Being on a budget while traveling full-time makes it hard to entertain the kids and still get a good homeschool education. We spend the majority of our income on camping sites, food, and gas for both cars.  I like to find free things we can do on the road like touring historic towns, visiting zoos, museums, aquariums, and going on hikes. I like to think of Unschooling as a fun school or doing fun things and learning and experiencing life at the same time.  Kids don’t have to do the “Drill and Kill worksheets” and testing to know if your kid is learning.

My favorite way to Unschool the history of a town is to try some yummy food or find a historic city that is bursting with a rich history.  Historic Gruene, Texas is a small town settled in mid-1840 by German farmers. These farmers planted cotton which became the number one crop and thus began building homes, stores, and restaurants. Unfortunately, one of the original settlers died, and the original cotton gin burned which led to the downfall of this prosperous town.  In 1974 new owners arrived and got historic Gruene on the National Register of Historic Places.

We enjoyed visiting the town and visiting the old stores and checking out all the antique shops.  Our favorite was the general store where you could find anything from silly sunglass, toys, and good old-fashioned ice cream.  They offered Mexican cokes, for those who don’ know it is coke in a bottle with real sugar, and yes I thought it was weird also since we are from the birthplace of coke.  I grew up drinking coke in a bottle in my dad’s shop and even had a coke machine that held glass bottles.

We actually started our little journey at Cannon Lake where we took a short hike along the canal looking at the beautiful scenery.  It was built to create electricity for the city of Gruene with a hydroelectric pump station.  We found a huge field of the famous bluebonnets flowers, only found in Texas that bloom around easter (they are beautiful).