How I Road Schooled

In Gulf Shores & Orange Beach

Published on: January 9, 2026

We are road school travelers and have been doing it for over a decade! We've been all across the country, and one of our favorite homeschool travel destinations is Alabama’s Beaches. Here are six tips for road schooling based on our family’s educational adventures in Gulf Shores, Orange Beach, and Fort Morgan.

Tips for Homeschool Trips on Alabama's Beaches

Lobby of Best Western Tides beachfront hotel in Orange Beach

Consider Your Need for Internet

Do you want your road school trip to include a virtual classroom? Are you using a digital curriculum? If these things are essential, you’ll want to find accommodations that make the internet available. We don’t use a virtual classroom or an online curriculum, but WiFi is still essential. Once when we stopped at Gulf State Park, we found several new-to-us creatures. We took photos, and when we were back in the hotel room, the boys looked them up online and wrote an informal report. We were also able to find a documentary about them on YouTube.

pod of dolphins swimming alongside a cruise in orange beach

Bring Resources to Leverage Your Location

It’s easy to bring educational resources from home if you’ve got them. We brought books about wild weather and dolphins with us to the beach. The diverse ecosystems of the Alabama Gulf Coast offer plenty of opportunities to dive into the unique flora and fauna of the area. Bon Secour National Wildlife Refuge and Gulf State Park provide the perfect outdoor settings to learn about nature, wildlife, ecosystems, and biodiversity. Consider what books, workbooks, projects, or ideas can you bring from home that tie into the unique features of the place you visit during your homeschool travel.

Leverage the Edu-Tainment Opportunities in the Area

The best part about homeschool travel is not that you can open a workbook on the road but that you can use the resources in the area to see, touch, smell, and feel your way through a learning experience. Alabama's Beaches are home to various educational activities and attractions.

The Alabama Gulf Coast Zoo offers unique opportunities, such as feeding giraffes or holding sloths. Our youngest drove a catamaran with Sail Wild Hearts, and our oldest took to mapping out how sailboats can run faster than the wind (hello, physics).

There are a myriad of learning opportunities in the area, from Historic Fort Morgan to the Alabama Aquarium at the Dauphin Island Sea Lab. You could spend a week there and not get to them all.

Family interacting with local wildlife at the Nature Center in Gulf State Park

Rely on Others to Help Teach the Kids

One of my favorite ways to road school is to take advantage of others smarter than me. When our boys fed giraffes, the zoo trainer gave them the scoop! Why the two giraffes are different sizes, why their tongues are rough, what they eat in the wild, how they prepare food at the zoo, how they have giraffe temperaments, and so much more.

Park rangers are always a go-to resource, and Gulf State Park offers guided walks and free weekly programs at the Nature Center and Learning Campus. The Gulf Coast Eco-Center is another great spot for diving in to the natural wonders of the area, and the knowledgable staff here host regular workshops.

When it comes to water-based education, the Wind & Water Learning Center and local oysters farms such as Admiral Shellfish and Navy Oysters are excellent resources to help teach kids about the local waterways, ecology, and environmental stewardship.

Visitors walking into a building at the eco-center ready to learn

The Only Way to Fail is to Avoid Trying

That’s a message for homeschool parents and kids. You’ll try books you hate and programs the kids think are boring and “lame.” You’re going to be excited about things the kids hate and hate a few things the kids are excited about. Some days, you’re going to feel on top of the world, and other days, you’re going to wonder if you’re failing them. But you’re going to keep trying, loving, and pressing forward. One of the most valuable lessons hubs that I try to be an example of is that failing is okay!

“Failing” gets a bad rap; “trying” is always the goal, and the outcome always teaches us a lesson.

Skip a School Schedule; Embrace Your Daily Routine

Why? Because Murphy’s Law is a real thing. As a family that travels full-time, we don’t have a school schedule but embrace routines. For example, we usually wake between 6:30 am and 7:30 am. Everyone starts with alone time when waking up (thank goodness we all agree on this).

As I write this, it is Saturday, which means my hubby (Dan) works out in the morning while I make breakfast. Any formal learning like math happens before lunch. This evening is my yoga class (virtual means I can do it on the road), so Dan makes their dinner and talks more in-depth about the questions that came up today. Then we all have family time together. Do our routines get wonky and messed up? Yes, but not very often. If we had a "schedule," though, it would be in vain. Routines mean that when something happens – good or bad – we can adjust to it easily.

Math at 9 am every day? It’s just not going to happen because we might have stayed up late the previous night to watch a meteor shower. Or we might have an early morning shelling excursion planned. But math sometime after breakfast and before lunch? That’s easy to accomplish.

Lesli Peterson, Owner/Founder of 365 Atlanta Traveler, made her way to Atlanta more than 20 years ago, after living in Germany, Japan and six U.S. states. She relishes the discovery of obscure, offbeat and unwonted places, and she will chat up any willing stranger to uncover a new secret locale. After 18 years in software development, Lesli bailed on the corporate scene. When she’s not traveling, she’s hiking in the mountains or checking out Atlanta’s culinary scene, whiskey in hand. Lesli has two kiddos -Cooper and Elliot- plus two bonus kids living in Athens, and she’s happily married to her soul mate.