Traveling long-term with your family… Sounds dreamy, right? 

Right now, many families are traveling with their kids, learning from the world as they live the life of their dreams. Is this on your bucket list, too?

Who are these people and how do they do it? Perhaps you heard of a friend of a friend who worldschooled their kids for a year. Or, maybe your Instagram feed has given you a peek into family travel content creators who live full-time on the road with kids in tow. You also might just be starting to feel the travel itch and find yourself searching #vanlife when you’re perusing Pinterest. 

And who are we? We are the trio of fellow family travelers who wrote the award-winning, Amazon-bestselling book titled Wonder Year: A Guide to Long-Term Family Travel and Worldschooling, available anywhere books are sold. Our website wonderyear.com has free resources and blogs on relevant and current topics like AI and Worldschooling, carbon offsets or even the family travel angles for various destinations. Our blog also highlights worldchooling community connectors and currently traveling families in our Fernweh Families series. 

We are active members of family travel and worldschooling Facebook groups. We pay attention to the questions that pop in those forums and gear our blogs to answer the most common ones. This blog round-up will offer you some short answers to your early first questions of worldschooling FAQs. Drum roll, please. Here are answers to some of the most common questions. 

Question 1: What is worldschooling?

The first blog we recommend you read is: What Is Worldschooling? This post goes over the basics, explains key terms and concepts that will show up in online communities, and clears up some common misconceptions and answers many more worldschooling FAQs. Perhaps the information in this blog is the fodder to start a conversation with your kids or your partner to see if there’s collective interest in long-term travel, or to plant the first seed of worldschooling as an idea for your family. 

Question 2: How do people afford long-term family travel?

You might think this type of family gap year or open-ended way of life is only for wealthy families. We show you that’s not the case.This blog, How do Families Afford Long-Term Travel?, shows the ins and outs of the creative ways real families make it work. Speaking of work, many families afford extended travel by working on the road, which we cover more extensively in this blog. Here’s another blog that covers digital nomad visas and how those apply to digital nomadism and worldschooling families.

Question 3: How do we decide whether to travel long-term? 

Rarely do people feel that there is a convenient time to pack everything up and head out the door. But often the best times in our lives happen when we shake things up, make bold decisions and dream big. If you wait for the convenient time, it might not come. This blog, making the decision, is a five-point framework similar to the one offered in our book.

Now that you’ve decided to leave home, where will you go? This blog helps you think about the factors that might go into this next set of decisions. Maybe it’s cost, connectivity, family history, or worldschooling themes–we’ll help you hone your family travel bucket list.

Question 4: What about pets?

One of the most common obstacles to setting off for a Wonder Year is our furry friends. How can you say goodbye to the pets in your family? This post will help you think through how to leave them in safe hands or take them along with you.

If you could work from anywhere… you can always find a chair.

Question 5: What shoes do I pack?

The next big question asked is: if I’m packing light for an extended time, how do I whittle down the shoes? Seriously. I know this might seem much less serious, but it’s a real concern for many. To solve this, Annika teamed up with her childhood BFF, stylist Daisy Barnett, to answer the question in detail. With links and advice, this blog helps you family-travel in style!

If you find these blogs offer real world solutions to help get you off the ground and out into the world, consider purchasing our book. You can also sign up for our newsletter. We wish you and your family a wonder-ful journey! 

The Wonder Year team (Annika, Angela, and Julie)

It has been so heartwarming to share Wonder Year.

The post Worldschooling FAQs appeared first on Wonder Year Travel.

Please tell us a bit about yourselves and your journey. 

We are a family of five Joe, Misti, Joshua (14), Melanie (14), and Madeline (12) Tokarksy. We have traveled (nearly) full-time for the past seven years. Three years of our travel was in an RV, and the last four years of travel have been via our two overlanding rigs.

We focus on experiential education, environmental stewardship, volunteerism, and family values achieved through off-grid living and remote travel. As a family, we made a pact to share our life and travels with the world so that others could experience the true beauty of the world through our content. We started our journey with a simple blog, documenting our adventures, sharing photos of our favorite destinations, and providing tips for fellow travelers. Our passion for exploration led us to breathtaking landscapes, vibrant cultures, and unforgettable experiences. Our journey is not without its challenges, but the connections we’ve made and our impact on others made every obstacle worthwhile.

Joshua and Madeline Tokarsky– Hiking the fins in Arches National Park, UT – 2019.

What was one of the most important ingredients in getting your family on the road – what did you do that worked out well? 

Letting go of “stuff.” We sold our two homes and most of our furniture, and kept downsizing. The less we own, the happier we are! 

What’s outside your window right now?  

We are currently sitting in a cabin on top of a mountain, overlooking what is called the Grand Canyon of Arkansas. It’s the deepest valley in the state, and it’s beautiful! I am fascinated by the surprising beauty of the Ozark mountains, along with all of the creeks, rivers, and waterfalls that are abundant here in northwest Arkansas! 

Calypso (4Runner) and Castaway (Jeep) at Boar’s Tusk, WY – 2023.

What have you discovered about your family by being on the road together?

Our family travels taught us the value of togetherness, the importance of exploring the world, and the joy of creating unforgettable experiences as a family. Our adventures took us to new places, exposed us to different cultures, and created memories that would last a lifetime. 

During our travels, we learned to appreciate each other’s company without the distractions of everyday life. We laughed, explored, and overcame challenges together, and in the process, we grew stronger as a family.

What does community mean to you, and how have you found it during your travels?

Honestly, you can find community wherever you go! The world is full of amazing people with epic things to teach you. It’s the feeling of belonging, of being part of something larger than myself. It means knowing that I can count on my friends for help, support, and friendship. Community means looking out for one another, sharing both joys and sorrows, and working together to make wherever you may be a better place for everyone. It’s a feeling I carry with me wherever I go, and it’s something I strive to recreate in every community I become a part of.

Joe making coffee in the back of the Jeep – 2023.

Is there another traveling family you are particularly inspired by?

Yes, I am very inspired by We Harts Travel (Korey and Anna Hart and their four children). They are a tightly-knit family of six who cherish their strong family bond and create incredible experiences for their children through world travel!

What do you wish a fellow worldschooling family had told you before you left home?

Don’t stress about curriculum, testing, how many hours of traditional schooling your kids get…they are always learning, and so are we! Experiences are the best education! 

Joe and Josh – Snowmobiling in Granby, CO – 2024.

Metaphorically speaking, what is something you’ve lost and something you’ve found during your journey?

I’ve lost the worry about the expectations and the judgment of others. I’ve found myself and strengthened my relationships with my spouse and my children. (Or maybe, I’ve lost my mind but found my soul)! Either way, I am a better mother, wife, and human because of my experiences on this journey.

One of our favorite things about our Fernweh Family series is to see the varied and unique paths each worldschooling family takes. Overlanding is a powerful and adventurous one! Misti and family share their journey and the traveling lifestyle through social media and podcast series. Check them out:

Instagram

@barefootoverlander

@ladyoverlander.radio

Podcast – Lady Overlander Radio

Also:

The Day We Make website has links to their family blog and YouTube channel. So fun to follow along!

Joshua and Madeline – Taking a break on Goat Bluff Trail, AR – 2020.

The post Fernweh Families: The Tokarskys appeared first on Wonder Year Travel.

As we cover in our book, Wonder Year: A Guide to Long-Term Family Travel and Worldschooling, families can incorporate a wide variety of educational themes into their travels: ecology, art, geology, history, or literature, for starters. Another theme you might consider is music. As an educational element, music is versatile, cohesive, full of joy, and applicable across all locations. Music can also be explored as a family because it is inclusive of all ages and stages. Rather than being a fixed unit of study, music is dynamic and can weave through every location you visit.

Our family owns a record store (like vinyl), and individually we collect music and each play an instrument. During our Wonder Year, we found music to be a wonderful way to connect, deepen our shared curiosity, and find our niche wherever we traveled across three continents. 

Visiting Places of Musical Import

Iconic Red Rocks Amphitheater–if rocks could talk, the tales they’d tell!

You can choose places on your itinerary that have music lessons baked in. You can study the music history, the instruments, or the popular trends of a place before you travel. Maybe have your kids do research in advance and teach the rest of the family or group. Think of learning about the lives of classical masters in Vienna through a concert at Mozarthaus. You could research the influences that came together for the birth of rock and roll in Graceland, Tennessee. Or, study acoustics while taking in an opera at La Scala in Milan. You might buy a khaen (Thai bamboo flute) at a market and give it a go. Or, follow Nairobi’s @realvinylguru on Instagram. (His vinyl record shop has a cult following and you just might see the legends who pop by for a hello, like Yo-Yo Ma did in 2023.) Keep on the lookout for fairs and festivals. The Riff Music Festival of traditional folk music in Rajasthan, India, has been on my bucket list since my 20s.

In this vein, keep a look out for local and current happenings. For example, especially important to us is Record Store Day. Record Store Day is an International Holiday, IMO–a collaboration of music labels and independent record stores to celebrate vinyl records. Whether you’re in Rome, Rio, or Rochester, collectible releases drop at the same time. Lines run for blocks, local musicians play, schwag giveaways are the norm, and you get a slice of local life by joining in the celebration. Although records are not necessarily portable, you can send some home. Or, just come for the fun. Finding ways to weave your interests into your Wonder Year is a great way to connect with a destination, and just might take you off of the “top 10” tourist path.

Using Music as an Exploration of Arts and Social Science

Practicing some tunes on a mosaic piano at The Giants House in Akaroa, New Zealand

Music offers a window to the study of culture, language, and place. What can we learn about history and culture when contemplating lyrics, rhythms, influences, and cross-cultural listening patterns? There is also a temporal component when we consider how music is passed down and changes from generation to generation.

The possibilities are endless and music might be the entree to pique your family’s attention for genres, borders, and fusion. For example, you might start asking why there is so much polka music in Mexico. Which could then lead to a deeper look at Mexican history and its ties with Germany. Studying the lyrics of popular songs is a great portal into language study. Or, perhaps study the musicians themselves by reading biographies or learning about them from museums or music venues. You can extend this to how their lives and messages tie into the larger timelines and world history. Think of Bob Marley, Bach, Dolly Parton, or Bono.

In the United States, February is recognized as African American History Month. The theme in 2024 is African Americans in the Arts. What a wonderful time to dive into the history of jazz, blues, and hip hop and explore the historical and cultural realities that gave rise to these amazing art forms. You can find short videos on many topics, like the history of Berry Gordy Jr and Motown Records or the origin of hip hop, or immerse yourself in the amazing 19-hour Ken Burns documentary series on the roots of jazz available on PBS Learning Media.

Bringing Instruments Along

Yes, we traveled with a cello, which was almost as tall as Lucy herself.

If you or your kid play an instrument, you might be contemplating what to do while you’re on the road for an extended time. Do you bring it along? Pause for the time away? Find alternative travel-friendly versions, or focus on music appreciation? If piano is your instrument, did you know that you can purchase a rollable and packable keyboard? Flutes, harmonicas, and other smaller instruments might be a great option to continue or learn while you’re on the road. Ukuleles and ¾ guitars are also great options that travel relatively easily. 

Our family brought a guitar, viola, violin, and cello with us. Seriously. We flew through seven countries on three continents and gate-checked the cello with a “fragile” sticker. Security was curious, but we never had a problem. In a campground in New Zealand, we were able to have an impromptu concert. We stashed them with friends or at guesthouses when we were mobile, and when we settled for longer periods, we could resume Zoom lessons with teachers back home and have concentrated practice time. The corresponding math lessons in time zones were well worth the continuity of my kids’ love of music and instruments. If it’s your thing, there’s a way.

Theme Songs

Elvis for sale while crate digging at a flea market in Beijing.

If you’re more of a music appreciator than a creator, consider finding your theme songs for each month, each destination, or maybe each year. What speaks to you as a family? Negotiate which songs make the metaphorical mixed tape. Do the lyrics remind you of a place? Are they all sing-able? Or is it the mood? Our family created theme songs for each place and a mixed tape compilation / Spotify playlist of the year. Music, like food or photos, takes us back to the time and place.

Social media trending songs could be your theme, or you could make video compilations that match trending songs. Try these experiments and gauge your profile interactions, extending your media literacy or marketing lessons.

Personal Listening

Music can also be a personal escape from the group’s activity. When family members need space, they can take it with headphones and their own playlist. Also having time to listen together is a great way for family members to share what they like with each other. Some families rotate who is “in charge” of music in the car, and that person can share what they’ve been listening to lately.

Invest in a family Spotify account and download rather than stream music. Did you know that streaming music has a massive carbon footprint? You also won’t be beholden to WiFi when you really need to listen. 

You can also encourage musical exploration in everyone’s listening. Find songs by local artists, listen to a genre you don’t usually, research a singer-songwriter and analyze their lyrics. Music, like the world, is full of inspiration, with hidden gems in corners if you keep an open mind and a travelers’ heart.

None of the ideas we shared here need to feel like planned lessons or coordinated effort–it can also just be fun, casual listening together that naturally leads to learning. We hope this post has helped you think about ways, small and grand, to incorporate music and worldschooling into your family’s travels.

To learn more about worldschooling ideas, check out our book, Wonder Year. Or, read more worldschooling blog posts like, Traveling Timelines, Winter Worldschooling, or Citizen Science.

Rooftops of Kathmandu make a great spot for Zoom music lessons.

The post Music and Worldschooling appeared first on Wonder Year Travel.

If you’re currently dreaming of doing a Wonder Year, still immersed in the planning stages, then you may not even have reentry on your

Strangely, the British Museum was a great place to wrap up our trip while waiting for our final flight home. The missing pieces from our favorite places were all right here. Lots of fodder for critical thinking skills.

radar. It might seem so far off that there’s little use in wondering how you’ll wrap it up. We’re here to tell you that many travelers find it helpful to start thinking about their return several months before they actually leave home.

Perhaps, you may plan to travel indefinitely. You plan to embrace the digital nomad lifestyle and there is no plan to reenter. Consider that circumstances may cause you to come home earlier than planned and it may be smart to have a contingency plan in place.

And if you’re currently on your Wonder Year, you may be starting to think about coming home. People end their family travel season for numerous reasons. Here are some that we’ve heard over the years while researching for our book, Wonder Year. 

• A specific date was always on the calendar
• Someone in the family is ready
• Money
• Health needs that could be better handled at home
• Needs are waiting back home: grandparents, pets, business
• A sabbatical is ending
• Time for braces (Yes, that’s more common than you think.)

Coming home is a complex event. You may have created an identity, found your groove, or decided to make some consequential changes to the way you lived before you left. As a Peace Corps Volunteer, I attended an entire three-day conference about coming home and discussed the emotions, financial repercussions, the “what next?” mental hurdles, and even the physical shifts in diet, exercise, and pace of life.

You might be debating if you can do another year, another semester, or another summer. There is so much to this decision, which is why we devoted an entire chapter of our book to it. We titled it Reentry. If you are ready to “re-enter,” then here’s a primer for you. If you want more detail, consider buying the book.

Before You Land

“Make your reentry gradual. Try not to go from treehouse living in Laos to suburban sprawl in forty-eight hours, or from RV living in Utah

A tired suitcase, held together with duct tape and love by the end or our year.

to an apartment living in Manhattan with sand still in your shoes. Instead of a direct flight home, consider driving or taking a train from the coast to a major city to help your kids visualize their unique place on this planet. You are still worldschooling, always seeing a teachable moment.” Wonder Year, page 238.

As early as possible, begin thinking through the framework to create the next chapter. This includes your career, where home will be; and schooling options for your kids. Once you know where you want to land, consider making those needed appointments with people like dentists, doctors, math tutors, movers, or accountants.

You’ll need to return to your house, buy a house, or find a rental. If you’re returning home you might arrange for a deep clean, or interior paint before you arrive so you can start with a clean slate.

Landing

Relish the fun stuff! Reuniting with pets, visiting friends and family, library, sports teams, and stocking your fridge with exactly what you want. I enjoyed many things, but high on the list was putting things in drawers and soaking in my bathtub.

“Be gentle with yourself while reconnecting with social circles. In the early days of reentry, you’re processing differently, and you’re not in sync yet. You have changed, and your friendships may rejigger themselves–some relationships may strengthen and others might wane. If you’re moving to a new place and folks know your story, you might have the awkward celebrity introduction of a Wonder Year.” Wonder Year, page 288.

Be ready for complex emotions for everyone. Some families find that their kids want to still be in close proximity for sleeping. Our tweens chose to sleep in sleeping bags in our bedroom for the first month or so. For us, it loosened up quickly, and too soon we were back to a more standard distance. 

The Months that Follow

Hold close the positives of your life on the road. It’s easy to slip back to exactly who you were without incorporating some of the new, cool stuff. For example, on the road, we watched the sun set and knew which phase of the moon we were currently in. We have tried to hold on to

Another thing we missed: homemade birthday cakes and candles.

that. We try to mark each full moon with a hike and attempt to walk dogs at sunset.

“For those kids reentering a traditional school, help them transition in the weeks before. If you feel like there were some holes in their learning, take time to evaluate that now and/or consider hiring a tutor. Reach out to old friends or, if your kids are entering a new school, ask if there’s any new student-buddy program. Having a connection can alleviate a lot of stress.” Wonder Year, page 291

Start looking at photos and printing some for the walls. Maybe make books for each family member as a gift. T-shirts from your travels can become a quilt. Think of ways to have a visible reminder of your time.

How to Keep a Worldschooling Mindset for the Long Haul

When we return to a stationary life, our mindset can still be nomadic. We can keep growing and learning, opening and adventuring, even if our pillow stays in one place. In our book, we share ideas, honed from experience. Here are a few to get you started.

• Begin to look at home as if you were seeing it for the first time. Look at the complexities, the way an outsider might view possibilities. Learn from that new lens.
• Seek out the new kids at school, the new families in town, and return the hospitality that the world showed to you. Our family learned so much about how to host and show kindness from our time on the road.
• Host an exchange student, watch foreign films, and learn a new language. In this way, you can invite the wider world into your home.
• Read our blog, “Spring Break with Returned Worldschoolers” to get some inspiration for worldschooling in shorter periods of time. The shape may change, but the open-hearted curiosity does not need to.

We hope that this post helps you feel prepared for the next step in your journey. Although you can’t plan for every contingency, you can reduce the number of surprises. Let us know how it goes for you. And for a closing thought, we hope this helps keep an eye toward the future. From Wonder Year, page 297:

“As time rolls on, you might find that your kids, now young adults, continue to identify as world citizens and carry with them a love for adventure and curiosity. Living on the road shows them that it’s okay to want a life of togetherness, simplicity, freedom, and perspectives.” 

Family Snuggle: The best part of coming home!

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We are honored that Florence endorsed our book, Wonder Year. We consider her a friend and mentor and are delighted to have had the chance to sit down with Florence for a conversation about some of our favorite topics: nature, awe, travel, and wonder. All these topics are also front and center for family travel and worldschooling. Here is a recap of that fascinating and informative conversation. 

Tell us a bit about yourself and what sparked your interest in being a science writer.

I have always been interested in environmental topics, and in college, I started the student environmental group and environmental newspaper. I was interested in the convergence of journalism and environmental stories, some of which involved a lot of science. Then, out of college, I got hired by High Country News, a wonderful environmental magazine. Progressively, I got more interested in science stories, and not just classic stories about deforestation, pollution, what’s happening with a proposed mine, … but how these situations are playing out in our human bodies. To understand what was happening in our bodies, I had to learn more about topics like biology, cell physiology, and endocrinology. The more I learned, the more I geeked out and thought this was an underreported area of journalism. 

Then I became interested, not only in how the environment hurts our bodies but also in how it can help our bodies. 

In Your book, The Nature Fix: Why Nature Makes Us Healthier, Happier and More Creative you examine the science behind why nature is good for us. Can you explain what’s going on? 

There’s a lot of emerging research on multiple levels. Because of advances in field technology, we can see what’s happening, for example, to people’s brain waves when they are outside in nature. There are more innovative ways to study human physiology outside and that has helped spur a lot of this work. 

What we are seeing is, even after just 15 or 20 minutes of being in a pleasant outdoor environment, people’s bodies shift into a state of greater calm. Their nervous systems go into a place of parasympathetic where their respiration slows down, heart rates may slow down, and stress hormones decrease. That was really impressive and surprising to me–that we can see those changes in just 15 minutes. 

Researchers today are looking at many different elements. What happens when we hear birdsong? What happens when we smell amazing compounds that trees emit? There’s research showing that they increase certain immune cells. Who would have thought that? One researcher, an immunologist I met with in Japan, found that our killer T cells, a type of immune cell that can kill infected or cancerous cells, increase 30% after a walk in the woods and stay highly elevated for a week or longer. All of these different sensory systems are being studied to explain why we feel so good outside. 

Also, if you look at the large-scale epidemiological studies you see some really impressive data. There seems to be a relationship between just living near green space and living longer and being healthier. These results are the same after adjusting for income. So, there is a measurable health boost for living near green space. 

Can you tell us about the effect of nature specifically on children, on young brains? 

I was really fortunate to spend some time in forest preschools in Scandinavia where up to one in ten kids attends a forest preschool. The data emerging from these settings show these kids have healthier microflora inside their bodies. That means they have stronger immune systems – less asthma, less skin disease, and fewer colds and viruses. We know that these kids, by the time they get to the conventional schools, are a little bit behind their peers on reading, writing, and arithmetic, but they catch up within a couple of years. And, they are ahead of their peers and they stay ahead of their peers on all kinds of really important, but softer, measures like self-regulation, self-confidence, ability to work together in teams, conflict resolution, leadership, innovation, self-discovery, self-learning. These are life skills that, unfortunately, so many kids lack today.

We know that our young brains are designed to learn through exploration . And that’s the really fun thing about being outside. You are not giving a kid a pencil and paper and telling her exactly what to do with it. They are roaming around and they’re finding things. Nature is always changing. There are different birds moving through. There are different water levels, changing weather. One day there is going to be ice across the creek and you can stick your foot in it and you can make cool cracking noises and then see amazing fractal patterns. You can watch the snowflakes land on the pine trees. There’s changing light. After a big storm, there’s the opportunity to collect cool leaves and twigs that have fallen. Kids outside follow their curiosity. What a beautiful way to learn. 

I think being in nature, being outside, teaches us to look and to feel what it’s like to be a sensing animal. And it turns out, our bodies and our nervous systems really like that. 

One of the amazing things about travel is how easy it is to spend time outside, in nature, to be unplugged, to be self-directed. And there’s a lot of research that points to the benefits of travel. What are your thoughts on the benefits of traveling with kids? 

We know kids and all humans are drawn to novelty. That’s one of the problems with cell phones. We can always find something new and interesting to pull us in on a cell phone. So you have to compete with that by providing some novelty, some excitement, by stimulating curiosity, allowing dopamine to flow. We know that travel does that. It pulls us out of what’s familiar. It makes us pay attention and observe. It enables us to experience the joy of discovery. When that happens it can also pull us out of our own negative thoughts that we all experience, including children. Some kids are more ruminative than others, but I think we can all identify with this notion of seeing something novel and beautiful and all of a sudden we’re back in the world and engaged in things outside of our own heads. We know from the research that this leads to emotional resilience in people. 

Another important thing about travel is that we can adapt to becoming a little bit comfortable with discomfort. We’ve heard the term helicopter parent, but there’s also the term “bulldozer parent” where we are erasing all the friction in our kids’ paths. We want them to be comfortable every second. That is not real life. That is not setting them up to handle when things go a little bit awry. Being in a new place, there are discomforts all over the place. There may be foods you don’t like or weather happening you don’t like. Travel innoculates kids to be able to handle, accept, and roll with these discomforts. 

Recently you have written a lot about awe. Can you break down why awe is such a powerful phenomenon? 

There are so many reasons. We’ve talked about the novelty aspect and when we see something beautiful it pulls us out of our own heads. But what also happens when we see something vast, whether it’s the Milky Way or a wild animal or even just the idea or the concept – like asking ourselves, “why do the colors in the sunset look the way they do?”- in those moments we feel a little bit less self-involved, a little bit less self-important. We feel more connected to the world around us. And the science shows we also feel more connected to each other. So awe is a really powerful antidote to things like loneliness and anxiety that are so prevalent among young people today. 

We used to see the Milky Way all the time. We used to encounter wild animals, see the sunset every night, sit around the fire and sing songs, experiencing collective awe. I think today we are awe-deprived as a culture. This is another reason it is important to bring children into the natural world.

How can we, as modern people, as modern parents get more awe in our lives?   

First, we need a more generous understanding of what awe is. Awe is not necessarily the Grand Canyon or the top of a mountain, or a narwhal whale under our kayak. Instead, we can find astonishing moments of beauty if we are open to looking for them. When we are out walking, we can remind or cue ourselves to be mindful by asking, “What am I noticing right now?” “What birds am I hearing?” “What plants are coming out?” “What’s the sky doing right now?” “What am I smelling?” These are really simple cues that will help ground us in the present moment. 

We can do this regularly, even if we can’t get outside every day, we can cue ourselves with, “Why is this soup so beautiful?” “Look at these colors in my house plant” And the amazing thing is that this trains us to be open to beauty. So, it’s a practice, and you can practice it every day with simple, ordinary things. This practice is a way to savor, appreciate, and step outside of ourselves a little bit. 

You’re also a badass outdoorswoman. You kayak and canoe, hike, ski, backpack, take epic solo trips, and put yourself way, way out there. Can you talk about what you’ve learned from these expeditions and how adventure has shaped your identity? 

I love it that you think I am a badass but really I am not. I used to try to keep up with all of the guys and experts and at some point I realized it’s so much fun out there even if you’re not an expert. So we can give ourselves permission to not be great at everything and still get a lot out of the experience. I think that’s a wonderful metaphor for life.

I also think that a little bit of adventure, especially for women, is really important because there are studies showing that girls who participate in adventure sports have more self-confidence. They are a little more focused for one thing, in this day and age, on how their bodies work and how strong and competent they are and that they can acquire skills and mastery instead of thinking about how their bodies look, which is the dominant driver on social media right now. We need to counteract those messages and I don’t think there’s any better way to do it than sports and outdoor adventure. 

After my divorce, my self-esteem bottomed out and one of the things that really helped me find joy again was mountain biking. I found myself riding down this mountain and giggling. I had a huge authentic smile on my face for the first time in months. And I had a sense that I am a brave, competent person and I am going to be ok. For me, adventure sports helped me access that. 

Florence leading one of her nature retreats

Finally, you are also a parent to two amazing children, ages 19 and 22, right? What advice do you have for parents of young children to set their kids on the path of discovery, health, and creativity? 

I noticed that whenever there was inter-sibling conflict, when the kids went outside it immediately dissipated. I think that’s a great thing to remember even if you are not traveling. Unstructured play is just amazing and my kids would instead of fight, delight in each other’s discoveries. 

I also found that, especially with my daughter, it was important to have other kids around that she could connect with outside. We would often travel with other families and that connection seemed to be a mood booster without fail. 

Another big tip is food. We would always have snacks around. Kids need to eat. They need protein. If they get hangry, it’s all over. There’s so much more to share on this topic but I’ll leave it at these three general pointers. 

If people want to learn more about you, your work, your books, retreats and other events, where can they go to learn more? 

It’s very easy, I have a website – www.florencewilliams.com. There are links there to various social channels, books, audio programs, upcoming events, and retreats that I lead in wild places. 

Here’s a great book trailer of Florence’s book, The Nature Fix: Why Nature Makes us Healthier, Happier and More Creative.

Florence also recently wrote the PEN-Award winning HEARTBREAK: A Personal and Scientific Journey. She regularly hosts small retreats for people who want to explore or have a need to focus on writing, healing, or relationships. 

Florence’s most recent books will change the way you think about your family’s time in nature.

The post Community Connectors: Florence Williams appeared first on Wonder Year Travel.

Merriam-Webster says that a timeline is, “a table listing important events for successive years within a particular historical period.”

According to Wikipedia, “a timeline is a visual representation of a chronological sequence of events along a drawn line that helps a viewer understand time relationships.”

I decided to create and bring a traveling timeline with us on our travels rather serendipitously. As I was preparing for our Wonder Year, my third grader, Lucy, asked the  question, “did Grandad know Moses?” As a mom trying to help my own kid, I played to Lucy’s visual and spatial skills by creating a timeline with paper and string that went down the street. We counted an inch for each decade and went all the way to Moses. On a whim, I brought that timeline along on the trip and it became a powerful learning tool.

You see, most worldschooling families find history and social studies spectacularly easy to learn. If you’re in Egypt, history comes alive when you’re walking alongside the pyramids and inside the temples. Learning about pharaohs and hieroglyphics is part of the journey. The challenge is that that learning is not chronological. Kids can become confused about the order of events. What came first? The Pyramids of Giza, the Declaration of Independence, The Donner Party or World War II? Are there hundreds of years between these events? Or thousands of years? It might seem obvious to adults, but we have a conceptual framework to hang our learning upon. 

Social studies curricula in a traditional classroom are built chronologically (but jump around by location), and the events can be arranged as cause and effect. Worldschooling itineraries are not chronological and events can seem disparate and isolated. By introducing traveling timelines we can help our kids (and ourselves) see how events match up and begin to recognize themes and cause and effect relationships. A win-win!

Building a Timeline Together 

I’m sure there are many ways to create a timeline, but here’s what worked for us. We laid out a series of 8.5” x 11” papers in the landscape orientation, and without overlapping the edges, we taped them end to end so that we could fold it up easily, creating a hinge with the tape strip. With a ruler, we drew a line right down the middle. We then measured one inch for each decade and began marking them IN PENCIL. Trust me, there will be slip-ups when you’re working backward. We double-checked each other.

Our endpoint was 2000 BCE, but that decision is totally subjective. Sometimes, when we were looking at ancient or geologic time, we used string with a piece of masking tape to mark each hundred or thousand years. We ran this behind our paper timeline to get a sense of the scale. We could then visually estimate how far back paleolithic people, dinosaurs, or Pangea might have been.

New technology and diagramming programs might be able to help your timeline be more travel-friendly. You can extend it further and use this as a graphic design lesson or digital arts opportunity. Word, for example, has a timeline feature under SmartArt, then Process, then Timeline. Canva also has multiple templates. Other business programs have project management tools that come with free trial memberships or various pay-to-play tiers. Both smartsheet and edrawmax look fun to explore.

For us, the hands-on creation was part of the fun. And something as abstract as time could be made manifest in its tangibility. We carried a hard shell accordion folder and could easily fold this up for transport. 

Taping the edges end-to-end helped it to fold easily. Everyone got to add events.

Learning Standards covered

We might think of timelines as solely part of a Social Studies curriculum, but they can be so much more. Here are teasers of how you might use a timeline to meet learning standards for multiple subjects. Not that you need to be this granular in your worldschooling, but this specificity might help show how this could fit in your overall experiential learning plan. Perhaps it might inspire you to extend a timeline into other subject areas or articulate what else you all are learning.

Historical Thinking

• view chronology and cause-effect relationships
• look for influential events 

Math Skills

• use numerical values and mathematical concepts to represent dates and time spans on the timeline
• understand units of time, intervals, and scaling on the timeline

Information Skills

• gather information about events, dates, and historical figures to include in your timeline
• evaluate the credibility and reliability of sources when researching historical events

Art Skills

• choose images or logos to represent places or events
• play with color, shading, borders, and other design elements
• use digital programs to draw your timeline

Critical Thinking / Problem-Solving

• decide how to represent time spans effectively
• conceive what should be on the timeline
• hypothesize cause and effect relationships
• predict which patterns might be repeated (more on this below).

This is how we added the tail on the end for a much longer timeline that wasn’t too cumbersome. At the far end were markers every thousand years.

Multiple Viewpoints

Through reading and social studies lessons, we began our timelines with the standard history framework, or what was repeated in online searches or textbooks. In-country, while visiting monuments, museums, and other historical sites, we began to understand a sense of what this place holds to be important. As a family, we decided what new things we learned that should be added. We divided up the events and added them periodically. 

We began asking the people we met what they thought were the most important or pivotal events in their country’s history. We then researched each one as we put it on our timeline. In this way, we began learning “from rather than about” other people and cultures. Traditional classroom learning tends to use secondary sources and someone else’s interpretation of what is important. As you travel, primary sources are all around you! 

We attempted to seize this incredible opportunity and asked a broad range of people within the country: Uber drivers, doctors, family friends, indigenous peoples, Airbnb hosts, restaurant servers, etc. We tried to see where there was overlap and where there were differences from our secondary sources. In other words, we compared our interviews (primary sources) to the canon, what was included in Wikipedia or an AI response (secondary sources).

Depending on your kids’ ages and interests, there are endless opportunities for critical thinking here. Deciding what gets included on the timeline is great fodder for discussion, negotiation, and compromise.

A Few of Our A-ha’s

As you begin to fill in the countries and their events, visible themes emerge. Here are some of ours based on our travels:

• Costa Rica’s abolishment of their army was the same era as New Zealand’s ban on nuclear subs. The Cold War might have been an important factor.
• Universal suffrage ranged more than 100 years. While we were in New Zealand, they had a female prime minister which might reflect that they were the first country to grant women the right to vote. Perhaps we might see the 150-year spread between suffrage and female presidents in other countries.
• WWII was included as “important” to most people in every country we visited.
• Indigenous rights movements were not synchronous. Again, New Zealand was early in its support. 
• “Developed” and “undeveloped” countries were not static. For example, when China was building palaces and making scientific discoveries, Europe was in its Dark Ages. When the “West” was enjoying a very high standard of living in the 20th century, some of those other countries were considered “less developed” by some metrics. Change is the only constant.

Ways to Riff

There are so many ways to individualize a traveling timeline. You might change the scale and focus on geologic time. Other themes could be innovation and technology, art, military history, or sports. 

Creating a timeline for a novel or nonfiction book is a great way to expand and apply to a new context. It’s also useful for biographies or political movements.

You could add artwork for each event, or decorate the borders or century markers.

Also, there are many new applications for mapping or diagramming on computers these days that would solve the need for actual paper that travels. I’ve listed some above (Word, Canva, edrawmax and smartsheet.) We’d love to hear how you have used timelines or plan to use them in the future!

Real family learning! Our traveling timeline brought so much deep discussion and shared discoveries.

The post Traveling Timelines appeared first on Wonder Year Travel.

In our book, we encourage traveling families to individualize their approaches for themselves and their families. Jak’s coaching services have both well-proven modules as well as the flexibility to tailor your own worldschooling plan. We also admire his manifesto of inclusion, camaraderie, personal growth, contribution, kindness, and adventure.

Jak shares his experiences and insights with us below.

Tell us a bit about yourself.

Hey there!  I’m Jak, and I’ve spent over 13 years immersed in the world of primary/elementary education, working in various international schools across the globe. From South Korea to the UK, Cyprus to Borneo, my journey has seen me wear multiple hats – from class teacher to educational leader and beyond. 

My wife and I have been living abroad since 2010, which started with a backpack and a one-way ticket to South East Asia. Fast forward to July 2022, and we decided to leave our teaching jobs in Brunei and start a new adventure, chasing freedom, full time travel, and worldschooling with our two amazing daughters. This shift from traditional education to a more experiential approach has been eye-opening, offering a unique perspective on the challenges and rewards of worldschooling. My family and I are passionate about exploring the world, not just as tourists but as engaged learners, and are currently travelling full time and loving it!

Often a 3 a.m wake up means a budget flight but this sunrise hike was well worth it at Sigiriya Rock, Sri Lanka

Why did you start The Worldschool Coach?

The Worldschool Coach was born out of my firsthand experience as a worldschooling parent and educator. When my family and I took the plunge into worldschooling, we thought we had it all figured out, armed with my background in teaching. But boy, were we wrong! The sheer abundance of resources, opportunities, and changing routines left us feeling overwhelmed. That’s when it hit me – there was a need for guidance tailored specifically for families like ours. I wanted to create a resource that would both empower parents and give them the tools to confidently navigate the worldschooling, offering practical strategies and personalised assistance to make their educational adventures less daunting and more enriching. 

What are the components of your program?

The Worldschool Coach program is a comprehensive 6-session course designed to empower families embarking on the worldschooling journey. It’s not a one-size-fits-all approach – instead, it’s a personalised roadmap to balance education and travel.

The program covers breaking down barriers to worldschooling, crafting a flexible worldschool curriculum, exploring core subjects and resources, maximising learning opportunities through travel, empowering self-directed learning, and tailoring the worldschool model to fit your travels. The course is designed for parents considering a family gap year or extended travel journey, or those already travelling who want to confidently worldschool their children while maintaining academics, nurturing personal growth, and embracing the joy of family travel. 

What is your educational philosophy?

The Worldschool Coach philosophy is centred on flexibility and adaptability, recognising that each child, family, destination, and learning opportunity is unique. It seeks to empower families to find their own educational journey, tailoring a worldschooling model to suit their individual needs and circumstances. 

The program aims to break down barriers to worldschooling, providing families with guidance  and practical strategies to confidently tackle the challenges and uncertainties associated with this lifestyle. It encourages a holistic approach to growth, fostering academic development but also personal, cultural, and experiential learning.

At its core, the Worldschool Coach philosophy emphasises the importance of seizing every travel experience as a valuable learning opportunity.

We love to explore local markets – also a great place to put those maths skills to use

As someone with teaching experience, can you give a pep talk to parents who might have no teaching experience? What skills does a parent need to actually do this?

Absolutely, I understand that the idea of taking on the role of an educator might seem daunting, especially for parents without formal teaching experience.

Firstly, parents are natural educators. From the moment your child is born, you embark on a journey of teaching and guiding them through life. You’ve been their first teacher, teaching them to walk, talk, and explore the world around them. Worldschooling is simply an extension of this innate ability to nurture and educate.

Here are some key skills that can empower parents on the worldschooling path:

Adaptability:

The ability to adapt to new environments and situations is a crucial skill. Flexibility allows you to turn unexpected challenges into learning opportunities, fostering resilience in both you and your child.

Curiosity:

Cultivate a spirit of curiosity, not just in your child but in yourself. Be open to exploring new cultures, trying new foods, and delving into unfamiliar topics. Your genuine curiosity will inspire your child to approach learning with the same enthusiasm.

Patience:

Learning is a process, and it unfolds at its own pace. Patience is key, especially when facing challenges or when your child is grappling with a new concept. Understand that every moment is a chance to learn and grow.

Resourcefulness:

You don’t need a traditional classroom filled with textbooks. Leverage the wealth of resources available online, in libraries, and within the communities you visit. Be resourceful in finding creative ways to impart knowledge.

Communication:

Clear and open communication is vital. Encourage your child to ask questions, share their thoughts, and express their interests. Likewise, share your experiences, insights, and knowledge with them. Communication builds a strong foundation for learning.

Critical Thinking:

Foster critical thinking by encouraging your child to question, analyse, and evaluate information. Help them develop problem-solving skills by involving them in decision-making processes.

Joy of Learning:

Infuse joy into the learning process. Whether it’s through games, hands-on activities, or exploration, make learning a fun and enjoyable experience. A positive attitude towards learning is contagious. Remember, you don’t need to be an expert in every subject. Embrace the learning journey together.

Learning about the tea trade in the Cameron Highlands in Malaysia

As a current worldschooling family, any advice for parents who want to balance remote work and worldschooling their own kiddos? 

Balancing the demands of work and education, all whilst travelling and planning, is no small feat. From juggling online lessons, minimising screen time, seeking experiences in unfamiliar territories to decoding the mysteries of reliable wifi, the challenges are as diverse as the destinations. 

From one worldschooling family to another, here are some insights gained through our own journey:

Set Realistic Expectations: Understand that balancing work and worldschooling requires flexibility. Set realistic expectations for yourself and acknowledge that not every day will go as planned. Embrace the unpredictability of travel while maintaining a broad framework for both work and education.

Leverage Your Strengths: Identify your strengths and work to them. Whether it’s your organisational skills, adaptability, or creativity, use these attributes to your advantage. Align your work and educational strategies with what comes naturally to you. If you don’t feel confident in the area then level up. We have found so many online courses, YouTube videos, blogs, and online resources such as tutors or coaches to enrich our adventures and improve our skillset.

It’s been great getting to know Jak, his services, and his family’s path a bit more. You can follow Jak on his instagram @theworldschoolcoach or visit his website at www.bostontribetravels. We look forward to following their travels.

8 weeks in Sri Lanka was one of the highlights of our travels so far

The post Community Connectors: The Worldschool Coach appeared first on Wonder Year Travel.

Staying on a farm in Crete, Lucy got invited to help exercise the horse, Whiskey.

Greece is Warm and Welcoming

Greece has many draws–history, food, Mediterranean Sea–without the crowds and prices you might find in other European locations. Greeks are known for their warm and welcoming nature, making it easy for worldschooling families to feel at home and integrate into local communities.

Of course, there are areas that have a high concentration of tourists, but my personal take is that Greeks are welcoming because they have not been overwhelmed by swarms of tourists. Once, on the island of Tinos, we stopped in a small village for lunch and a visit to the church. An old man in a fedora patted the empty chair next to him and offered me tea (or was it ouzo?). We giggled and gestured our way through a conversation. This openness was characteristic of the people we met everywhere.

THE FOOD

Greek cuisine is known for its delicious flavors and healthy ingredients. Children can learn about traditional cooking methods, local ingredients, and the importance of a balanced diet. As vegetarians, we found the Greek diet especially easy. 

Rusk salad. I could eat this meal every day.

We especially enjoyed Greek salads, rusk salads, baked gigande beans, local fish, and octopus. Many areas also serve Middle Eastern staples like hummus and pita. Some memorable foods include pickled hyacinth bulbs, baklava (from an entire bakery that only made varieties of baklava), and fresh cheese. On the island of Naxos, we took a family-friendly food tour with Philema. We met candy makers and cheese makers and learned the ins and outs of pressing olive oil.

The History

Greece is steeped in history, with a cultural heritage that dates back thousands of years. Worldschooling in Greece offers the opportunity for children to explore ancient ruins, visit historical sites such as the Acropolis in Athens, and learn about famous philosophers, mythology, and the birthplace of Western civilization. The country is home to numerous archaeological sites, making it an ideal place for hands-on learning experiences. Partial reconstructions, active excavation, and computer generated modeling of ancient temples and cities make for inspired learning.

There’s also the small and humble chapels and sanctuaries that dot the hillsides. Even some three-thousand-year-old chapels are open for you to explore on a hike. Maybe say a prayer, enjoy the mosaic artwork, light some incense, and continue along your way.

For more current history, the nearby tragedies of the war in Syria and poverty of northern Africa have made their way to the shores of Greece. You will see recent immigrants and current events become real, prompting discussion and learning through empathy. And exposure may prompt action from near and far.

Greek Mythology and Kids are a Magical Mix

At the tour of Minos Palace on Crete, my kids shared the story of Minotaur, recounting it with wonder.

One of my three kids had studied ancient Greek mythology before we left. Her curiosity rubbed off on my younger two and we loved to study as much as we could. We read classic versions of the tales and even the Percy Jackson series (although not exactly traditionally correct) fanned the flames of passionate interest. Once, at King Minos’ palace on Crete, my third and fourth graders answered the guides’ questions and proceeded to regale their favorite stories to the tour group. 

We visited temples built for the gods, wrote our own myths to explain natural phenomena with the gods as main characters, and recognized the symbols and stories we saw on murals and paintings throughout Rome, London, and other European cities. When exploring ruins, countrysides, and caves, the myths are palpable.

Natural Beauty

From picturesque islands with beautiful beaches to stunning mountains and charming villages, Greece offers a diverse range of landscapes. Worldschooling in Greece allows children to learn about geology, natural history, and environmental science firsthand. Greece offers various outdoor activities, such as hiking, swimming, and sailing. Children might gain a broader respect and love for the ecosystems of the Mediterranean. 

From the islands to the interior mountains, from picturesque olive farms to pine forests, from views of the ocean floors to the snow-capped peaks, Greece offers it all.

Recreating a temple to Demeter on Naxos, you can see archaeologists at work.

Art and Culture

Greece has a rich artistic and musical heritage, and children can learn about traditional arts, crafts, and music through workshops and local events. Stone quarries, sculpture, and architecture might also play to your child’s interests.

Greek is a unique and ancient language with a fascinating history. The alphabet dates back to the eighth century BC and both Romance (Latin) and Cyrillic languages are based upon it. You might learn the sounds that are unfamiliar and then sound out items in the grocery store. 

The Odyssey has been modified and abridged for all ages. For older travelers, they might read Homer’s original or immerse themselves in the works of Aristophanes, Euripides, or Sophocles. 

Budget-Friendly

In the month of May, the weather is just right, prices are low and you can always find a chair.

From our experience, Greece is less expensive than other Western European countries. Travel by ferry, short-term rentals, and off-peak travel (anything other than August) can drastically lower the costs for families. You can also choose lesser-known islands and destinations like the island of Tinos or the city of Thessaloniki. Santorini Dave is a website that is dedicated to everything you need to know to travel to and around Greece. 

For all of these reasons, we hope you Greece becomes one of many destination inspirations for family travel!

The post Destination Inspiration: Greece appeared first on Wonder Year Travel.

Launch Week

We launched on September 5, the day after Labor Day, so as most were settling back into school or work, we were experiencing a wild mix of

She’s here!

emotions–excitement, relief, anticipation, but mostly not really knowing what the day would hold. Launch day meant our book could officially be sold in stores, online retailers could mail it out, and we had a webinar in the early evening to “launch.” So many of these first day actions were less tangible than you might expect. 

After four years of writing, pitching, and designing our book, it was an odd sensation to launch. Waking up that morning I thought I might feel different. Instead, I woke up to a teenager asking me for money to go out for lunch with his friends. In other words, for me, it was way less glamorous than one might expect. Often dubbed a “Book Birthday,” the first week felt like a milestone birthday–across four days, we recorded multiple podcasts, hosted a webinar, attended book appearances, and held a party to dance and fete our book’s coming to life. We connected with friends from different periods in our lives as they sent congratulations and asked how to support and fete with us. We even added a press page to our website.

Book Store Appearances

All tallied, last month we had seven book signings and appearances in Colorado and California. Attendance swung from  standing-room-

It was so heartwarming to share Wonder Year with our hometown crowd at Boulder Bookstore.

only to just a handful of friends. We never knew what we might meet, so we had to be ready for it all. Our host, Jeffrey, of Colorado Springs’ Poor Richard’s Book Shoppe, told us we were their first in-person book event since COVID. (And we were competing with the Broncos home opener…) Folks switched their habits in 2020 from in-person events to online ones. I get it. I used to go to book readings all the time at our local Boulder Bookstore. In recent years, I haven’t gone to any unless I know the author personally. But when we did have an enthusiastic group with a critical mass, the feeling of sharing our book with both friends and strangers was deeply gratifying. 

Podcasts

It seems that podcasts have filled in the in-person book launch space. We did four podcasts and have five more in the pipeline for the fall. The podcast: asynchronous, video optional, and shareable online. Each host can tailor the questions and comments–in real time–to their audience. Although we assumed these would be voice only, some were later streamed to video, shared on YouTube, and as teasers on TikTok. We learned not to assume and made sure we showed up looking video-ready, and we delighted in the casual conversations about subjects we love–travel, family and education. 

Print Buzz

Another way to create buzz for a book launch is to appear in print and e-print publications. We were interviewed for six articles, including magazines for RVers, the quarterlies for our alma maters, and newsletters for direct and adjacent communities. We also wrote four guest articles ourselves. I did one for the website and newsletter of my former employer, another one for a women’s writing website, and Julie wrote a few for other organizations, including a local camper company. Buzz also comes from shorter call-outs from magazines, larger family travel networks, and connections on Facebook, Instagram and LinkedIn. (See Press Page)

Tangible Rewards

Just before launch, we achieved Amazon new release bestseller status in two categories. Our ebook produced strong sales throughout the launch month. We’ve also gained some interest from REI, who is stocking Wonder Year on their website and in two Colorado store

After years of Zoom, we met our wonderful editor and marketing lead from our publisher, Wonderwell

locations. We will see where that relationship takes us.

The best part of book launch month–for all of us–was hearing from those we’ve impacted. These messages come to us through book reviews, face-to-face conversations, direct messages, and social media comments. We began this project with a mission: to create the book we wished we’d had before our own journeys. We began by saying sales, reviews, and buzz were not the goals (although it’s easy to lose sight of that fact in the midst of launch month). The goal was to create something of use to someone else. But deep down, it was more than that; the goal was to help others live more moments connected, inspired, and growing. Yes, this baby took four years of gestation, and it’s been a month of joy to feel as though we’ve achieved some humbled version of all those goals. We are now proud parents seeing our book out in the world.

So, book launch month was busy! And there’s much more to come, especially as we head into the holidays with Wonder Year included in some popular gift guides. Just one more reason I am thankful to be on a team of coauthors. I cannot imagine doing by myself all that we did as a collective team.

Circling back to the original question–what does a book launch look like for an independent author? It still feels like an event and gives the authors the opportunity to step away from the screen and the grind to celebrate. After our sold-out Boulder Bookstore appearance, we had a big party with desserts and dancing. If I could choose one four-hour period of happy satisfaction, that was it, rivaling any other major event in my life. Happy book birthday to Wonder Year.

The post Book Launch Month appeared first on Wonder Year Travel.

We’re the Hunter family; Kyla (mom), Randy (dad), Calais (2010) & Kacela (2012). We consider ourselves part-time, full-time travellers. We have a house in Canada we call home for about half of the year and spend the other half travelling together.

 Please tell us a bit about your journey.

I’ve wanted to visit Machu Picchu since studying Peru in Grade 7. It’s one of the things that sparked my early wanderlust & curiosity about the world. It was so special to finally get to see it, and to be able to share the experience with my family.

Our first BIG trip was a 12.5-month gap year in 2017/2018. We backpacked through 30 countries, travelling by every mode of transportation imaginable! When we started to plan our route, we had 2 rules; no English & no Western countries. We broke this rule twice, because we had to! We travelled extensively through Asia, spent a bit of time in the Middle East, then transited through Germany to spend ~4mo in Central & South America. (We flew from Panama to Ecuador via Toronto, Canada for my cousin’s wedding!).

That trip solidified our desire to spend longer periods of time travelling. We returned home, purchased a 2003 Land Rover Defender & spent COVID converting it into an overlanding vehicle. We’re currently driving it around the world, in 3-6 month chunks of time.

What was one of the most important ingredients in getting your family on the road – what did you do that worked out well? 

Involving the kids in the planning phase, even at a young age, was immensely helpful in getting everyone on board & getting us on the road. This was also hugely important to keep up while we were travelling. We always talked about our plans ahead of time. This way everyone knew what to expect and it helped eliminate the feeling of being out of control. 

What’s outside your window right now? What fascinates you about where you are?  

The pyramids were a special place for me, because they broke me out of my travel fatigue. We’d been on the road for 8 months, seeing and doing incredible things constantly, and I was travel-tired. Walking inside the 5000-year-old pyramids snapped me right out of that! They are truly incredible, everything I imagined they would be!

I’m currently in Norway, looking out the vehicle window at the spectacular fjords. The natural beauty of this place is breathtaking, even in the rain!

Can you describe a time when learning for your kids or family happened organically and profoundly…when you learned outside the “plan” you started with?

Learning happened constantly, even if we weren’t looking for it! We didn’t have an education plan when we left for our gap year, but we took every opportunity to incorporate organic learning into our travels. We discussed currency exchange & figured out the value of things in our home currency. Learning also happened at museums and temples, on transportation and hikes, during meals & everything in between. 

What have you discovered about your family by being on the road together?

We really like each other!! And we always have each other’s backs. We got into a great rhythm when it was just the 4 of us. It surprised me how resilient we could all be when required, and how we’d step in for each other when one person’s resolve was failing. It was so incredible to watch our girls get comfortable in uncomfortable situations at such a young age. 

What does community mean to you, and how have you found it during your travels?

The Taj Mahal was something the girls knew about prior to our travels, and they were very excited to see it! To make it even more memorable, we had visited the Gur-e Amir (Timer’s tomb in Samarkand) earlier in the trip, which was the inspiration for the Taj Mahal. We all felt more connected to it because of this, it made it more meaningful.

We’re all extroverts who love community. We love connecting with others and have made this a priority while travelling. During our gap year, we met up with many other families who were on similar journeys, many of whom we initially connected with on social media. Nowadays we still connect with people on social media, but we also participate in World Schooling pop-ups & meetups. It’s the best way to connect with other families living a similar life. 

What do you wish a fellow worldschooling family had told you before you left home?

I wish someone would’ve told us to slow down and savour the journey. There were definitely times when we moved too quickly and everything turned into a blur! But, we’d also get restless staying in one place for too long. There’s a great balance there somewhere, and I wish we would’ve taken the time to find it early on.

Metaphorically speaking, what is something you’ve lost and something you’ve found during your journey?

Our gap year made us appreciate just how much there is to see in the world, and the realization that a lifetime is not nearly long enough to see everything we want to see! We lost our desire to stay at home for any extended length of time & the ability to be content just staying home. 

We found a deep connection to the world, and an insatiable desire to explore as much of it as we possibly can. 

What are you excited about seeing/doing/learning next?

We are currently (slowly) driving our Land Rover Defender Gimli through every country in Europe. And while Europe is truly incredible, we’re excited to eventually get to places that push us out of our comfort zone again. For that is where we truly feel like we’re growing, learning, and going on an adventure.

My blog is https://www.whereistheworld.ca

And social media (FB, IG) are @whereistheworld

Thanks for sharing your story with us, Kyla and the gang. Like all of our featured Fernweh Families, you inspire and help us all have a bit more wonder in our lives. Safe travels!

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