. I hope to discuss some European history by pointing out the German influences in Strasbourg, France. And we’re working on English Language Arts by writing a regular journal about our travels, a habit that began with a trip we took during the last school year, which provides for great opportunity for daily review as well as practice with writing skills.

I’m continuing to work as usual while we travel, so I’m really taking a supporting role to my wife in terms of instruction. Thankfully, technology also makes this easier, with numerous apps and online resources that we are incorporating in the process.

While we’re far too early in the process to offer definitive recommendations, some of the educational tools we’re using include:

• Duo ABC: A free program for kids ages 3-8 from Duolingo that teaches kids to read and write. I’ve been watching our Kindergartener use this, and so far I am impressed with how it works (and the progress he is making).
• Beast Academy: This is an online math program that came recommended to us by MIT-educated friends who use it with their similarly aged kids. I’ve seen mixed reviews depending on grade level, but so far, I find it to provide some interesting supplemental math instruction. Our 2nd grader seems to pick up math concepts very quickly. I enjoy that Beast Academy incorporates both regular math practice and some really interesting problem-solving games that seem designed to stretch the brain in other ways.
• University of Florida Literacy Institute (UFLI): Our son’s teacher provided some specific guidance about lessons she would be using that come directly from free resources published by the University of Florida Literacy Institute. We haven’t gotten deep into these materials yet, but this seems to be driving a lot of the ELA curriculum our son would have been doing at school, so it’s great to have access.
• ABC Mouse: This is a learning app specifically aimed at PreK through 2nd grade. I’m not as enthusiastic about this as I am about some of the other tools above, but there is no doubt that ABC Mouse has made our kids interested in learning. Our trip to Scotland last summer was based on an ABC Mouse lesson about Stirling Castle that our kids loved (they kept asking if we could visit Stirling Castle someday). Our stop at the La Brea Tar Pits in Los Angeles later this week is similarly inspired by an ABC Mouse unit and the interest it spawned in our kids to visit.

Other resources that we haven’t yet explored but that came recommended by friends who homeschool include:

• FREE Lessons / Resources / Curricula: Under the Home and Freedom Homeschooling
• Kidshealth.org for safety and health topics
• Grade-by-Grade Guide by WorldBook

Again, we haven’t yet used those, but they are on our radar.

Bottom line

This week, my wife and I began an experiment in homeschooling our kids through travel and hands-on experience. This is new to us and we are really excited about the chance to leverage miles and points to (hopefully) enhance the education our kids receive. We have already loved relating concepts from our travels to things the kids learn in school, and we are excited about the challenge of developing lessons that can help them meet learning objectives that connect with real life. And we were really surprised by how relatively simple it has been to get this process started in terms of taking our kids out of public school and submitting enough plans to meet the requirements of homeschool instruction. Thanks to the plethora of online resources and technology-based learning platforms, and thanks to the generous help from many friends in the local homeschool community, we have a ton of support. Perhaps the biggest peace of mind for us is knowing that we will go back to school in a couple of months, which should help us evaluate how well we’ve kept the kids up with their classmates while providing plenty of time to supplement/catch up if we’ve fallen short. All of those factors combined have made it far easier than we would have anticipated. Now, wish us luck in the balancing act of putting plans into practice while navigating the natural stresses of travel.

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