Family Life on the Road: Finding Community
Staying Connected on the Road
People have different reasons for seeking connection. It could be for support, to gain information, or to stay in touch with your community back home. It could be to get a break from your immediate family or to give them a break from you. Many worldschoolers want to connect with others to cultivate their shared vision of community, and help the kids and adults find new friends.
Social Media and Online Platforms
Your friends and family back home are going to want to know what you are up to during your Wonder Year. A website or blog with trip reports is a great way to keep lots of people apprised of your whereabouts. Get creative with your kids and include photos, journal entries, or poems, as well as other records of your travel activity, such as itineraries, names of towns, restaurants you loved, and more. Years out, you’ll be happy to have a colorful, detail-rich archive of what may well be the best time of your life.
With so much communication happening on social media these days, we all know it can be a powerful tool for connecting with others—and that it can quickly become consuming. Decide how you want social media to fit into your family’s time. It can be a small part of your day or an intensive quest for the perfect capture. Some families are super creative, and they get into digital storytelling and produce professional-grade content, but please know you don’t have to become an expert videographer with a drone and professional editing skills. We encourage you to relax and keep it fun. Or maybe, just send a postcard to Grandma and call it a day.
Social media also makes it easy to connect with other travelers and get timely information about the locations of current worldschoolers. There are many active social media communities of worldschoolers or full-time traveling families. There is also a slew of inspirational accounts on Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, and YouTube where families post about destinations and worldschooling experiences. Note that the most popular platforms and active accounts are always changing.
If you’re looking for families who are currently traveling, you can join and inquire on the Facebook Worldschoolers page. You can also explore popular hashtags such as #familytravel, #takeyourkidseverywhere, or #brownfamiliestraveling to discover more opportunities for connection. Sometimes good old-fashioned Google searches can lead you to a cool family. We’ve found that an account is most active during the first year of a family’s adventure and seems to wind down over time or when they return to a stationary lifestyle. A few entrepreneurial families find longevity and are able to fund their ongoing travels with an online presence.
Some of the most effective ways to use social media during your Wonder Year might be the following:
* Solicit input on where to travel based on your criteria: “Our family is looking for a place that offers this, this, and this… Any ideas of where we should go?”
* Ask for specific information about a region you plan to visit or are currently located, such as educational opportunities or places to check out or things to do or learn about while you’re there.
* Connect with others ahead of time, or even in the moment: “We’re going to be in Lyon, France, in late April—anyone else?” or “We’re currently in Bozeman, Montana—anyone else here?”
* Inquire about current hubs, pop-ups, and other organized communities (see more on that in a few pages).
* Seek ways for you or your children to connect with others virtually. Ask a parent-to-parent question, find Minecraft or D&D groups for kids, request pen pals, or just have a chat.
* Ask questions and share resources about travel or worldschooling. While we hope this book is answering most of those questions, we believe social media can still be a great supplement.
Visiting Your Home Crew
Virtual is all fine and good, but let’s face it, sometimes you need to connect in person. If you want to move out of the digital world, a great option is to swing back home for a visit with family and friends. This can be part of your itinerary, a surprise, or in response to medical or family necessity. Whatever your reason, that first hug is amazing.
Set up some playdates, let your teens loose, eat at your favorite restaurants, have grown-up conversations with someone other than your partner, or host a family gathering. These things can fill up your bucket. It’s okay to enjoy some of your old routine and get a taste of what you might return to after your Wonder Year.
If you do come home midtrip, it might feel a little awkward. You’ll be in travel mode while your neighbors, friends, and acquaintances are on ordinary time. It’s okay. We talk more about in our blog on reentry.
The Crew Comes to You
Having your friends and family visit you on the road can be equally fulfilling and may be an even simpler solution. The anticipation of an in-person visit is a great antidote to homesickness and travel fatigue. Kids have a chance to be the travel guide by showing their friends or grandparents around a new place. Friendships and relationships may deepen during these times around the campfire, at the dinner table, or walking along the beach.
There are benefits for your visitors, too. They get to go somewhere that might be on their bucket lists while spending time with people they’ve missed. Perhaps friends and relatives who travel with you will understand your Wonder Year a bit better upon your return, easing your reentry.
Finding Community on the Road
Worldschooler Gatherings
For all of the together time during a Wonder Year, the road can get lonely. For some, family is enough, but others might need connections with adults and kids outside of their traveling unit. Some traveling families tweak their plans to connect with others for a couple days or weeks. These touchpoints might allow them to restock their ideas pantry, refresh their lists of books to read or places to see, or just present a chance to kick back, laugh with other parents, and let their kids play together. Some families build their plans around connecting with other worldschoolers at both temporary and permanent locations around the world.
Hubs and Pop-ups
Worldschooling hubs are more established communities in a specific location where attendees tend to stay longer. They may be run as a co-op or by an owner/sponsor, and they may be for profit or not for profit. Hubs might offer classes, workshops, meetups, trips, activities, and other events. Costs vary dramatically.
Pop-ups (sometimes called meetups) are temporary, time-limited gatherings to bring worldschoolers together and allow them to explore surroundings and participate in organized events or educational offerings. Some pop-ups are organic, one-time occasions organized at a grassroots level. Others are planned and managed by centralized organizations, which may offer several pop-ups each year across various locations.
Most often, gatherings are started by former or current worldschooling families, then shared and publicized through Facebook groups, social media posts, and word of mouth.
What’s key across all of these events is this: the offerings and locations are always changing, and even most of the published lists of hubs and pop-ups become outdated quickly; it’s often easiest to ask a question on the Facebook groups to find out what is currently available.
Given the investment of your time and resources required to attend, it’s good to have a “know before you go” approach for all these gatherings. Here are some things to keep in mind:
* Consider what you are looking for. Some criteria might include location, length of stay, cost, educational offerings by age group, workshop topics, daily/weekly schedule, living situation (coliving as a group or individually booked accommodations with social gatherings), social activities for kids and adults, interaction with local communities and culture, volunteer opportunities, and the amount of coordination required by the family rather than handled by the hub/pop-up sponsor.
* Each gathering will have its own vibe—from laid back and homegrown to more scheduled and organized, and all the shades in between. Use websites and social media to find out what is offered, and make sure it’s a good match for your family.
* In addition to the community built during the event, attendees note that it’s great to connect with other traveling families ahead of time (via WhatsApp or other messaging or social media apps) and afterward. Many cite lasting friendships, some even sharing that they now plan portions of their travel around reconnecting with families they met at worldschooler gatherings.
Newer organizations are also emerging, offering worldschooling communities with a wide range of services and pricing options. A few to explore include Boundless Life, Domestic Detour, and Working Without Borders.
Connecting with Expats
Expat communities can be a wonderful resource during your Wonder Year. Expats are typically tied to a geographic location through work, family needs, visa requirements, or simply by choice. This used to mean a family was in place for an extended period, but the line between “expats” and “slow travel” is increasingly blurred as more families are becoming nomadic and home base options grow more flexible. Many expats are already worldschooling by design, either because they are oriented to living outside their home country and learning from the broader world and/or because they use their expat location as a home base and then travel around it with a worldschooling focus.
It’s encouraging to connect with people who share a common background and are in the know about your chosen destinations. Because expats typically stay in one location longer than other travelers, they tend to build expertise about the area—and thus, become an excellent resource for things like local schools and alternative education options, accommodations, safety and emergency information, governmental processes, employment opportunities, things to see and do, and ways to plug in to the local culture and community.
Expat groups tend to be cooperative about sharing information and resources, and they often have a “We’re in it together” vibe. They can also offer a helpful way to find quick connections within an established community; we know worldschoolers who have used expat groups to find local nannies, dentists, and hairstylists and to connect socially via barbecues and book clubs. Many expat communities have Facebook and WhatsApp groups, so poke around to find out what you can join.
Connecting with Locals
Homestays and house-sitting arrangements make it easier to feel part of local communities, but while longer-term stays can help you plug in, they aren’t necessary. Some families find ways to connect through kids’ programs such as summer camps, sports, and hobbies or lessons like surfing or fishing. Place yourself in residential neighborhoods, go to parks, eat at locally owned restaurants, strike up conversations at markets, and attend community events. You’ll often find parents who are thrilled to have new playmates for their kids, which can give the adults a chance to connect, too.
Also, ask for help. People the world over love to help visitors. Angela’s family was lost on a side street in Japan, searching for a raved-about restaurant at the address posted online. An older woman watering her flowers nearby noticed their confusion and gestured that the restaurant had recently moved its location. Rather than try to provide directions across the language barrier, she instead locked her door and led the family on foot to the new location six blocks away, turning around and waving farewell once they could see the restaurant’s sign.
Connecting Through Commonalities
You can build connections around your personal interests. There are existing affinity groups you might tap into for community and resources related to your specific type of travel, such as the PanAmerican Travelers Association Facebook group, Vanlife Facebook group, or multiple RV member organizations and affinity groups online.
The Or family, who are Chinese American, visited Chinatowns everywhere they went. It was great to speak their native language with other people, and often they would connect socially with store owners’ friends and family after their initial visit.
Annika’s family found immediate connections at vegan restaurants, talking philosophy, recipes, and poetry. Dog owners meeting during evening walks at campgrounds can swap stories of breeds and best off-leash hikes nearby. Joining local sports clubs/teams, religious services, or holiday camps can also build connections.
Of course, your family may not be “joiners” or feel the need to seek connection. Or you may want to leave it all to chance and serendipity. Julie’s son Johnny met his buddies, Gabe and Remi, while biking in the Coconino National Forest. Annika’s family clicked with a solo Chilean female traveler named Paz while trekking in Nepal; they stuck together for weeks and keep in touch to this day.
