Every Workamper’s journey begins with a dream – a vision of living life on their own terms. For some, that dream starts small and grows into an entirely new way of life. In this profile, Shaina and Joel Pratt share how they turned a winter daydream into a full-time family adventure, trading the ordinary for a life of travel, Workamping, and homeschooling on the road.
By Shaina & Joel Pratt
We are a Workamping couple under the age of 45 that also have a family in tow – two children we homeschool.
A few years ago in the middle of the February winter doldrums, I had fantasized about how we could live life differently. We decided to do a search on families that RV traveled long term but did not find much info at that time.
I was intrigued by the thought and even went as far as to search out what kind of model RV would be suitable for long term family travels, but I quickly dismissed the thought as a far-fetched dream that could only be achieved by winning the lottery.
When I still could not get the thought out of my head, we made plans to enjoy our summer and bought an RV and a seasonal campsite not far from home.
We enjoyed the experience and campground so much we dropped hints to the owners that we’d love to help out the following season. Over the following winter, we discovered an online group of families that did just the sort of thing we were longing to try.
We joined fulltimefamilies.com and began to learn of the amazing adventures and travels of families with children who live, work, play and travel all with all the comforts of home on the road.
We were sold on the idea. By February we had sold our home and most everything in it in order to “full-time”. We were thrilled when we were offered a Workamping position that we solicited the summer before. It was a perfect opportunity to build a Workamping resume, and we did.
We are wintering in Florida and have committed to Workamp this summer again and beyond. We love this lifestyle and what it affords us; a different view and perspective. Not just the view out our windows either! We love the travel.
Some of the difficulties we have encountered are finding the right fit campgrounds that have the hours available we are willing to put in.
Balancing Workamping and family might sound trickier than it really is, but we have had nothing but success so far. The hardest part for us so far has been saying goodbye to friends we meet along the way.
Even though we are relatively new to this and have only a season under our belt, we have found campgrounds very receptive to our energetic style and personalities. So much that we are encouraged enough to continue Workamping as our primary work.
We believe our age is a key factor to our success and pride ourselves on our enthusiasm and energy that we bring to our campgrounds. We definitely plan to continue doing this for as long as we can.
What a great way of seeing and learning the country. What better way to teach your kids than to show them 1st hand on the road.
We look forward to the new places and new people this life brings us. We definitely have no regrets about the decision to leave it all behind and find a new way to live.
Stories like this show how Workamping can be the path to freedom, flexibility, and a fresh start. If you’ve made the leap into the Workamping lifestyle and would like to share your story, we’d love to feature you in a future Workamper profile story.
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