Homeschooling for Nothing and Their Camping for Free

Yes, yes I do rip off Dire Straits almost every time I write about free stuff.

Let’s talk about camping! We camped this week. We’re incredibly lucky to be 15 miles from a campground that is deserted on weekdays, and to be able to work remotely from there.

We’d made a habit of doing this sort of thing, albeit further afield, before the pandemic. In Hawaii, on the island of Oahu, we hopped the 60 bus—on the bus system lovingly, and officially known as The Bus—from the airport, and two hours later hopped out on an ocean-front campground where we paid on the order of, maybe, seventeen dollars a night. Again, we lucked out with really good phone signal. Waking up at 3:30 as one is wont to do when they have kids, I managed to get a lot of work done there as well.

Here in New Mexico, we’re paying seven dollars a night, or at least we were until last week. Next week... We’ll pay nothing. Why you ask? I’ll tell you! Because, fourth grade.

“But wait”, I hear you say, “you unschool.”

And you are correct. We do unschool. We had to do some research into the fourth grade when we headed down this path. First, we asked one of the kids, the nine year-old, if deep down, on the inside, she might feel like she’s in the fourth grade. She searched her inner sanctum, and said that yes, in fact, she might feel a little fourth grade-y. Then, we did research into what age kids are actually supposed to be in the fourth grade, and yup, nine going on ten seemed close enough.

And now, I hear you saying, “Yes, but what on Earth does the fourth grade have to do with camping, and furthermore, what does camping have to do with free stuff?"

Again, I’ll tell you. This week, my partner discovered that the National Park Service will give a free park pass for the school year to any kid who asks... As long as they're in the fourth grade. The Park Service was even kind enough to point out that homeschoolers should feel free to apply. About fifteen minutes later, we, the kid, Daize actually, had a free park pass! The site for free park passes is:

https://everykidoutdoors.gov/index.htm

This would have been even more cool if we’d found out when there wasn’t a pandemic, because we tend to spend a lot of time at the Tall Ships National Park in San Francisco, but it turned out to be really handy now as well. Because the Bureau of Land Management—the folks who manage our campground—accepts National Park passes, we’ll now be camping for free.

I wanted to pass this along in case you have a campground nearby as well. We’ve loved being able to just leave the house during the week to get out of town and away from people. As a final thought, check out dispersed campgrounds in your area. We didn’t know about these until a few years ago. They’re unimproved campsites, (that means they might have a fire ring, or rock circle, and maybe a cleared spot for a tent, but maybe not also, and no water, and no toilets—more on pottying outside soon), that tend to be spaced a few hundred yards away from each other off of Forest Service roads in the middle of nowhere. Kinda perfect for getting away from it all in a Pandemic. Also? Dispersed campgrounds are free.

What are your favorite homeschooling camping stories or tips?

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