Homeschooling Through Life’s Big Changes: Lessons From a Military Mom
Moving is hard. Homeschooling is hard. But homeschooling while moving every 1-3 years?
That’s a challenge few truly understand.
We recently spoke with Air Force wife and homeschool mom Lydia Rosado, who has firsthand experience balancing homeschooling with the ever-changing demands of military life. Even if your family isn’t in the military, her insights can help you navigate major life transitions—whether it’s a move, a job change, or another significant shift.
Life as a Military Homeschooling Family
For military families, change is a way of life. Frequent relocations mean adjusting to new homes, communities, and routines, often with little notice. Lydia’s family has lived all over the country—from the East Coast to the Midwest, the South, and beyond. While this nomadic lifestyle presents challenges, it also provides incredible learning opportunities. Instead of just reading about different regions, her children experience them firsthand, gaining a deep understanding of diverse cultures, histories, and landscapes.
Adapting to Change
With every move, Lydia’s family has to reimagine their homeschool setup. Sometimes, academics have to take a backseat to more immediate priorities, like settling into a new home or adjusting to a different environment. Over time, she’s learned that prioritizing family and relationships over rigid schedules has made their homeschool stronger, even when life feels unpredictable.
Building and Rebuilding Social Structures
For homeschooling families, community is essential—but for military families, sometimes it’s also temporary. With every relocation, they have to rebuild their support network. Lydia has found that plugging into a church community early on helps ease the transition, though finding the right fit isn’t always immediate. Some moves bring strong, instant connections, while others require more effort to build meaningful relationships.
Staying Connected Across the Miles
While her children prefer in-person friendships, they’ve found creative ways to maintain relationships between moves. Writing letters to pen pals across the country and staying in touch through video calls have become valuable tools for staying connected. Not only do these methods keep friendships alive, but they also reinforce writing and communication skills in a meaningful way.
Creating a Strong Family Unit
With so much change, consistency within the home is crucial. Lydia’s family maintains a sense of stability by prioritizing traditions, such as reading aloud together and playing games. These simple routines create a comforting sense of normalcy, no matter where they are. For example, finishing a book just before a move allows them to start a new one on the road, making the transition feel more like an adventure than an upheaval.
Field Trips and Real-World Learning
One of the biggest perks of military life is the built-in travel opportunities. With each move, Lydia’s family explores their new surroundings, turning their location into an extension of their classroom. Living in new states has allowed them to visit countless historical sites and museums, making the most of their time in each new area.
Beyond sightseeing, these experiences shape their homeschool curriculum. Studying the Civil War? That lesson becomes much more impactful when walking through a battlefield in Virginia. Learning about the Founding Fathers? Visiting the homes of George Washington and Thomas Jefferson brings history to life in a way no textbook can.
Balancing Flexibility and Organization
Organizing life and homeschooling during a move requires striking a delicate balance between planning and flexibility. Lydia says, "sometimes the biggest thing is just learning when to let things go." Moving entails logistical challenges, like managing food supplies and transportation needs, but also emotional readiness. She stresses the importance of prioritizing tasks and understanding when it's time to let certain things slide to maintain family well-being. During moves, formal academics often take a backseat, but her children continue learning in natural ways, whether it’s through casual reading, math games, or exploring their new surroundings.
Emotional Management and Grace
Relocations aren’t just physically demanding—they take an emotional toll, too. Lydia emphasizes the importance of allowing space for emotions. When her children feel overwhelmed, she gives them grace. If they’re not up for reading or writing one day, they take a break and go outside instead. Understanding that each child processes change differently, she prioritizes emotional well-being over rigid academic expectations. Ultimately, her goal is to ensure her children feel loved, supported, and secure, no matter where they are.
Embracing the Journey
Homeschooling in a military family comes with unique challenges, but it also offers incredible opportunities for growth, resilience, and adventure. Lydia Rosado’s experiences highlight the power of flexibility, strong family bonds, and viewing each transition as an opportunity rather than an obstacle. By embracing the unpredictable and turning every new location into a learning experience, military homeschooling families like hers transform constant change into a rich and rewarding educational journey.
Join the Conversation!
Have you ever had to homeschool during a big transition? We’d love to hear your story! You can share it with us here. And as always, let us know how we can be praying for your family. It's truly our pleasure to walk alongside you on your homeschooling journey!
More from Lydia Rosado
Lydia also recently shared her transition from a traditional "school at home" approach to the more dynamic and engaging unit studies and project-based learning style that has made a world of difference for her family. Below are a few of the key takeaways from this conversation, as well as some practical advice for anyone considering implementing unit studies in your own home.
📌 Highlights:
The Transition to Unit Studies: Lydia candidly talks about how her family was initially unhappy with their homeschooling routine, which led her to completely scrap the traditional methods and just fall back on reading books together. This pivot in desperation grew into full-fledged unit studies when she noticed her children's excitement and demand for more.
Customized Learning: Unit studies allow you to blend subjects like history, science, art, and more into a cohesive learning experience. Lydia explains how she uses this approach to meet each of her children's unique interests, strengths, and weaknesses.
Getting Started with Unit Studies: For those new to unit studies, Lydia suggests starting small. Choose a topic of interest (for you or your kids), gather a few books, and see where it takes you. Don’t worry about making it perfect from the get-go; just begin and adjust as needed.
Projects and Real-Life Connections: Projects are a crucial component of Lydia’s unit studies, helping her children develop a deeper understanding of subjects through hands-on learning. She combines creative activities with academic subjects to fully engage her children.
Staying Organized: This method doesn't take a ton of planning before getting started. Just dive in and then write down everything you covered related to your chosen topic, and then categorizing activities into subjects such as history, science, and language arts.
Practical Tips:
Start with Interests:
Whether it’s something you’re passionate about or a topic your children are curious about, begin with an engaging subject.
Use the Library:
Books are an excellent resource, and integrating fiction and non-fiction can enrich your unit study.
Incorporate Projects:
From writing and illustrating science books, to building historical models with toys, you can make learning more meaningful and retainable for your children!
