When we first stepped into this travel lifestyle, most of our days were spent with the boating crowd. It made sense, we were living on the water, and naturally, those were the people around us. But over time, our circles grew. Not because we set out to “find more community,” but because it unfolded that way.

One of the biggest lessons we’ve learned is that travel communities overlap more than you’d expect. You might start out identifying with one group such as sailors, RVers, backpackers, or worldschoolers, but over time those lines start to blur. You end up swapping stories, sharing meals, and building friendships that reach far beyond any one label.

Looking back, I love that part the most. We didn’t just stay in one lane. We opened ourselves up to people who were on their own journeys, in their own way, and that made ours richer.

Different Journeys, Same Lifestyle

When we first set out by sailboat, most of the people in our circle were boaters, it just came with the lifestyle. But as time went on, we realized that travel has a way of broadening your connections without you even trying.

It wasn’t forced; it was simply the natural outcome of meeting people. One winter in La Paz, for example, we started making friends through the Clubhouse app. Later, when we missed the big flotilla of kid boats heading north to the Sea of Cortez for hurricane season, we found ourselves connecting with a whole new group of travelers.

Pretty soon we were spending time with RVers, van lifers, worldschoolers, and families who travel by plane and rental car. The RV crowd in particular reminded us of the boating community, the same like-minded mindset of freedom, the same challenges of living in a small space, and the same conversations about educating kids on the go.

Full-time and extended travel families often face different logistics, things like airline baggage limits, road conditions, or even civil unrest, but in many ways, the conversations overlap. The core struggles and joys are the same: storage is always limited, plans shift with the weather, and there’s a constant balance between flexibility and structure.

What stood out most to us, though, is the shared mindset across all these communities. Whether on water, road, or in the air, so many families are chasing freedom, education, and meaningful experiences. Everyone is on their own journey, and that’s what makes it beautiful. Some travelers give back by volunteering or lending a hand along the way. For us, giving back has meant sharing what we’ve learned, helping other families figure out how they can shape this lifestyle in their own way.

Why Sticking to One Group Can Feel Limiting

Sticking to just one group can start to feel limiting, and honestly, a little boring after a while. A lot of that has to do with the conversations. They tend to revolve around the mode of travel the group identifies with.

For example, sailors often talk about sails, boat setups, and anchoring spots. RVers discuss water fill stations, solar setups, and campground logistics. You get the idea, the topics are useful, but they can start to feel repetitive once the honeymoon phase of a new lifestyle wears off.

That’s why branching out, even if it doesn’t feel as natural at first, can be so eye-opening. Inside your group, you’ll definitely find strong friendships, we have. But the connections we’ve made outside of our main circle have been just as meaningful.

Making friends outside your usual community may feel daunting, but it’s worth it. In our experience, it can shift your perspective, spark new ideas, and even elevate your family’s life in ways you didn’t expect.

Real-Life Examples of Crossover

Making friends outside your usual group isn’t always easy, but for us, the rewards have always been worth it. Take our friends Sam and Blake, for example. They’d been abandoned by what RVers might call a “buddy rig” (like the boating community’s “buddy boat”), and we spent evenings swapping stories about it over beers by the campfire. Their experiences mirrored some of our own, and the conversations became learning moments for everyone.

We first met Sam through the Clubhouse app, and our friendship grew from there. When we found out they were heading to Baja, we kept in touch via Instagram and ended up meeting on different beaches over the years.

More recently, when we were staying in Cortez, Colorado, we even drove three hours to Grand Junction to celebrate their son’s birthday. Those are the kinds of bonds that make this lifestyle so meaningful.

We’ve also connected through worldschooling groups on Facebook, which help us see who’s nearby. While in La Paz, we met up with a family at different times over several months, a mix of parents and kids from Russia, Sweden, Germany, Canada, and the U.S. The kids didn’t care one bit about group labels; they just wanted to play, explore, and enjoy being together in the moment.

It reminded me of growing up in the ’90s, when you could find the neighborhood hangout just by spotting all the bikes in someone’s yard. Those moments still exist, though they’re harder to find with today’s busy schedules, travel logistics, and family dynamics.

The crossover is real, and sometimes humbling for adults. We’ve seen firsthand how the sailing community can feel a bit clique-like, almost like high school. That experience pushed us to open ourselves up to friendships with RVers, overlanders, and van lifers, and it has enriched our journey in ways we couldn’t have imagined.

How to Create Your Own “Blended Community”

Building community looks different for everyone, depending on your travel style, preferences, and even your budget. Some families find their people within one type of travel, while others, like us, end up blending groups naturally over time. The good news? You don’t have to force it. With the right platforms, apps, and a little openness, you can create your own version of a “blended community.”

Sailboat Community

When we were living on the water, the Kids4Sail Facebook group was a lifeline. Each month they post a roll call where families list their location, kids’ ages, and boat details. It makes it easier to connect in real life, and spotting another boat with the Kids4Sail burgee flag was an instant icebreaker.

Another great resource is the Sea People app, founded by an Aussie couple raising two kids aboard their boat. Their platform helps sailors connect, share updates, and combat the loneliness that can come with long stretches at sea.

RV and Van Life Community

Our friendships with people like Mindy, Kevin, Sam, and Blake taught us quickly that the RV community is one of the most approachable. Unlike anchoring out in a bay, where it’s tough to just “pop over” to a neighbor, campgrounds naturally foster closeness.

Kids can run between sites, and adults often end up around a grill, smoker, or campfire swapping stories. Apps like Sēkr and Driftr (founded by two van lifers) help break the ice before you even arrive, making it easier to build friendships on the road.

Facebook Groups Around Homeschooling & Worldschooling

Social media groups are one of the best ways to find your travel tribe, whether it’s just for a few days, weeks, or months. There are plenty of homeschooling groups across the U.S., but if you’re traveling internationally, worldschooling groups can help you connect fast.

Many of these groups are region or location-based, so keep that in mind when searching. You’ll also find interest-based groups that focus on hobbies like Dungeons & Dragons or sports like soccer and baseball. Others lean toward academics, including subjects like robotics, STEM, and math.

Often there’s opportunities to join groups in new locations. Pop ups and those are easily searchable. They require more effort but it’s how we’ve made connections with others from all sorts of travel backgrounds.

Hosting Your Own Meetup

Don’t be afraid to take the lead. Hosting a casual meetup, a hike, a beach day, or even a dinner out can bring like-minded travelers together. Some of our best connections have happened in the most unexpected places, like airports or while waiting in line. By putting yourself out there, you create opportunities not just for your family, but for others craving connection too.

The Travel Community Is What You Make It

The travel community is beautifully diverse, filled with people from different backgrounds, cultures, and walks of life. If you’re searching for your “tribe,” don’t be surprised if it ends up looking more like a mosaic than a single, uniform group and that’s the best part.

By blending with people who travel in different ways, you create a stronger, more flexible community. Your tribe becomes richer because of the variety of perspectives, experiences, and lifestyles within it. The connections you build won’t always look the same as the ones you started with, but they’ll give you a deeper sense of belonging.

At the end of the day, the travel community is what you make it—open, varied, and stronger when you allow it to grow beyond one lane. For families like ours, that diversity doesn’t just shape friendships, it becomes part of our children’s education.

Worldschooling isn’t just about learning from museums or history books; it’s about learning from people. By surrounding ourselves with travelers from all walks of life, our kids are exposed to perspectives, values, and experiences that no classroom could ever replicate. And that, to us, is the greatest gift this lifestyle has given.

As this guest post beautifully shows, the richest connections often come from mixing worlds, not staying inside familiar ones. The more we lean into that blend, the more meaningful our travels become. Here’s to creating communities everywhere we go.

For more inspiration from the SaltyVagabonds family, you can follow them on Instagram, TikTok, YouTube, or visit their website. 

The post Finding Community on the Go: Why We Don’t Stick to Just One Travel Tribe appeared first on Wonder Year Travel.

We share these ideas not to hand you a script but instead to show how easy it is to encourage learning with just a bit of preplanning. For those who want to go further with actual lessons, we offer example lesson plans on our website on such varied topics as poetry and water use.

Language Arts

Writing

We recommend having your kids each keep a journal in which they can write freely and without suggestions from adults so they can feel safe to wonder, vent, experiment, or puzzle through the world around them. Writing to learn through journaling means that we can sort out our thoughts and opinions by writing, finding the why, and seeing cause and effect as our hands scratch the pages. Learning to write, on the other hand, provides the structure and style to communicate and persuade effectively. There is a place for both types of writing instruction.

Consider keeping a writing portfolio, to imitate the way that writers actually write—in drafts. You could do early drafts in journals before moving on to revised drafts on fresh lined paper or typed on a laptop. A hard-shell accordion-style folder is handy for drafts and final documents that you can later assemble into a tangible portfolio for each school year.

Starter Ideas: Writing

* Create a scrapbook. Include ticket stubs, flyers, pictures your kids have drawn, or poems they’ve composed over the course of your trip.

* Write postcards to friends and family back home.

* Ask your kids to write a monthly post to put on your blog. This is a perfect opportunity to take a first-draft journal entry through the editing process and then type it out on your laptop.

* While you’re waiting for food at a restaurant, create group haikus or limericks.

* Write a Yelp or Airbnb review.

* Invent worlds and storylines for Dungeons & Dragons or other online gaming realms.

* If your teen or tween has strong opinions (ahem . . .), encourage them to share their thoughts on an online forum or write to a politician or even your federal government (such as whitehouse.gov).

Reading

Oh, the luxury of more time to read! Read with your kids as much as you can. Read out loud together and predict what will happen, connect scenes to your own lives, find clues (foreshadowing), and examine characters, conflict, and theme. The sky’s the limit. This one-on-one exchange with time to explore is hands down the best way to teach reading. Be sure to give your kids plenty of room to read independently as well, especially if they are older, and keep a running list or informal bibliography of what they’ve read; it will be a great way to document their work if your kids are returning to traditional school.

Starter Ideas: Reading

* Find books that take place in your destination, and let your kids teach you about it.

* When your kids are reading on their own, ask for updates on the plot. Ask leading questions: Why do you think they did that or said that? Wait, who is that again?

* Read the placards at national parks or museums. It’s a wonderful way to learn how to read nonfiction organically.

* Do a book report. For young ones: Draw your favorite scene or character. Write about the conflict or challenge in the book. For older ones: Compare two books, create an alternative ending, or write a five-paragraph essay on a topic of your choosing. Make a book jacket. Draw a tourist map of the fantasy land.

* Read a local newspaper. Identify any biases, and discuss the sources cited in the articles.

* Leave a book review on Goodreads.

* Listen to an audiobook while traveling on a long stretch of road.

Grammar/Spelling

Try these ideas for grammar in context and to review or learn a few specific skills.

Starter Ideas: Grammar/Spelling

* Use Mad Libs to teach parts of speech. After introducing adjectives, pronouns, plural nouns, and adverbs, practice with this high-interest game. It’s an entertaining and often funny way to pass time on a long bus, plane, or train ride.

* Review your kids’ existing written pieces to find error patterns, then create individualized “find the errors” exercises. Adjust for age and ability.

* Practice dictation: using the information you have about your current location, read a sentence (or an entire paragraph for the older ones) aloud and ask your child to write it down in their journal. Then review together what they’ve written and make any corrections with them. Without realizing it, they’ve also learned some important facts about this new place.

* If your kids are really craving structure, create weekly spelling lists using words inspired by the place you’re visiting. In Florida, it could be orange, archipelago, alligator, or roller coaster. Or use the words in your dictation and “find the errors” exercises. Practice writing these words in the sand, if you’re at the beach, for bonus fun.

* Take advantage of spelling resources. Angela’s family had a cool spelling program, but the book was huge. Instead of doing writing exercises, they went through the book and took photos of the upcoming pages for each kid and quizzed them out loud during long journeys.

Math

This is one subject that builds sequentially, so it may work best with some regularity and order. You can also naturally apply mathematical skills within an unschooling approach. There are so many ways to bring math into everyday life.

Starter Ideas: Math

* Calculate mileage for your RV, flight, or boat ride. You could do this by using a map or odometer, and then create graphs or charts as a visual representation of the data.

* Get your kids involved in keeping track of the budget. You can make a ledger and have them track costs over a day, a week, a month, or the entire trip. They can break down expenses into categories and even help decide where to splurge and where to cut back.

* Play cards, which will reinforce patterns with Go Fish or counting and probability with blackjack.

* Convert metric to imperial measurements or vice versa while baking or cooking, or when measuring distance traveled or volume of water in your RV’s clean-water tank.

* Double the recipe while cooking. Voilà, it’s a math lesson! Share the extra food with new friends.

* Practice converting fractions to percentages while doing fun things like hiking or kicking a soccer ball.

* Estimate the length of a bridge, the height of a cathedral, the diameter of a tree, or the speed of a motor scooter.

Science

Science is all around you, in theory and application. Every time you cook can be a chemistry experiment, and every time you move can be an exercise in physics. When you drive, there may be roadside geology exhibits. Simply asking your kids to observe, notice, wonder, draw, or hypothesize about cause and effect can set you up for a science lesson anytime, anywhere.

Starter Ideas: Science

* Volunteer for an archeological dig or a river cleanup.

* At the airport, check out exhibits or tours open to the public. Maybe you can view an educational display or visit the control tower when your flight’s delayed.

* Make your own bingo cards and play to identify flora, fauna, and other natural features during a boat trip, land trek, or safari.

* Research environmental challenges and how humans are working toward solutions. For example, there are apps for determining air quality in China and tsunami risk in New Zealand.

* Use your magnifying glass during a hike.

* Study applied physics at one of the many amusement parks that offer special “learning lab” days.

* Observe the sunset every day for a week. Sketch the different colors, and explore negative and positive space, shadows, light, and silhouettes.

* Spend as long as you want at a streambed. Turn over rocks, wade in the water, and notice what kinds of insects live above and below the surface. Learn the words riparian, habitat, limnology, and anaerobic.

* Visit a nature and science museum.

* Check out ready-to-go science programs, like Citizen Science and Junior Ranger described in the resources section.

* Track the night sky. Learn about International Dark Sky Places and light pollution. Take a late-night excursion. Find the North Star. Find the Milky Way. Ask: Can you see Jupiter? Do you want to go to Mars?

Social Studies

Many parents find that social studies is the easiest subject to worldschool. It’s literally hard not to learn. Just observe, absorb, and discuss.

Starter Ideas: Social Studies

* Talk to strangers. Ask questions. This is the heart of worldschooling. Yes, it really is that simple. Or you can be more intentional and interview people.

* Hire a local guide: not only will you learn but you will also contribute to the local economy.

* Read maps: plan the route from your accommodations to the museum, or take the subway to the market.

* Keep a running timeline that incorporates interesting history facts from every place you visit over the year into a visual representation. This will help your kids see what was happening at different places in different times.

* Bring historical fiction to life! If you take a tour of Pompeii, ask your kids to write down five, six, or eleven facts that will be incorporated into an imaginary story or scene. This is an adaptable and fun activity that can be done anywhere.

* Preview a museum’s website and use it to create a museum scavenger hunt in your child’s journal. Or, better yet, ask your kids to create scavenger hunts for themselves or each other.

* Take a road atlas or world map and diligently chart your course. Explore cartography through exercises in scale, compass rose, place names, and boundaries. Whose story is being illustrated in the map? Who makes maps, anyway?

STEAM: Science, Technology, Engineering, The Arts, and Math

STEAM encourages students to use creative, out-of-the-box thinking to solve real-world tasks. Kids play with perspective, discovery, and questioning that dovetail effortlessly with worldschooling. Consider banking ideas and family brainstorms for future science or art-fair projects.

Starter Ideas: STEAM

* Build a sandcastle with moats and tributaries leading back to the ocean.

* Make a family trip website and have your kids do the coding.

* Help your kids take digital photos and edit them with an image editing program.

* Visit science and transportation museums.

* When something breaks—a zipper, luggage handle, a bicycle derailleur—pause and let your kids diagnose the problem and brainstorm a solution.

* Read inspiring books about real kids who were faced with a STEAM-based challenge and used science to help their communities. A few examples are *The Water Princess* by Susan Verde, *The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind* by William Kamkwamba and Bryan Mealer, and *Iqbal and His Ingenious Idea* by Elizabeth Suneby.

* Source websites with coding instruction. For example, Hour of Code has hundreds of free computer science activities for kids of all ages.

* Learn CAD and design structures inspired by the places you’ve visited.

* Play chess. It requires multistep thinking, problem-solving, and real manipulatives. Bring a travel version when you’re on the road. You can find chess games everywhere in the world, and it can help you find immediate friends who also play.

World Languages

Languages offer insight into the psyche of a place. In Thai and Mandarin, the “How are you?” greeting literally translates to “Have you eaten your rice yet?” Now that is a window into the culture!

Starter Ideas: World Languages

* Learn a new alphabet. For instance, you could learn how to read the word train in Chinese characters. Try to spot it when you can. Or study the Greek alphabet and sound out the names of foods from the grocery store or place names while driving.

* Learn to say “hello,” “goodbye,” “please,” “thank you,” and “where is the bathroom?” in the local language of every country you visit.

* Ask for a word a day from a neighbor, a hotel clerk, or new friend. Offer to reciprocate.

* Learn and practice appropriate nonverbal communication, customs, and body language. For instance, learn how to hongi (press your nose together with another person in traditional Maori greeting) in New Zealand; recognize when to make or avoid eye contact, when to remove your shoes in someone’s home, or when to say hello with a handshake; or know how to hail a cab in New York versus Istanbul.

* Use online language-learning apps like Duolingo.

* If you’re staying in a place for a longer period of time, enroll in a local class.

* Do the obvious: go outside and talk to someone.

Music/Art/Culture

This is a great way for kids to interact with their surroundings. You will be so happy to have their Wonder Year art years from now.

Starter Ideas: Music/Art/Culture

* Find hands-on art activities at your destination that you can join for a day, a week, or more. These are easy to find in online searches. Weaving classes in Cambodia, painting lessons in Guatemala, or pottery classes in Costa Rica are just a few examples.

* Carry colored pencils, charcoals, or watercolor sets and a sketchbook wherever you go. Sketch a temple or cathedral. Copy four artist signatures. Paint a watercolor landscape.

* Begin a museum visit in the gift shop. Let your kids pick a postcard, and then do a scavenger hunt to find that piece. Ask why they were drawn to that particular work of art.

* Find a local music festival and volunteer or do work in exchange for free admission.

* Learn to finger knit, crochet, or hand sew. Travel is a great time to do handicrafts, and you can bring some simple ​​prepackaged kits with you. Insider tip: bamboo knitting needles are TSA-friendly.

* Take a local cooking class or learn a new recipe from the owner of your accommodations.

* Look at billboards and be an anthropologist for a day. What are the values represented? Whose perspective is being shown? What are the cultural norms implied? What is the message?

* Take a one-, five-, or tensecond video that represents each day or week you travel. Create a video compilation and set it to music.

Health and Wellness

Physical activity may be an integral part of your trip. If not, you may need to be more conscientious to get the blood pumping in the course of a day.

Starter Ideas: Health and Wellness

* Go to the local park. Carry with you a soccer ball, hacky sack, diabolo, juggling balls, or Frisbee—these are great ways for your children to meet local kids and get a party started.

* With proper research and gear, go hiking on a glacier.

* Get in the water: swim in a local pool, kayak on a lake, or snorkel or surf in the ocean.

* Use the step counter on your phone and chart how much you and your family walk in a day.

* Take a meditation class as a family, and incorporate mindfulness practices into your lives.

* Try a sport you know nothing about. Netball? Cricket? Kneel jump?

* Learn basic first aid and restock your kit. Learn the signs and treatments for altitude sickness, dehydration, and heat stroke.

* Observe the ways that the locals exercise—is it part of their everyday lives? Consider incorporating new habits while you’re there.

Life Skills

Survival, self-care, independence, and self-esteem all grow as children take on more responsibility and contribute to the team. Whether you are overseas or in your own country, in an Airbnb, in the backcountry, or on 5th Avenue in New York City, you can learn “street smarts” through your travels.

Starter Ideas: Life Skills

* Have a regular family meeting and rotate leadership roles. Share your “roses and thorns,” the highs and lows of your day.

* Learn how to read subway routes, bus schedules, or topographical maps. Let your kids lead the way.

* Practice threading a needle and knotting thread. Sew a patch over a hole in damaged clothing.

* Plan for, shop, and cook a meal.

* Practice packing light, keeping track of your gear, and staying organized.

* Climb a tree to put up a clothesline, then hand-wash your clothes and hang the laundry.

* Wash and dry the outside of your van.

* Learn how to build a fire with one match.

* Study and practice the principles of Leave No Trace.

* Learn how to write thank-you notes. Mail them at the local post office.

We hope these starter ideas help you launch your worldschooling journey. And remember, EVERY experience can be a learning experience, and part of the journey is to have fun and make it your own!

The post Worldschooling: Subject-Area Starter Kits appeared first on Wonder Year Travel.

So many of us yearn to be on the road, soaking in adventure and experiencing other cultures and faraway places. Whether escaping the rat race, emerging from a pandemic, or cashing in on a sabbatical to pursue the dream of family travel, more and more families are moving around.

You could say we evolved for long-distance travel—to hunt and gather, secure resources and water, avoid predators, and quench a thirst for exploration. After all, our forebears were really good at foraging and traveling; they did it for hundreds of thousands of years.

What stokes modern-day travelers to get up and go?

Why Humans Travel

Wanderlust

We often talk about a love of travel as wanderlust. The word is derived from the German wandern (to wander) and lust (to desire). In the fullest sense, wanderlust is an overwhelming desire to explore the world and deepen your connection to people and history while walking toward the unknown.

Psychologists have even posited the existence of a “wanderlust gene” in some people—correlated with extroversion, exploration, curiosity, and a migratory lifestyle. Certain people just love change more than others and want to wander and try something new.

For Adventure

Classical explorers were some of the earliest adventure travelers. From the 1400s through the 1600s, they navigated oceans, mapped the skies, bagged mountains, and established new routes. We do not glorify their trade; we know theirs was not just saffron and gold.

Today, many travelers heed the call to adventure to find their physical or social limits. They do it for mystery, for challenge, and for meaning and transformation.

As Pilgrimage

The practice or path of awakening is evident across cultures and time periods. Many religions have a pilgrimage—a journey to a physical holy site or a metaphorical or spiritual period of contemplation, transformation, and ascension to the sacred.

In the Middle Ages, the Santiago de Compostela was a popular pilgrimage ending at the site believed to be the burial ground of Saint James. Today, it’s a UNESCO World Heritage Site and a European Cultural Route. Pilgrims and other travelers follow the paths on foot, by bike, in silence, or with a friend.

Some feel these modern treks bring them closer to history, to themselves, to their physical limits—and ultimately closer to their spiritual ideal.

For Purpose

Just as early travelers were seekers, when we trace their historic routes around the world, we become modern seekers on our own journeys—looking for change, love, truth, or enlightenment.

To Pursue Simplicity

The ideal of simple living is a motivator for some travelers. There’s great liberation in carrying on your back everything you need to survive. It wakes up your senses and brings your intention back to the basics—unencumbered by material possessions and focused instead on daily nourishment, shelter, water, and clothing. Living simply is practical too. It’s usually easier and cheaper to occupy a 285-square-foot motor home than to pay down a thirty-year mortgage and maintain a 2,000-square-foot house.

To Reconnect as a Family

Some of us feel so crazy busy that there’s rarely a night we can sit down together for dinner—let alone connect with and enjoy our quickly growing kids. Maybe you’re concerned that technology and social media are disrupting family life. Travel can bring families together and dial down the noise. For many, it feels like a great reset from an overbooked and overscheduled life.

To Understand Family History

Some people travel to connect with and imagine the experiences of their ancestors. 

Annika and her family traveled to China to fall in love with their adopted daughter’s homeland and to meet the caregivers at the orphanage where Lucy spent the first three years of life. Our friends John and Eydie traveled to West Africa to show their son, Brook, the village in Benin where John had spent two years in the Peace Corps.

Because We Can: Digital Nomadism

A new technological and social reality has opened many doors for the professionally adventurous. Infrastructure for digital nomadism is steadily growing, and this presents more opportunities to pursue the travel dream. We have new marketplaces, new ways of transacting, and new models of community that support mobile lifestyles. Industry experts predict that by 2035 there will be one billion digital nomads working remotely around the globe.

Whatever the reasons or context, traveling as a family sets us into motion together on a winding and textured road that may be at once restorative, cathartic, familial, purely pleasurable, or outside of our comfort zone. It is here, in these momentous, magical, unfamiliar spaces, that we become more deeply connected to history, to fellow travelers, and to ourselves.

The Upsides of Travel

We’ve heard many stories from fellow travelers about how extended travel helped people’s sense of well-being. Travel offers many benefits. In our experience, it can:

Help Us Navigate Stress

While traveling, we remove many of the stress triggers of home and work. We have more time for exercise and activity, reading and listening to music, taking long walks, connecting with family and friends, being in nature, experiencing the change in seasons more deeply, and feeling free. We dare you to notice a rising tide, watch a moonrise, or photograph a sunset with your kids and not feel more relaxed! Now, do that for months in a row and imagine the effect.

As a bonus for the planners among us, the organizational process itself—putting together itineraries, researching destinations, and solving logistical problems—can be enormously fun and satisfying. The anticipation is an exhilarating prelude to the great adventure.

Boost Creativity

Engaging in new rituals and experiencing new places can stimulate creativity and prompt fresh ideas. One of the fundamental truths of travel is that it offers many new experiences, thus promoting “cognitive flexibility”—the brain’s ability to jump from one set of ideas, activities, or learning approaches to another. Traveling is rich with novel experiences; at every turn, every day, down every trail, there are unexpected sparks and nonstop innovation. We learn to think outside the box because we are outside of our box.

Make Us More Tolerant

Travel exposes our own biases and prejudices. It offers us new perspectives, bringing us face-to-face with fresh ideas and different cultures. Travel expands our cultural awareness and sensitivity, building tolerance, appreciation, and respect.

Feed Our Curiosity

You can’t exactly make someone curious overnight. But give a child 365 consecutive days of new experiences and educational adventures while traveling, and curiosity will surely bloom.

The urge to travel as a family might feel familiar—like something that’s always been with us. We might not be following migrating animals or escaping the dry season anymore, but the pull to move, explore, and connect is still there. It shows up in our need for quality time, novelty, and stories worth telling.

So if you’re on the fence about hitting the road, know you’re not just booking a trip. You’re likely stepping into something bigger—something generations before you understood well. And who knows? That one journey might become one of the stories your family tells for years to come.

The post Why Travel Can Be Good for Your Family appeared first on Wonder Year Travel.

In case you were wondering, yes, you absolutely can educate your kids on the road. This blog will provide you with guidelines and gridlines, ideas, and inspiration. And if you’re reading this from the road, we hope it reminds you just how much experiential learning is already happening effortlessly.

You have the right to educate your children outside of traditional schooling. In our book Wonder Year we share more about the process for pulling them out of school, and now we want to whet your appetite with all the ways that you can put them into the world. 

We’ve spoken with many parents at all stages of worldschooling, and strong sentiments emerge. Before parents leave, they often feel pressure to have their whole worldschooling plan figured out. While on the road, they worry that they’re not teaching enough or that their kids haven’t mastered the academic milestones. Good news, though: you already have the three most important ingredients for educating your kids:

1. you love and want the best for them;
2. with every question you ask and excursion you take, you model curiosity; and
3. having chosen to travel as a family, you recognize that the world is a very good teacher.

Even more good news: most parents return home proud of all the growth they see in their children.

There are as many paths to worldschool as there are paths in the world. Some parents want more structure, academic focus, and alignment with traditional school standards, whereas others prefer spontaneity and freedom. Our suggestions are guideposts for you to create your own approach, knowing that the alchemy comes from diving in and interacting with each other, with learning, and with the world. Be prepared to pivot as you, your children, and your map will likely evolve.

Some Important Terms

Here are some common terms you will encounter in Wonder Year and in online conversations about educating outside of traditional schools. Because this is an evolving space and the definitions are not written in stone, note that these terms are sometimes used interchangeably and are not mutually exclusive. It’s important to note that this is a dynamic—fluid, even—landscape that continues to evolve.

   * Homeschooling: learning at home rather than at a public or private institution

   * Worldschooling: learning through direct interaction with the world

   * Roadschooling: a form of worldschooling that most often refers to domestic travel

   * Nature schooling: using the natural world as the primary classroom; sometimes called forest schooling

   * Gameschooling: a form of homeschooling that teaches concepts and skills through games like chess, cards, board games, and manipulative toys like Rubik’s Cubes

   * Unschooling: using students’ curiosities and interests instead of prescribed curricula to drive self-paced learning (more on this below)

* Hybrid schooling: Anything goes! You can blend any of the above.

Unschooling: Don’t Let the Name Fool You

Unschooling is an increasingly popular form of education, and we want to delve a little deeper into it because many worldschoolers find themselves leaning heavily into it. The word may sound extreme, but it does not necessarily mean no schooling. It’s called unschooling because, as a form of learning, it does not try to mimic traditional classrooms with schedules and standards-based learning but instead lets kids follow their interests with great fluidity.

Popularized by American educator John Holt in the 1970s, the premise of unschooling is that we learn better when we aren’t forced to do so. Unschoolers believe that learning is not the same as schooling. Proponents believe that the unschooling parent’s job is to maximize their child’s experiences in the world and to find the learning that is already happening, hear the questions of their blossoming youngster, and nurture that inquisitiveness. The parent becomes the collaborator, the guide, the witness, and the recorder.

Families carve out time and space, and they expand the surface area between them and the world by exposing their kids to all kinds of people, places, and experiences. That way, the world becomes more readily accessible, and adventures become teachable moments.

Unschooling can be entirely open, or it can take on some structure. An unschooled Wonder Year might include monthly or weekly learning contracts (agreements between parent and student about program of study, dates, and assignments), interest projects, writing portfolios, fieldwork, direct instruction if desired, and other ideas.

Unschooling starts with the premise that we are all lifelong learners, and schooling is just one resource that aids education.

Learning Modalities

Worldschooling offers an opportunity to get to know your kids through a different lens and to learn how they learn. No matter the approaches you choose, chances are you will get a closer look at their strengths and challenges.

You’ll be there to help break down projects into small chunks. You can teach them about setting schedules, reaching goals, and prioritizing. These are the soft skills of executive functioning; and kids will thrive from the step-by-step, individualized instruction. Throughout the year, you can pull back or help them make their own system.

Direct, hands-on experiences result in long-lasting knowledge. Think about that time in middle school when you presented a science project to your classmates. Maybe you asked them to taste chocolate, lemons, salt, and arugula to learn about sweet, sour, salty, and bitter taste buds. Chances are you remember way more from that exercise than from a lecture you passively listened to on the same topic.

What does this mean for worldschooling? It means that your children are likely to learn and remember more from their multisensory travel experiences.

Each child learns in a variety of ways, and your teaching toolbox may be bigger than you think. On the road you can employ a full range of learning approaches such as the following:

* Visual and spatial learning happens by seeing the information and thinking in pictures. Kids can explore map reading and photography.

* Verbal or auditory learning works by hearing information and thinking about the meaning of words and sounds. Worldschoolers can interview interesting people they meet or listen to ocean waves, birdcalls, and audiobooks.

* Reading and writing skills are developed through interacting with some form of text. In this mode, we journal, write blogs, or read menus or books.

* Logical or mathematical learning happens through calculating numbers, identifying patterns, and thinking conceptually. Your kids might play logic games like Sudoku or collect coins and calculate and compare their value.

* Hands-on or kinesthetic learning occurs through physical activity, like learning a new dance or the times tables while practicing headers with a soccer ball on a rainy day inside a twenty-four-foot RV . . . for example!

We are not one fixed learning type but rather a constantly changing mixture. Play around with different approaches, and discover together what works for your family.

Most importantly, coach your children so they become lifelong, meta learners—those who are aware of their own learning. It all brings you closer; it all brings wonder.

If you have a neurodiverse child, your worldschooling might have more considerations. One mom we know attended an Orton-Gillingham (a type of multisensory teaching approach) training program for dyslexia so that she could more confidently help her two sons in their daily schoolwork. She also decided to shorten their journey to six months, to lessen her sons’ time away from the seasoned support of their learning center.

You could also plan your trip in a way that allows you to return home periodically so that you can tap in and out easily with specially trained teachers. Another mom found that working one-on-one with her daughter, who had ADHD, helped her understand and strategize solutions that carried them both way past their worldschooling trip. Sometimes removing the literal and metaphorical noise is advantageous for diverse learners.

Finding Your Rhythm

With worldschooling, you choose the time in which to learn and the space you want to do it in; this flexibility can be one of your most powerful educational tools.

You could, for instance, have “school” each morning for one hour. You could have one day on and one day off, or you could have pockets of concentration. You will inevitably adjust these dials to suit your needs and preferences throughout your Wonder Year.

The point is to find a cadence that works for your family.

Angela used their RV home base for traditional homeschooling of some subjects. Her family alternated three months of international traveling with three months of domestic road tripping, multiple times over. This gave them a base for desks, storage space for materials, and the time of slow travel to work through their lessons.

Annika had “buckle down” time in New Zealand so that she could get through 75 percent of their goals and objectives and then relax into the magical moments of travel, fitting in the remaining goals as opportunities naturally arose.

Be flexible and take advantage of the natural downtimes in travel, such as a long train ride in China, a rainy day in the Everglades, or waiting for food in Greece. Keep flash cards in your purse or backpack. A pair of dice is also good for math exercises: divide, multiply, add, and subtract.

Annika kept one big Ziploc with 5″ x 7″ journals, colored pencils, scissors, and a glue stick for impromptu sketching, scavenger hunts, or journaling. Julie, Charlie, and Johnny always had their “10 essentials” bags handy with things like headlamps, pocketknives, compasses, star charts, and paracords. You never know when there’s a knot to be tied, a limerick to be written, a stick to be whittled, or a constellation to be identified.

Worldschooling rhythms can be highly efficient. While classroom teachers fill their seven- or eight-hour day with teaching, classroom management, and breaks in between, most worldschooling families find they can cover material in much shorter times than they ever imagined.

We have found that one or two hours per day of focused learning is profoundly effective.

When Everything Isn’t Awesome

When you are the parent and the teacher, what happens when your kid doesn’t like your supercool lesson idea? They look at you and say no. When you’re on the road, your kids will be distracted, tired, and sometimes, it may seem, just plain over you. The emotional proximity might make this normal child behavior feel like a personal attack. It’s not.

Coping strategies for off days:

* Limit the direct instruction to no more than an hour, maybe even fifteen minutes on a bad day or if you have younger kids. Create some space. Keep stepping back until the dynamic lets you step forward again somehow.

* Find ways for kids to do independent work, maybe an art project or online lesson.

* Remind them that they are not spending all day in a classroom, and that, in your most gentle parenting way, their end of the bargain is to do this schoolwork.

* Kids need you to be their safe space. If long division is causing a divide between you and your child, stop.

* If there are more and more of these off days, find ways to shake it up. Hire an online or local tutor, look for an online class, reach out to loved ones back home for ideas, or offer your kids self-paced books or science kits.

Here are some tips for working with differing levels of learners at the same time, especially when the kids outnumber the parents:

* Set one child up to do independent work while you coach the other one.

* Ask one child to help or present information to another child; ask siblings to quiz each other.

* Remind kids to do what they can independently for, say, fifteen minutes, and then go check on them. It’s hard to move forward with one child when you are interrupted repeatedly by the other.

* Of course, if it’s an option, two parents can coach.

Packable School Supplies

Here are some things that are easy to pack and bring along almost anywhere:

* Journals

* A durable carrier for colored pencils, a glue stick, and TSA-approved scissors

* Hard-shell accordion file folder for drawings, school assignments, or keepsakes that you don’t want to get tattered

* Index cards for flash cards, quick diagrams, and other ideas

* Dice for math games

* Binoculars and magnifying glass

* Mini portable photo printer

* Kindles or other e-readers

* Deck of cards and travel board games

* Camera

* Compass

* Laptop/tablet

* USB thumb drive to deliver files to a print shop

Culmination Projects

When you have finished your worldschooling journey, how do you make sense of it with your children? How do you document and memorialize what your family has done and learned? How do you present it to your school upon reentry?

There are many ways to capture your children’s educational adventure. Take some time to digest, integrate, and share your experiences.

* Create a writing portfolio as a culminating project. Make a cover, create a table of contents, and add some artwork.

* Apply to attend a conference or festival, and once accepted, prepare a presentation or poster for display as an exhibit.

* Keep a running document about some of your kids’ favorite unschooling learning moments. Include photos. This is easier to do as you go, rather than cramming it all at the end.

* Create a timeline of your trip, and have your kids list their greatest hits from each place, month, or activity.

* Final exams. Not what you’re thinking. If your children are nervous about having a whole year out, create a “Celebration of Learning” that circles back to those goals, standards, and objectives you articulated at the beginning of the year. This kind of final is a fun way to show your kids just how much they learned. You might ask questions like:

     * What is the strangest food you ate?

     * What is the capital of Maine?

     * What is the major religion in India?

     * Which countries colonized Vietnam?

     * What are the trees in these photos?

     * Would you recommend a Wonder Year to your friends? Why or why not?

With the tools and ideas shared here, we hope you feel well on your way to crafting an education approach that follows your children’s curiosity and is meaningful for your family!

The post Worldschooling Education: Background Info to Support Your Launch appeared first on Wonder Year Travel.

In this blog we walk you through suggestions to help create an education road map. We begin with some logistical considerations that may help you narrow your planning. We ask you to think about your vision and values around education and ask you to consider larger goals for your family. Then we drill down into goals and objectives and look at options for how you “do” education. We share thoughts on available curricula, introduce you to the worldschool community at large, and show you that a world of faculty awaits. Finally, we share thoughts on how to bring home what you have learned. 

Step 1: Consider Logistics

Every family has a unique situation with regard to their school district, their children’s educational history, and other practical needs. All of these considerations should be looked at when tackling the educational logistics of a Wonder Year. It’s best to address any specific requirements or constraints up front so you can leave and come back without disrupting or complicating enrollment status, academic credit, or advancement. Considering the following parameters can help illuminate options so you can build a workable game plan.

Enrollment Parameters

If your kids are in public school, you may simply need to register each of them as a homeschool student for the time period they are away. The forms don’t include worldschooling as an option. Yet. So, in most cases, worldschooling families are homeschoolers in the eyes of your US public school district.

Be aware of the following:

* Homeschool laws vary by state. Check your state’s department of education website.

* If worldschooling families follow the procedural and performance requirements, the vast majority of students can advance a grade (or grades) upon return. Another option is to pause grade advancement while you are away. There is no right or wrong approach.

* Your district might have requirements already spelled out on its website, or it may write an individual contract with you that includes quantifiable benchmarks. For example, your district might say that your child needs to pass a math exam or produce a writing sample. Your school might also ask you to keep a log of instructional hours or sign a document certifying that you will homeschool for a prescribed number of hours per day or week.

* School districts can be bureaucratic, and this process can be daunting! Remember, school administrators are guided by funding, ratings, and child protection, and that exceptions—which may seem perfectly reasonable to us—can feel disruptive to them. On the flip side, their suggestions and enthusiasm may give you some great ideas for your homemade educational adventures.

* Your school district may have an online learning option. You can also reach out to the principal or a teacher at the school to get their input, cooperation, and support.

For families with children outside a public school system:

* If you are already homeschooling your kids, you may need to research the implications of an address change or shift in curriculum.

* If you have a rising kindergartener or a student entering a new school upon return, you may need to think about when you want them to start and if you can register from the road.

* If your kids are enrolled in a private school, ask the school how to work within the law. In some cases, you don’t need to do anything official with the state to homeschool.

* If you’re relocating upon return from your Wonder Year and you do not know where your family will reside, you can conduct research from the road. Perhaps you can explore new possible hometowns and learn what might be expected.

* We highly suggest networking with other homeschooling families as you are going through this process (see the resources section for websites).

Practical Considerations

There are a host of other factors that can inform how you approach worldschooling. For example, you’ll need to be realistic about how much access you will have to digital resources, Wi-Fi, and technology. Be sure to investigate the speed and capacity of Wi-Fi connectivity. Knowing what you will need for everyone’s work and school, as well as what’s realistically and reliably available at your accommodations, is essential. If getting off the beaten path and unplugged is your goal, then online education may not be the most suitable option for you, and we offer plenty of other approaches in our book, Wonder Year.

You might also consider your desire for English-speaking libraries and local tutors. Physical space is also a factor for some families. How much can you carry, and where will you store school materials as you travel? There may be dates or milestones that influence your academic approach, such as ACT or SAT dates, entrance exams, or placement tests. Keep these practical considerations in mind so you don’t invest in options that are impractical for you and your family.

Finally, if you are working from the road, that can have a great influence on how you roll out your worldschooling plan. You’ll need to think about leveraging the working hours, the Wi-Fi bandwidth, the desk space, and the locations where you may stay a while. A more free-standing curriculum plan, with accessible online tutors, may be more your style. As we noted earlier, the flip side is that work time for parents can naturally be schooltime for kids. Even if you fall into this camp, there’s something for you in all these steps.

Step 2: Examine Your Vision and Values

There are so many educational opportunities beyond what’s listed in your state’s learning standards. Is it important to learn long division? Absolutely! But the experience of visiting with a Native American elder or tasting fresh mangosteen at the Chiang Mai night market just might be the catalyst to ignite a passion for learning itself.

Does your child intend to go to college? If so, this will shape their worldschooling curriculum, and they may have to navigate the application process differently. But worldschooling kids do it all the time, even if they’ve been on the road for most, or all, of their high school years.

So, before diving into the nitty-gritty, let’s consider your family’s education vision and values, knowing they may look different before, during, and after your Wonder Year. This is big-picture thinking; we’ll get to specifics as we move through the process.

Spend some time thinking or writing about these defining questions:

* What do you wish you did more of as a kid?

* What were the most powerful lessons you learned as a child?

* What do you want your child to know about the world?

* What do you think will matter most to their educational future?

* Is it important for you to have a plan, or do you like to be spontaneous?

* What do you wish you could learn about if you had more time?

Keep these inspiring values close to your heart as you begin to braid goals and objectives into your vision.

Step 3: Identify Your Goals and Objectives

Goals can serve as the philosophical underpinnings of what you will do day to day—the principles that arc across the specific content that you’ll teach and learn. On those days when you ask yourself why you’re doing what you’re doing, goals can be helpful as a compass heading.

Invite your kids to partner with you in making your family’s list. Here’s an example list to get you started.

We will:

* Make our own opinions about the world. Is it kind, beautiful, and safe?

* Interact with people who do not share our language, and discover our similarities and differences.

* Learn how to respond when we are outside our comfort zones.

* Pay attention to how the world views our own country, and begin to recognize our cultural biases.

* Become fluent in “I notice, I observe, I wonder . . .”

* Develop a deep understanding of the world.

* Make connections across subject areas.

* Think critically and creatively.

* Communicate and collaborate with others.

* Learn to analyze data, test assumptions, and draw conclusions.

* Develop street smarts.

* Explore future career paths.

Add more, subtract some, make it your own.

Let’s take goals one step further and articulate education objectives. Objectives are the direct, tangible, specific activities that are born from your goals. They are often measurable achievements that your child can meet during your Wonder Year. Many school districts would love to see this level of specificity after you return.

Here’s an example of an objectives list:

My learner will:

* Trace the alphabet in the sand.

* Follow fourth-grade math curriculum and complete fourth-grade Khan Academy.

* Research one curiosity every month, and teach others about it.

* Meet with an online tutor each Monday, and create a weekly study plan.

* Read for one hour each night with a parent or sibling, and make a list of books completed.

* Learn about foods, trees, and animals that are endemic to a region they’ll be visiting.

* Make a travel brochure with good old glue and scissors. Or create a digital slideshow for each state, country, or national park visited.

* Write a paragraph using a topic sentence, three supporting ideas, and a conclusion about something meaningful.

* Write a compare-and-contrast essay about breakfast in Mexico and the United States.

* Complete four practice SAT tests.

* Know how to check tire pressure and oil levels, fill auto fluids, and understand each gauge on the dashboard for your vehicle.

* Meet someone new each day.

Step 4: Determine Your Approach

You might be saying to yourself: Yes, yes. Alchemy, kindling of flames, and blossoming children, that’s all well and good, but what do I actually do? How do these abstractions translate into what happens when I sit down with my kids, they’re looking at me expectantly, and I need to be their teacher?

For many worldschooling parents, this is the most overwhelming and the most fascinating pillar of their Wonder Year. Consider this discussion a menu of options to help design your worldschooling approach.

Some families know from the outset that they want to purchase a full-year curriculum already prepared for a third or eighth grader. Or they are just looking for a math or writing supplement. Others build off of what their child would have been studying at home had a Wonder Year not been happening. Still others follow a theme, or globe-trot to locations where they have family members or friends. We will explore a rich collection of options for you to “try on” and see what fits—school based or not school based, structured or unstructured, print or online, prepackaged or do-it-yourself.

Packaged Curricula

Prior to 2020, there were several big-name education companies and organizations in the online curriculum business—Khan Academy, IXL, Outschool, Charlotte Mason, and Oak Meadow, to name a few. The COVID pandemic contributed to a huge transformation in this space as more educators and businesspeople tapped into the demand for online and prepackaged homeschool offerings.

Some public school districts offer remote options with free online curricula so that you can do self-paced public education from afar, while online private schools are popping up virtually everywhere.

Popular online sources directed specifically at worldschoolers include Outschool, Kubrio, Brave Writer, and many others. For learners on the younger end of the spectrum, Art for Kids Hub or MUZZY language programs are some examples of resources available through online platforms like YouTube.

For older students looking for college credit, consider “CLEPping.” The CLEP test, administered by the College Board (a nonprofit organization that creates standardized testing and is best known for the SAT), costs roughly US\$100 per test. With over thirty tests available, this can be an economical leg up on a college degree or an inexpensive way to learn at the college level from the road. Modern States offers free online courses that help students prepare. The College Board sells study guides for US\$10 each. Another great resource for older learners is a membership learning hub for creatives called Skillshare.

Deciding on a curriculum package or à la carte options, apps, resources, and content can get exciting and messy all at once. Our assessment is that the quality varies with off-the-shelf resources. You can find resource hubs that rate curricula, such as Common Sense Media’s reviews and professional opinions on hundreds of options.

As you explore options, be sure you consider the fit with your learner(s). Maybe your Wonder Year is a time to try out something new, or maybe it’s the time to go with what you know will work for your children. To help narrow the field, here are some additional factors and questions to consider in selecting an off-the-shelf curriculum that is right for your learner:

* Are there specific topics that your child requires?

* Do you want to limit screen time?

* Do you need to get your own work done? How much of your involvement is ideal?

* Do you want to be wedded to being on Wi-Fi at a specific time each day or each week?

* What’s your budget? Remember, there are tons of free options out there like Khan Academy, Oak Academy, or educational videos on YouTube.

* Is there a trial period before you need to purchase?

* Does your child do better with independent or more social learning? Some programs offer synchronous learning pods. This provides group planning, goal setting, discussion, and social interaction.

* As mentioned earlier, do you have room to carry and store books?

Many families like the predictability, structure, and modularity of preset resources. You can make it work in so many ways. For instance, your child might be in second-grade math and first-grade spelling. Or you might use a print workbook for cursive and an online class for coding.

When using a packaged curriculum as the fulcrum of your approach, you can think of worldschooling as a set of massively cool field trips.

Theme-Based Curricula

There are many families who see a Wonder Year as a time to untether from academic prescriptions and structure and feel freedom in designing their own curriculum. If this do-it-yourself model is for you, consider these themes as brushstrokes on your blank canvas.

Subject-Driven

Some families “take a page” out of what would have been their kid’s school syllabus for the semester or year they are gone and turn it into the experiential equivalent. Traditional subjects can come alive in the world. Here are some ideas to consider:

* If your child would have been studying the ancient Mayans, you could check out the ruins and visit museums in the Yucatán.

* If your first grader would have been studying biodiversity, you could get down and dirty with living things in the Olympic Peninsula tide pools.

* Geometry in the cards for your eighth grader? How about some time on a sailboat or comparing arc length to arc measure at Arches National Park in Southern Utah?

* If your student’s classmates back home are all learning about US government and politics, you could easily spend a month or two in and around Washington, DC, and not only read, study, and discuss government, but also see it in action: meet with your representative, go to the National Archives, see what groups are rallying in Lafayette Square, or do research at the Library of Congress.

To get subject-specific ideas, you can review your school district’s website for curriculum details by grade. For a snapshot of expectations, you can pull up grade-level report cards to see what your child would be expected to learn during a year. You can also browse state standards by subject area or dive into the Common Core Standards, a set of national guidelines meant to provide consistency and maintain high benchmarks for all children living in the US.

Itinerary-Driven

The places you visit or want to visit drive the discovery and provide the material for your educational journey. Maybe you’ve found an uber-cheap flight to Miami or you’re incorporating a professional conference overseas. If you know that you will go to Argentina, for example, think about topics that naturally sprout from visiting South America. Is it the rainforest? Impact of colonialism? Tango? Catholic iconography?

Here’s a list of what some other families have done:

* The Langenegger family relocated to Guam for Chris, the dad, to do a four-year stint with United Airlines. Elissa, the mom, decided to worldschool instead of enrolling their fifth-grade son in a local school. They leveraged their family-of-a-pilot perks to worldschool across the South Pacific, with a deep study of local culture and history, sailing, navigation, and the effects of climate change.

* The Horton family studied the Renaissance while in Europe, using the lenses of geography, history, literature, and art. When they traveled to extreme latitudes like Iceland and Argentina, they wove together questions of global warming and receding glaciers.

* The Blew family was consciously working through the parents’ destination bucket list. Their son was fascinated by art and architecture, so they seamlessly wove in an organic lesson plan wherever they went.

* While Jake’s family was settled in Spain for his work leading banjo workshops, his daughter, Zinnia, became fascinated by the sea creatures that washed up on shore or found their way to the seafood markets. This spurred her research report on jellyfish, squid, and octopi.

Curiosity-Driven Passion

Passion and curiosity bring learning to life. You might have a daughter who loves architecture or a son who loves monkeys. How might you build this into your plan? What are you curious about?

Consider a yearlong inquiry of passion for your family that encompasses the places you go. For example, your primate-loving son might research monkey business in various countries by visiting native habitats, sanctuaries, and reading fiction and nonfiction books. This gives you a set of questions and observations to thread through the year across locations, cultures, and languages.

Here are other examples to inspire you:

* The Simon family chose to research and visit the places where their ancestors were born. They traced family roots in Hungary and tried to understand the reasons for emigrating. This inquiry helped with both education and creating a Budapest itinerary that included the Jewish Quarter, the Dohány Street Synagogue, the Holocaust Memorial Center, and the Shoes on the Danube Promenade.

* Annika’s family paid attention to plastics. How ubiquitous were plastic containers and bags? Were they recycled? Was there plastic waste in streams, on beaches? Was the recycling symbol the same in China as it was in Costa Rica? They even searched out the local dumps.

* Margot wanted to study fashion design, so her family used fashion as the basis for her educational approach and designed a curriculum that looked at international styles, textile supply chains, slow fashion, thrifting, silk in China, and lace in Croatia.

* Johnny, Julie’s son, conducted a research project comparing American ice cream and Italian gelato. This, of course, required lots of fieldwork, tasting gelato in every town he visited in Italy, sometimes twice a day. He took a tour to see how gelato is made and learned about the importance of temperature, choosing ingredients, the science of flavors, and why some people like crunchiness and others prefer smooth. After the five-week study tour, he practiced making graphs and bar charts and illustrated a final project. His fieldwork has continued to this day!

* Conor loved playing viola. His family went to Mozart’s birthplace in Salzburg and the Puccini Festival in Lucca for an immersive experience in music history, classical composition, and operatic performance.

* Julie and Charlie shared expertise in water and sustainability, Charlie as a hydrogeologist and Julie as a sustainability analyst. They used water as a continual theme in their roadschool curriculum. They kayaked. They took pictures of rivers, which they also located on maps, and learned about watersheds, headwaters, tributaries, confluences, dams, diversions, pump houses, and water rights. At every river crossing, they’d estimate cubic feet per second, a common measure of flow, and then check their estimates on the USGS Water Data website. A quick stop by a river could turn into a three-hour “lesson” with amazing people to meet—fly-fishers, river heroes, waterkeepers, and others.

You can help your children wrap their theme-based inquiries into a final project, such as a journal entry, a publication, or a portfolio to share with their school at the end of the year. Alternatively, you could just enjoy the conversation as it unfolds and not worry about a final project at all.

The Organic Day-to-Day: A Syllabus of Serendipity

We want to point out that life itself can drive the curriculum. If you want to wing it completely, this is your chance. You can string together one adventure to the next—rolling, shaping, mixing, building, and ready for whatever good luck comes your way.

Without a heavy backpack of books or the weight of a schedule, you may feel more nimble and spontaneous. You are prepared to say yes to opportunities as they arise. And with nowhere else to be, the timing may be right for any adventure. So, accept an invitation, stay an extra week, wander over the hillside, or return to somewhere you loved.

You might stay up late for a full-moon hike because you can sleep in the next day. Perhaps you spend an entire morning and afternoon building a sandcastle. Or skip your stop because you’re having an amazing conversation with someone you’ve met on the bus. You can truly listen because, today, their stories won’t make you late.

Let freedom and serendipity illuminate the learning moments of every day.

Side Note: Parents are Students, Too

Remember that you are a learner, too. You’ve planned and saved for this opportunity; make the most of it. Maybe there’s something that you want to practice or perfect over the year—a language, skill, hobby, or mindset. You can challenge yourself with the added benefit of modeling lifetime learning for your kids. Maybe that means trying any of the following:

* Read both a nonfiction and fiction book based in each city or country you visit. Think Anthony Doerr’s Four Seasons in Rome and Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar for Rome, Italy.

* Write travel articles and publish them on blogs or in print, as well as learn the tools needed to follow through.

* Learn to play a new instrument, like the harmonica (think travel size).

* Commit to journaling every day.

* Start a new travel-friendly hobby, like running, photography, yoga, or knitting.

* Take an online class side by side with your kid, such as calculus with your teen or French with your preschooler.

* Learn as much as you can about learning. Read books and online articles, or simply observe your kids and see what works.

Step 5: Gather Your Teachers

In a traditional classroom setting, a teacher does the teaching. When we travel, parents, siblings, locals, our senses, time, space, rivers, maps, and coins can be our teachers. For us, the magic occurred when it all came together into one big, yummy stew.

Parents as Teachers

At home, parents often don’t have enough time and context for rich discussions with their children about what the kids are learning at school. As a worldschooling family, by virtue of being together in a variety of settings, you can leap right into fluid discussions with real-world learning, leveraging your lifetime of experience and sharing that valuable perspective with your children.

Be creative and share your interests with your kids. Mark, Angela’s husband, loves baseball, so he took their family to a game in Tokyo. Stacy, another worldschooling parent, brought her kids to a local tortilla bakery in Hatch, New Mexico, to share her love of cooking. Or consider your profession or hobby as a gateway. Are you a photographer, scientist, writer, geographer, or musician? You might use your professional network to set up a site visit, meet with a colleague or connect with someone in your field, and bring your kids.

When you run out of your own ideas, look out the window for other teachers.

Remote Teachers and Tutors

If you will have access to the web, there’s a world of online tutors at your fingertips. You might choose to use someone you know from home or connect with someone new. More and more curriculum packages, such as Outschool or Oak Meadow, now offer the enhanced options of 1:1 tutors.

Angela’s family kept up weekly online Latin tutoring across many time zones for an entire year. Relatives back home can be teachers, too. The Fernandes family had book clubs with their grandma—they decided which chapters to read each week and then had book chats via Zoom. Two of Yasmin Page’s three children do weekly math lessons with their granddad. What a great way to keep in touch with family back home!

Learning from Locals

We encourage you to make the most of local resources as potential teachers. For example, you might hire a kid-centric guide for a day at Pompeii, who teaches your family that the ancient inhabitants ate walnuts to cure a headache. Maybe you join a naturalist-led hike along the Hoh River Trail and learn how the fog and mist make amazing things grow and how an epiphyte plant grows on another plant without harming it.

Hiring a teacher is an expense, but sometimes it’s a great relief not to be in charge. In Europe and other more traditional travel destinations, there are travel companies that cater specifically to families, such as Europe4Kids Tours and Global Family Travels, which offer kid-centered activities like curated scavenger hunts, gladiator training, pizza-making classes, and other personalized experiences.

Because of her daughter’s roots in China, Annika’s family wanted to connect deeply to the region, so they prioritized time there. They knew that they needed a guide who was fluent in English and could provide nuanced translations in Chinese if they wanted to get off the beaten path. They splurged on a month with an American PhD student who guided them around China. This was a total leap of faith that worked. Annika put up a request on an alumni board and tapped into her personal network. Her family interviewed their guide online and drafted and redrafted sample itineraries by email. It was a magnificent month.

Internships and Apprenticeships

Internships can simply be an exchange of volunteer work with an organization for access to someone with specialized knowledge. For instance, you can do a beach cleanup in Alabama or help with an olive harvest in California. You can also learn informally throughout your travels by finding a local artist, musician, or tradesperson, maybe even paying a small sum to have them teach their art form to you and/or your kids. A guitarist in Nicaragua? A carpenter in Crete? Play or work alongside them. Learning happens by doing, by observing, by questioning.

Teachers Are Everywhere

* Jakkarin and his family taught Kai to tap a rubber tree in Krabi, Thailand.

* The guesthouse owner in rural China showed Lucy how to make steamed vegetable dumplings.

* Ben, a docent at the Equal Justice Initiative in Montgomery, Alabama, told Lorna about the local communities who work with them, and those who—unfortunately—don’t.

* A New Zealand boat captain instructed Asher on how to navigate and sail on the majestic Milford Sound.

* The ranger at Dinosaur National Monument, in Dinosaur, Colorado, taught Annika’s family about geology, archeology, and desert ecology.

You can search online for ideas in local networks, expat groups, on the Folk Education Association of America’s website; or look at WWOOFing, hotel, or Airbnb experiences. On the ground, check out libraries, makerspaces, or community centers, or ask your rental host. Volunteer experiences abound as well; multi- and single-day programs can help the local community while you learn experientially. Check the resources section for more information.

Enrolling in Local Schools

You may not know it, but you can enroll your kids for short-term stints in local public schools in the US. If you’re overseas, this may also be an option. Sometimes it’s as simple as meeting with the school administrator and showing them a copy of your rental agreement.

Private schools and alternative educational models like Waldorf, Montessori, and Forest Schools often allow very short stays, especially if your children have prior experience with these models. This can be a meaningful way to connect with the local community.

Worldschooling Gatherings

Worldschool gatherings can be an excellent way to tap into the larger worldschooling scene and meet potential new teachers. Some traveling families connect in temporary or permanent communities around the world, and often these offer an educational component.

Worldschooler gatherings are another option for learning. Consider your budget, preferred length of stay, location, and kids’ ages as you explore these programs.

Here are some examples:

* Jake and Gillian’s family spent six weeks in Andalucía, Spain, and jumped in with a worldschool gathering out of La Herradura. Here they had weekly teen meetups, Spanish-language classes, pottery, and other electives that were organized and met their teen’s social needs.

* Stephanie and Scott’s family spent six weeks at a gathering in Egypt. For a fee, their girls learned from local teachers and an English-speaking founder, and socialized with other worldschoolers three days per week.

* Viet Nguyen and his family spent three months in a hub in Bansko, Bulgaria. Parents volunteered as teachers and also shared the cost to hire two trained teachers from the Netherlands. And there was plenty of time to ski on the nearby slopes!

If you don’t see the educational offering you’re looking for at one of the existing gatherings, you might create your own. We spoke with several families who established new programs that they now offer to fellow worldschoolers. It’s exciting to watch the evolution of these grassroots, entrepreneurial efforts.

We hope these five steps have helped you begin to shape a clear, personalized roadmap for your family’s worldschooling journey. Whether you now have a detailed plan or simply a better sense of direction, you’ve taken important steps toward making worldschooling intentional, meaningful, and manageable. Remember, there’s no single “right” way to do it. You have the power to shape an experience that’s entirely your own.

The post Worldschooling: Five Steps to Create Your Educational Roadmap appeared first on Wonder Year Travel.

It became a practice to mark the starting and finishing mileage whenever we were on the go. We could calculate weekly or monthly totals and averages. We could check to see how our fuel efficiency changed at different speeds and elevations. Math went great, and eventually I got rid of the math books and focused more on real-life applications.

We also read a lot. Picking out books was a fun chance to dive into local stories, history, and characters. The hands-down family favorite was *The Captain’s Dog: My Journey with the Lewis and Clark Tribe*, in which Meriwether Lewis’s dog, Seaman, tells the story of the adventurous search for the Northwest Passage. Reading along while we were tracing Lewis and Clark’s journey, with our own dog, was perfect.

Everyone also kept a journal. We bought Johnny a gorgeous journal before the trip, and while we did not enforce a daily entry, he wrote with fervor and heart, and to this day, he keeps his journal by his bedside to revisit.

An excerpt (reprinted with permission):

Johnny, age eight:

*Right now I am in the top bunk of a cabon, wich is one of the four on \[Hesketh] Island. I can see a rose boosh and in the background the ocean. I can hear the faint sound of the waves crashing. I am inside but allthoe I have been outside \[all] of the day, I can almost smell the spray of the salt water. It is just backing off from high tide. Yesterday I cought my first two fish . . .*

And other than math, reading, and writing, we improvised, following Johnny’s curiosity. We made a ritual out of the US National Park Service Junior Ranger program (many state parks have similar programs), an excellent, place-based resource that is focused on the local topography, ecology, geology, and culture. Completion of the work at each park earns a badge; Johnny collected twenty-eight Junior Ranger badges over the course of our year.

With our interest in sustainability and love of skiing, we created a module on the environmental impacts of ski areas and set up meetings with operators, managers, and environmental staff from different organizations, including ski areas, ski manufacturers, local government, and environmental groups. We dug avalanche pits, studied snow layers, hung out with avalanche dogs, and learned about snowmaking operations and the new technology to minimize water use and maximize use of snow fencing. And we did a lot of “mountain fieldwork.”

A typical day:

Johnny makes the family breakfast: scrambled eggs with spinach on corn tortillas with shredded cheese and salsa. We take a three-hour hike through an old-growth forest, learning to identify coastal hardwood varieties, fungi, and ferns. Stop for an hour diversion to test our balance on fallen trees, walking backward and forward, sideways, and on one leg. Hop, hope, listen.

Get back to the rig. Study the analog map; decide to stay another day because it’s so gorgeous and we have nowhere else we have to be. Johnny builds an elaborate rock sculpture/rock-climber course for his RC vehicle. Julie makes bebe soup—veggie broth with kale and capellini, lemon zest, and Parmesan. We eat outside. We write a blog post, then read aloud. Johnny and Charlie go on a night photography stroll. Julie and Max (the dog) read some more and snuggle.

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It was important for me to keep the kids aligned with math back home. As their teacher, I felt the least comfortable with math, so I relied heavily on paperback workbooks from local bookstores. I didn’t do much research but found ones that covered roughly the same material as our school did. It was important to me that these books were lightweight. We supplemented with Khan Academy when we could. It was challenging to have enough bandwidth in most rentals to have more than one kid online at one time.

We focused our third and fourth graders on memorizing their times table. We often quizzed them with flash cards when waiting for a train and sang the times table while hiking, and the kids quizzed each other while Will and I were busy doing something else. Mastery of the 7s was cause for celebration with ice cream. We didn’t need a formal curriculum to do any of this. The kids often say now that having their times table memorized has served them well.

For writing, we created writing portfolios and read a lot. My three kids read somewhere between fifty and a hundred books each during our Wonder Year! We kept a list, like an informal bibliography. As we hiked, my son would give me plot updates from his books. We would simply discuss them, and I would ask clarifying questions and what his predictions were—but all in a conversational style. It didn’t feel like school; it felt like shared curiosity.

My kids’ fondest memory when they look back upon our worldschooling “curriculum” was the luxury to have the time to read for interest and pleasure. Whenever we had Wi-Fi, we would download ebooks onto their iPad. My husband and I were always reading books aloud in the evenings with the younger ones. I miss those days!

We did “school” about 30 percent of our days. Surprisingly, the three kids enjoyed the structure of “school days.” Maybe it gave them confidence that they wouldn’t fall behind? For us, a half-day worldschooling lesson might have looked something like this:

* Practice “find the errors” and dictation (see page 223) in their journal, using learning points and spelling words from our geographical location. Review together and help them correct.

* Complete two pages in the math book.

* Learn about one new thing—for example, paragraph structure, photosynthesis, haiku, or the three Noble Truths of Buddhism.

* Do chore(s).

* Have forty-five minutes of structured and self-paced writing portfolio time.

* Reading time: independent, guided, or with a parent.

* Done. Out the door. Go explore.

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For some travelers from the US, getting a passport and putting together a trip is rather straightforward. The hardest part may be narrowing options for where to go and how to get there. The experience for others may not be simple at all. Families of color or LGBTQ+ travelers may be unwelcome or unsafe in some locations. Others may face discrimination when trying to secure a rental car or accommodations, or have difficulty finding a gender-neutral bathroom. Travelers with disabilities or allergies may have to overcome accessibility obstacles and navigate planning and logistical issues many could never fathom. People who wear certain attire may be stereotyped, harassed, or mistreated by virtue of their religious or spiritual expression. For some travelers, finding outdoor gear that fits their bodies or being comfortable in transit is a hurdle. Subtle challenges or microaggressions are just as unwelcoming and problematic as more blatant acts of discrimination. Travelers might experience judgmental glances, longer waits for service, disparaging comments muttered under someone’s breath, or shaming based on their appearances.

Businesses, governments, and nonprofit organizations have begun to examine how to change the travel industry, both inside and outside the US. Destinations and tour companies are diversifying their leadership, workforce, and advertising campaigns; they are examining their relationships with and impact on local communities; and they are evaluating how they include and meet the needs of all travelers. Advocacy and research groups are providing new ways to measure, track, and report on diversity and inclusion and are pushing for greater accountability. Domestic and international organizations are looking to promote the adoption of best practices and develop tools and the capacity to achieve responsible tourism that recognizes and works within the needs of local communities.

While the travel industry, governments, and institutions around the world are grappling with these important topics, this is just the beginning, and the outcomes are yet to be seen and measured. There’s also a lot we can do as a worldschooling community in our capacity as travelers, parents, consumers, and allies.

Here are some actions we can take to promote inclusivity and diversity:

• Pay attention—be a vocal ally when you see injustice.
• Build tolerance and cultural exchange, which Astrid Vinje recommends in her blog, The Wandering Daughter, by noticing “What’s different?” and “What’s the same?” compared to home.
• When planning travel, use businesses that practice and promote inclusivity. Use your travel dollars to support airlines, rental car companies, accommodations, and other operators moving in the right direction.
• While on the road, get the scoop. Support the just and fair vendors and establishments.
• Tell, read, share, and like travel stories from diverse voices on social media.
• Follow accounts and hashtags that discuss hard issues as well as represent joy.
• Educate yourself and your family about history and social justice issues that expand or limit inclusion.
• Speak up—demand that the industry change.

The face of travel has never reflected the true diversity of people, but social media is helping to change that. Mary Solio, one of the earliest family travel bloggers of color, shares, “Back in 2011, there weren’t many traveling families that looked like us. When Instagram came on the scene, people of color began to see other people traveling who looked like them. It brought confidence and helped get more diverse people out there.” Today, platforms like Instagram, TikTok, and YouTube feature diverse voices of family travel. Social media can promote access and inclusion and connect travelers who may be looking for each other and for community.

Creating safe and welcoming travel experiences will take time, awareness, and the involvement of us all.

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Worldschooling Parameters

There is no “formula” for worldschooling. There are so many types of family travel, and new educational approaches are evolving all the time with emerging technology, infrastructure, and innovative models of work and school. 

Worldschooling might coincide with a school year, a fiscal year, a summer, or some other significant time frame in your family’s rhythm. If you can’t take off several months or more, you can prioritize family adventures and adopt a worldschooling state of mind. It’s not an all-or-nothing prospect. It simply has to make sense to you and your family.

To help get your gears turning on what your worldschooling could like like for your family, consider a few key parameters:

Breadth or depth?

Do you want to travel fast and go to lots of places? Count countries? Or do you want to travel slowly and pick a few places where you settle in, find an apartment, and try to fit in with the locals?

Home or abroad?

Do you want to mostly stay in your home country and learn about and explore it more deeply? Or would you like to head overseas for an international adventure where the languages, foods, and cultures are different from what you are used to?

Take your home with you?

Do you want to travel in a motor home, boat, or van where, like a snail, you have your home on your back? Or would you prefer to carry a pack and be mobile, moving about freely without an engine or anchor to weigh you down?

Fixed timeline or open ended?

Do you have to return home by a certain date? Do you want to wait and see how your family does in motion before you decide if your trip is six months or three years? Maybe you do not have to decide any return date at all.

Getting clear on some of these priorities can help you focus your choices and move forward confidently. And don’t worry, whatever you think now, it is probably going to change! But having a few decisions made sets you in motion.

Let’s drill down a little further. Your worldschooling adventure could be:

* A six-month sabbatical

* Two years of full-time travel to six continents and thirty countries

* A one-year road trip through the US South in an RV

* Two months every summer for five years in a row

* Nine months in Barcelona with weekend explorations throughout Europe

* An around-the-world trip with a defined beginning and end

* A walk-out-the-door-and-improvise-everything adventure

Worldschooling can be whatever you choose; there are infinite possibilities. The consensus is this: Don’t try to do everything! Put your right foot on what you love. Put your left foot on where you want to go. Now, do the hokey pokey and turn yourself around, and that’s what it’s all about!

A Family Affair

There’s anotherimportant step. When the adults in the crew are on board and ready to start planning in earnest, we urge you to bring your children into the discussion. We loved involving our kids in the process. It was their onboarding to the great family adventure, and by virtue of being engaged, they felt valued. This was essential to our trip success and could be for yours, too.

Encountering Others’ Reactions, Too

Okay, so you’ve done some soul-searching, stared down your demons, considered your time horizon, talked with your partner, and engaged your kids. Now you’re letting yourself feel excited. It’s actually going to happen! OMG!

And then you tell some people your plan, and your sister-in-law says, “Must be nice. I could never do that.” Or a snickering colleague says, “Good luck finding work after a trip like that.” Maybe an uncle insinuates you are reckless for pulling your kids out of school.

Others may have opinions and question your choice. They might comment on your finances. Some will react with joy, but others might suggest you are irresponsible. Please remember that you don’t have to apologize or justify your decision when you encounter those reactions. Stay true to yourself and your family’s priorities, and absolve yourself of any guilt or need to explain.

It’s okay. You will find plenty of people who get it and will understand your reasoning and support your choice. We three coauthors are some of those people, and you will meet many more of them in our book and in the greater community of traveling families.

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The Case for Worldschooling

You may not know this, but as a parent you have the right to withdraw your child from traditional school and choose an alternative means to educate them. What happens when your concept of education expands beyond the four walls of a classroom? What happens when you notice learning opportunities can be anywhere at any time? The world becomes your school.

Worldschooling, simply put, it is learning through direct interaction with the world. It is an educational approach—it is not something you sign up for; there’s no one to register with, no dogma or governing institution. There are many resources to help you design what worldschooling looks like for you and your family, and we’re going to walk you through several of them in this book.

Over the past couple of decades, the term worldschooling gained traction. Several traveling families who considered themselves worldschoolers brought awareness to the concept as they shared their experiences online and in popular media. You might also come across the term roadschooling. For clarity, we use the term worldschooling to mean it all. We want everyone to feel welcome whether you are traveling in the US or overseas, full time or part time, following a curriculum or going with the flow.

By rolling into worldschooling, you are making a choice to step forward and align yourself with the forefront of innovative educational models. Public and private schools are recognizing the value of travel as part of education. International Baccalaureate (IB) programs promote “intercultural understanding and respect . . . as an essential part of life in the 21st Century.”⁶ Leading universities encourage study-abroad programs. Some people may tell you worldschooling lacks academic rigor, but the evidence will be clear when your kids return to traditional school from a Wonder Year with grit, confidence, and a global frame of reference. 

What better way to prepare your kids for a future, more interconnected world than to show them the world? Interacting with the world at a young age plants seeds of inspiration and understanding in our children. We know that young brains are heavily impacted by the experiences they have—so why not share with them the art, architecture, history, food, culture, and texture of societies beside the one in which they were raised? Most of us long for greater connection to both fellow humans and the environment. Ask yourself how our future adults can protect the rainforest when they have not seen the rainforest, or connected with any forest, for that matter? We strive to protect what we know and love.

One of the limitations of classroom learning is that we tend to learn about others. With worldschooling, we begin to learn from others. It’s an exchange. Learners begin to create their own opinions based on direct experiences, rather than simply repeating what they hear from others or read in a textbook. You can’t fake a personal interaction. Your kids might come to the conclusion, for example, that countries maligned in the mainstream US media are full of good and kind people. Worldschooling is fact-finding; worldschooling is peace building.

We authors believe an early experience of travel is an investment that will deliver a lifetime of social, cultural, emotional, and academic returns. Let your children recognize the cultural lens we all carry. Let them get excited by the real-time lessons that travel presents as they navigate public transportation, breakfasts, schools, and bathrooms. How can biking through Angkor Wat, tapping a maple tree in Vermont, or walking the streets of Madrid not be fodder for future passions and out-of-the-box thinking?

A worldschooling journey can also be a time to focus on emotional intelligence rather than grades. Many worldschooling families use this period to explore well-being and happiness, as well as cultivating a rich inner life from various angles; indeed, many families embark on a long-term travel and use worldschooling for the purpose of boosting mental health for the whole family.

As parents we can model the search for joy; we can reinvent, repurpose, and remind ourselves that the journey never ends, that education is an exchange, a dialogue of giving and receiving.

Worldschooling presents opportunities for risk-taking, personal challenge, and problem-solving—all twenty-first-century essential life skills. In deciding to worldschool, you are standing up and moving in the opposite direction of expectation; heeding the call takes courage. Navigating a medieval village or struggling to make yourself understood in a new language takes perseverance. A wrong turn or a missed bus might uncover the better discovery. The lessons are life changing.

Is Worldschooling Right for Your Family?

It probably feels like there is no right time to voluntarily disrupt everything and embark on an extended family travel adventure. Your life is busy; your days are full. Work. Friends. Family. Laundry. Grocery shopping. Cooking. Doctor’s appointments. Volunteering. Busy. Busier. Busiest. How in the world could you ever squeeze in a worldschooling adventure?

Let’s break it down a bit. Here’s a simple three-question framework to help you examine your thoughts on this existential joyride so you can work through a decision process for choosing a Wonder Year. When you are ready, clear your mind of chatter. Focus on your breath for a couple of minutes, take a walk, and unwind.

Question #1: What are your core values, beliefs, and priorities?

Ask yourself: What do I care about most? What do I believe is most important during my time on earth? Professional or personal growth? Financial security?

Note that what you care most about now, as a person and as a parent, may be different from when you were younger. Be honest with yourself. Do you want freedom? Do you want a spiritual practice? Do you want security, adventure, or money? Do you want to shake things up?

Write about, discuss, or draw it. Sleep on it, and when you are ready, converse with your partner, friend, or journal. What is it that gives your life purpose?

This articulation of values will give you something to fall back on during your travels, a safety net of sorts. And if you are doing this exercise with a partner, you may find that the two of you have a shared vision. That’s a great place to build from.

If you realize you do not have a shared vision or common goals, it may be an indication that planning and executing an extended road trip together could be tricky. It’s probably a good idea to have the conversation sooner rather than later in your process.

Question #2: What are the expectations that weigh you down?

What are the “shoulds” that tell you what “right” things you are supposed to be doing? Maybe you were brought up to believe you need to be the breadwinner or the stay-at-home parent. That you need to sacrifice. That life is supposed to be hard.

Maybe you believe you are not worthy of the good life, that you don’t deserve to take some time off. Can you identify expectations that start from sources other than yourself? Just list and name them. We are not purporting to be therapists; it’s your prerogative to go deeper if and when you want to. We’re merely suggesting that it’s helpful to identify these potential pressures and separate them from your innate desires. We want you to be able to put aside external influences and instead listen to your own voice so you can thoughtfully answer question #1.

Question #3: Why are you considering worldschooling, and is anything holding you back?

When you tiptoe to the edge of your comfort zone and take a look, what comes up for you? Would you like to change something in your life, or are you searching for something new? Does your heart start to race a little when you think about taking a leap?

We have heard a lot of people say, “Oh, I would love to travel for a year, someday, when the time is right . . .” or “I wish we had done a trip like that, but now our kids are too old.”

We know it might be really hard to take this kind of step. But take a look at what is holding you back. Are you worried or afraid? Identifying what’s lurking in your pit of uncertainty—concerns about education, employment, civil unrest, or public health—can help you devise a way over, around, or through it.

Tackle your fears by creating a contingency plan. That way, you can quiet your worries and take them out of the equation. You can break out of the what-if loop that keeps you stuck in place. You’ll no longer need to ask, “What if we are making a huge mistake?” or “What if something happens and our house is rented and we’ll have nowhere to live?” or “What if we can’t find a new job—OMG what will we do?”

A contingency plan could include putting aside reserve funds to support an unplanned return home, arranging with friends or family for you to live with them if necessary, or nurturing professional relationships throughout the year to keep future employment opportunities alive. 

Now that you have reflected on the possibility of a Wonder Year, the next step is to envision what it may look like for you and your family. This blog helps you do just that.

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