Here are some ideas to illustrate and inspire your decisions. These posts also offer ideas to make your travel time educational, family-friendly as well as suggestions for how to get off the beaten path. We hope this mashup of blogs helps plant a travel seed for you and yours.

Doesn’t get more Western than Yellowstone by horseback

US-based Destinations

If you know you want to stay in the US, you can’t go wrong with the US national parks. Many worldschooling families frame their trip around these beautiful, educational and low-cost destinations. We wrote about one of our authors’ love of Yellowstone and she shares a high level introduction to the park and its wonders. Then there’s Alaska, a place on many people’s bucket list. And here’s a blog about incorporating worldschooling education into a family outing to the Glen Canyon National Recreation Area.

Bucket list: to see a moose in the wild!

Popular Family Destinations

These international places are often featured on social media and family itineraries for luscious reasons. All of these blogs are written by one of our authors who has been there with her family as a worldschooling destination. Costa Rica, home of Pura Vida, jungles, beaches, and volcanoes, is a great destination for its bounty of natural and cultural gems. Then there’s Italy, home of gelato, tiny cars, old cathedrals, olive groves, and bullet trains. Italia will give your family plenty of la dolce vita and history. Speaking of old, read about Greece, with its roots of democracy, mythology in motion, and Aegean paradise. If you’re tempted by Asia, Thailand is a wonderful first foray. Its ease of travel, friendly people, and beaches (seems to be a theme) will tick every box. And finally, Kenya, an English-speaking country full of diverse cultures, geography, and ease of travel in Africa, will leave you wanting to explore more. You will leave a better global citizen from safaris, snorkeling, and cutting-edge environmental practices.

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

Unexpected Destinations

These are a few unexpected and off-the-beaten-path destination inspirations sampled by our authors that are not common destinations. Consider adding them to your list for unique educational experiences. The Pantanal, located primarily in the Brazilian state of Mato Grosso do Sul, the Pantanal also crosses the border into Paraguay and Bolivia. At around 68,000 square miles – 20 times the size of the Everglades – it is the world’s largest tropical wetland area and largest flooded grassland savanna. And then there’s the quiet European destination of Finland, often called the happiest country on earth, with mild summer weather, northern lights, cold-plunging culture, and dense forests. Finland offers educational fun for the whole family.

Midsummer flora in Finland

We hope these destination inspiration blogs will assist and inspire your own family travels. From the US to Thailand, from well-known to the unexpected, may your travels make you closer and pique the curiosity in your whole family.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Before You Land

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

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

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

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

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

Landing

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

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

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

The Months that Follow

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

Another thing we missed: homemade birthday cakes and candles.

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

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

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

How to Keep a Worldschooling Mindset for the Long Haul

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

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

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

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

Family Snuggle: The best part of coming home!

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Time to wonder!

I want to write this blog about sustainable family travel without sounding trite, but I have to start by saying something pretty obvious – we only get one chance to live the life we want, and we only have one magnificent planet on which to live it. Our choices matter to us and future generations. Let’s choose to activate long-term sustainability solutions through hope and inspiration rather than fear and doomsaying.

This is not a sustainability blog that lists green travel tips. That, you can read in an excellent piece by The Points Guy entitled 8 sustainable travel tips from expert green travelers. 

Neither is this a blog that features must-have eco-travel products. That, you can find in a great summary by cnn.com entitled 30 of the best eco-friendly travel products to take on your next trip. 

Nor is this a blog about how to reduce your travel carbon footprint. Important? Yes! But not what this blog is about. You can read this National Geographic article to learn about 10 ways to reduce your carbon emissions when traveling. 

This blog explores how sustainable family travel can empower the next generation of environmental stewards in our kids as they connect to nature, experience awe, and engage in grassroots solutions. Of course, if achieving sustainable development were strictly a math problem based on carbon footprint, we wouldn’t travel at all. But arriving at meaningful solutions requires creativity, changes in attitudes, and a whole lot more than simply not flying. Travel feeds diversity and diversity helps us think outside the box. In many ways, travel, when done thoughtfully, can contribute to a sustainable future. That’s a big claim. Let’s break it down.

What is Sustainable Family Travel?

We can think of sustainable family travel as a manner of travel that minimizes harm to the natural and cultural environment while maximizing economic vitality for local people. Inherent in this definition of sustainable travel is an educational intention to understand both how our travels impact communities and the environment, and how we can make a positive difference. We see sustainability as an ethic, a framework, and the end goal of our travel decisions and behavior. 

So what is our promise to future generations? How can we ensure our grandkids and their kids have forests to explore, rivers to run, wilderness to wander? One important thing we can do is take them there! Through long-term family travel and worldschooling, we can teach our children to care. We can teach our children to act. We can teach our children well. 

Spring-fed water in Lucca, Italy

Connecting Children to Nature 

Worldschooling is a perfect way to raise little sustainability lovers. We know that those who care about a place are more likely to work to protect that place, so why not expose our children to rainforests, high prairie, coastal wetlands, and more? Experiencing nature over weeks and months lays down a fertile layer of care in our children. 

Traveling the world with kids is their ticket to guardianship, to feeling invested and part of a community. This is especially true for long-term travelers, who often have more time to experience and get to know a place. On the road, there is time to saunter. As Rolf Potts, author of Vagabonding and the Vagabond’s Way, likes to say, “You can walk until your day becomes interesting.” We can savor the experiences, connect with the locals, and learn their ways, their songs, and customs. As long-term travelers, we can settle into a place, discover what everyone is up to, and get involved. The imprint of this direct experience is indelible and it switches on in our kids a personal connection.  

When my family took our Wonder Year, we designed an itinerary that led us deep into the wilderness, along rugged shorelines, into historic places and local communities. We wanted our son to meet people everywhere and have diverse first-hand experiences with unique places that hold cultural, natural, historical, and spiritual value. We believe that conservationists are born out of love for the natural world so if we could turn Johnny on to all kinds of amazing places as a youngster, we knew he would work to protect those amazing places as an adult. 

The Power of Awe 

Many teens cite climate change as a major source of the mental health crisis. Dystopian novels are not helpful; more exposure to doomsaying takes away the magic and beauty of the world outside.

The large herds of bison that roam Yellowstone are an excellent example of sustainability at work. Their grazing, among other benefits, helps cycle rich nutrients into back plants and protects soil moisture.

When we are traveling, we have time to notice the little things, and we have time to really experience the big things. Maybe we will find out about a concert happening in a few days or a festival, foot race, or community gardening event. As travelers, we can re-route to an awe-inspiring experience and in these moments, we gain openness, understanding, humility, a sense of wellbeing, and altruism. How wonderful to drop pins of hope again and again as we experience awe side by side with our kids. Often unplanned, these awesome moments make us pause and feel the profound beauty of the universe, the grandeur of things so much bigger than we are. Indeed we can experience awe at home, it’s just that as long-term travelers, we live so close to nature, and are in new places all the time. This daily dose of wonder helps our children develop compassion, concern for others, and optimism, all components of a sustainability mindset. 

Engagement in Grassroots Environmental Solutions 

Another reality of traveling as a family is the preponderance of grassroots worldschooling opportunities. These sustainability sessions can be either chance encounters or planned engagements. 

A chance encounter might look like this: When dropping into a local cafe, park, or library, you read the bulletin board, pick up the local paper, or talk to the barista to get the local scoop. Travelers looking to learn, as worldschooling families do naturally, can simply scratch below the surface to find out what’s happening around them. They can learn what the locals are concerned with. It might be the protection

Heading out for a full day with the Anacostia Riverkeeper, an amazing organization that works to protect, restore and connect people and the local community to the Anacostia River in Maryland and Washington DC. Thank you, Trey!

of wildlife habitat for endemic species like rhinos in Namibia or big horned sheep in Colorado. You might be in a surf shop in Baja and hear about coastal protection efforts like in Cabo Pulmo, Mexico where the resolve of the local community led to the creation of a Natural Protected Area. Today, the coral reef and surrounding communities are thriving. Annika and her family met, by chance, some Canadian college-aged members of Surfrider while they were in Costa Rica. They took them out for a nice casado lunch to learn more about their projects, and have stayed in touch on social media ever since to follow their careers in sustainability and mission-driven business. With knowledge of local concerns and priorities, travelers can then take the next step and find out what local solutions are in play. Find out what the young people are doing and get involved in the grassroots action.

A planned approach might involve advanced research to see if you can arrange site tours, meetings, and participation in an event. Even before we left for our Wonder Year, our family reached out to a national nonprofit that supports community-driven watershed protection, an issue we care about and were professionally involved with. We became “family ambassadors” for the group and as we traveled across the United States, we met with river heroes and sustainability champions to learn about local struggles and solutions. We wrote some articles to help share their success stories. We participated in river clean-ups, green infrastructure projects, and community service work throughout our entire Wonder Year. Through this type of solutions-focused engagement, we can turn our travel experiences into fieldwork, advocacy, and exploration. 

Bringing it Home

Doing some planting in Prescott, Arizona as part of a green infrastructure project.

Traveling as a family, and seeking to learn, connect, and engage is an excellent way to be part of a solution. It is also an excellent way to control stress and help our kids find their agency to feel hopeful about the future rather than sad and helpless. There are so many ways to engage, and here we offer just a small sample of solutions-focused resources. We are especially impressed with, and inspired by, the brilliance of young leaders and how they articulate a vision for the future and mobilize peers and adults alike. 

Patagonia Action Works – connects individuals to environmental action groups around the world

Fridays for Future – youth-led climate activist network started by Greta Thunberg

American Climate Corp – newly launched campaign to train young people in clean energy, climate resilience, and conservation

UNICEF Toolkit for Young Climate Activists – information that helps prepare young people to be fully engaged in issues that matter to them

UN Youth2030 Strategy – an overarching framework for the UN to broadly and meaningfully engage young people across three priorities areas: peace and security, human rights and sustainable development.

Brand Ambassadors – Many companies and nonprofits have “brand sustainability ambassador” programs. Reach out to see if a partnership opportunity would work for your family. 

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Our fourth worldschooling family are The Salty Vagabonds: mom Amanda (36), a retired Air Force Veteran, dad Alex (36), and their children Addison (15), and Audrey (8).

Please tell us a bit about your journey.

Helping with the Todo Santos turtle release

If I’m being completely honest, our journey has been somewhat of a roller coaster. We originally went into this lifestyle on a one-year plan that started in 2018…not knowing we would move onto our boat and have our lives flipped upside down (literally) within three months. Our journey started in Panama City, Florida, and took us across the country to Olympia, Washington, after Hurricane Michael changed the entire trajectory of the life we thought we had planned. We spent a year and a half finishing a new boat for our family to live in, moved onto it during COVID in 2020, and sailed it down the entire U.S. west coast in 2021 and into La Paz, Baja California early 2022. This last year we went to Europe and spent a few months there, a few months road-tripping the United States, and just recently got back from spending a couple of months in French Polynesia. We travel full time and home base from our sailboat seasonally, with plans this summer to head to Asia for a few months. We’ve found that our family does best with slow travel, which fits well with our “boat life” lifestyle. 

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

Currently we’re back in Baja California, living in a marina with the most beautiful sunsets. We leave this week to travel up the Sea of Cortez to explore the coast. We’re most excited to see new species of sea animals that we’ve never seen in real life and to continue learning Spanish as a second language for all of us. The Gulf of California is said to be the aquarium of the ocean, and we’re so excited to get to experience it hands-on. 

Listening to the audio tour at the Tahiti Musuem

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

We recently got back from a trip where we spent some time in French Polynesia. This trip was different because I usually have the girls do their planned school work while we actively travel, but this time I decided we would completely leave it behind and just fully be present in whatever we did for the day. One afternoon, we decided to check out a museum specific to learning about the Tahitians. We were offered an add-on option to get the audio tour, where you plugged in the number for each exhibit and then listened. I normally skip these things, but this time we decided to get it. Literally the best decision ever! I was so surprised how both girls went off independently and experienced the museum in their own way. Audrey would come back to me excited and want to tell me an interesting fact she just learned. Addison enjoyed taking a deeper dive into the topics that interested her more, too. At the end of the audio tour, we all got together and then discussed things that we found surprising throughout the rest of our trip. It also helped us better understand the culture and relationships between things we found scattered throughout the islands we visited on this trip. 

Audrey and Addison in front of Big Ben

Is there another traveling family you are particularly inspired by? Why are they inspiring?

Worldschooling looks different for many families, and there are so many families that inspire us to travel to new places. I particularly enjoy watching the adventures of the family With the Blinks: Find the Magic in the Everyday. Diana is always sharing some pretty awesome packing tips, as well as interesting travel she takes her kids on. Another family I enjoy is @topflightfamily. While sometimes unrelatable to us because of their family’s luxury travel, I enjoy Carmen’s travel tips that she shares weekly on her Instagram stories. They’re also a POC family, and it’s inspiring to see other families like us out there following their travel dreams, too. 

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

That you’re leaving this lifestyle behind for a reason–be mindful about not getting stuck in the same routines that will essentially limit you and box you right back in. 

What I mean by this is that there will be so many people who will not understand why you’re choosing this lifestyle for your kids. There are going to be questions second-guessing your parenting, as well as questions regarding your choices on how you will educate your kids. The implied judgements may make you feel like you need to stick with the traditional structure of schooling. However, in my opinion, sticking to a completely strict schedule that mimics the traditional school system to quiet the questions is not realistic. It’s somewhat unattainable when traveling full-time and will make you miserable trying to keep up to this standard. Enjoy the time it takes to adjust and be gentle with yourself during the transition to find what works best for you and your family. Worldschooling looks different for many families, and that’s okay. 

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

The more we worldschool, the more I learn, and the more I learn, the more I realize there’s so much I still don’t know. Our whole family is learning together. I think my kids being able to see that Alex and I still learn right along with them shows them that their parents are just as human as they are. The dynamic in being seen as only a parent by your kids is bridged, and the joy in learning as a family has just been really cool to experience. 

Trading language lessons

What’s your favorite story to share about this experience? 

This one’s such a hard one to pick from because I can literally give you a huge list of instances, but there’s an experience from last year that will always hold a special place in my heart. It was definitely a life-changing moment for us where we knew we made the right choice in choosing this lifestyle.

We were taking our boat down the coast. About five months into this journey, we stopped at this tiny island off the Pacific Coast of the Baja California peninsula. Cedros Island is known to be a small Mexican fisherman town with dirt roads, rundown buildings, and really nothing to do. One day we were walking into town with the goal of finding Wi-Fi. A small restaurant had it, but they weren’t open yet. Randomly this person calls out to Alex in English from his car, asking if we needed anything for us or our boat. Alex hesitantly told him we were good and I was just looking for Wi-Fi. I was immediately nervous at the realization that we completely stuck out as foreigners there, but the conversation continued, and the man then insisted that we come to his house to use his Wi-Fi. 

He told our whole family to get in his vehicle and that he would take us to his house right around the corner. I wasn’t comfortable at all with that, quickly trying to dismiss the whole idea and insisting that we really were okay. The conversation ended with him telling us where his house was, and that if we felt more comfortable later that the offer stood to come by whenever. After he drove off, Alex said he felt like he seemed really nice and genuine. The girls said they wanted to go to his house, and after talking it out for a few minutes, we decided to cautiously go and give it a chance.

Tostadas prepared by our host, Mai

As we got to his house, he was outside working on a boat, where we learned that Luis makes a living by taking customers out sports fishing. He quickly introduced us to his wife (Mai) and son. They did not know any English, so there was a huge language barrier as we knew very little Spanish… but even with that barrier Audrey got along great with their son. Over the next four days, they kept inviting us back, and his wife made many dishes specific to their island to try: abalone salad, mako shark ceviche, seafood tostadas, fish tacos, posole… the list goes on. I was so nervous the girls would instantly say no to trying these new foods and potentially offend our hosts, but I was pleasantly surprised watching the girls enjoy everything because they intrinsically knew how special this was.

Luis translated for his wife and son when our Google translate app wouldn’t relay the correct context for what we were trying to say, and after a conversation, we found out that they had never tried food from the United States. So we insisted that we wanted to cook for them the next night. After much debate, we decided to make a Thanksgiving-type dinner. We cooked fried chicken, stuffing, green bean casserole, cornbread casserole, and even brought over a bottle of Chick-Fil-A sauce for them to try. 

Another day Mai invited Addison to have her hair braided. It’s something the girls do where she’s from, and in exchange, Addison gave her a henna tattoo–that was a first for Mai, too. Luis learned that we were struggling to catch fish, so he explained what we needed to do in this region and gave us the appropriate lures to use for future success. Luis’s son ran around their house asking how you say certain household items in English, and then he would tell the girls the Spanish name for them. Addison also hand-translated a few recipes Mai wanted; she really loved the cornbread casserole. 

Reflecting on the amount of learning and life lessons our family gained from having one week with this kind family gets me somewhat emotional. It was random, and had we not said yes we would have never had these experiences. Their family will always be a part of our journey in making this worldschooling life so rewarding and special. 

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

We’re currently working on our summer plans, and as of now we’ll be leaving the boat behind to head to Asia. That will be a completely different cultural experience for us, and we’re excited to experience it. We’ll be taking military Space-A hops, so we’re not exactly sure where we’ll end up, but we’re looking forward to the mystery of what this adventure will bring. 

Amanda was also kind enough to contribute to our upcoming book, and we’ve loved learning about her worldschooling family’s journey over the past couple of years. If you’d like to follow along with them, too, you can find their adventure-filled stories and gorgeous photography here:

Website: https://saltyvagabonds.com

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/saltyvagabonds

TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@saltyvagabonds

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC_30o2ZvRAMatf0IdSRTXkg

Boatlife at its best.

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What is worldschooling, anyway?

Simply put, worldschooling is learning through direct interaction with the world. 

Learning about forced removals in Cape Town

Worldschooling is an educational approach shaped by the experience of learning in the world. Worldschooling is a form of education that combines travel and experiential learning. Rather than being confined to a traditional classroom setting, worldschooling families believe that real-world experiences, cultural immersion, and travel can provide rich educational opportunities. 

Worldschooling allows children to learn about different cultures, languages, history, science, geography, and social dynamics by experiencing them firsthand. It often involves families traveling to other countries or regions, exploring local attractions, engaging with local communities, and participating in activities and experiences that enhance their learning. Worldschooling can happen anywhere, any season, any time of day. It just requires a little curiosity and a lot of wonder. 

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 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 reach 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 peacebuilding.

Worldschooling can be:

• learning to tap a rubber tree in Krabi, Thailand
• visiting WWII sites in Normandy, France to understand the legacies of those who battled
• sourcing ingredients and learning to cook kebabs with a hostel owner in Istanbul, Turkey
• taking the Junior Ranger pledge after completing educational activities at Dinosaur National Monument
• visiting the bridge on the ferry from Helsinki to Tallinn to learn about navigation equipment
• collecting river water in your neighborhood and looking at it under a microscope at your kitchen table
• calculating currency conversion to buy Uyghur currants at the Xinjiang market
• visiting with a Ski Patrol team in Colorado to learn how dogs become avalanche rescuers
• talking with your elderly neighbor about what life was like when she was a kid
• listening to an audiobook about the ancient Mayans while exploring the temple regions of Guatemala
• learning how to say hello, goodbye, please and thank you in a local language new to you
• drawing a picture and naming the phase of the moon every night for a month from your campsites

The possibilities are endless.

Learning to weave from local experts in Laos

Worldschooling varies in its ties to formal educational structures. Worldschooling can be closely aligned with unschooling (see below), theme-driven, subject-driven, or opportunistic based on where a family is traveling and what the day presents. It can also include online learning while on the road, with students completing tasks independently or connected with remote classmates. 

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, here at Wonder Year 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. This growing all-comers inclusivity around the term is also what we see reflected on the internet and social media.

Worldschooling 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. We walk readers through many of them in our upcoming book, Wonder Year: A Guide to Long-Term Family Travel and Worldschooling.

What is Wonder Year?

A Wonder Year is a season of discovery. It is an experience of being in motion with your family and adopting a mindset of growth and curiosity. Not necessarily wedded to one year, the notion applies to any length of time–three weeks, three months or three years. For these reasons, it is also the name of our book.

Worldschooling is the educational foundation of a Wonder Year. Our belief is simply this—the world is a very good teacher, and the more interaction our children have with it through family travel, the more their hearts and intellect will open and grow. 

Wonder Year = long-term family travel + worldschooling

Finding favorite books at a market in Beijing

Can anyone do this?

You may not know this, but as a parent in the United States, you have the right to withdraw your child from traditional school and choose an alternative means to educate them. Some districts now have fully online options that you can do from anywhere. In most states, you will need to register your kids as homeschoolers. In some cases, you will need to record what you teach and how you teach it. But then you get to watch the magic unfold. 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. 

Changing his own flat on the Oregon coast

Won’t my kids fall behind if they don’t go to school?

By rolling into worldschooling, you are choosing 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.” Leading universities encourage study abroad programs. Some people may say 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 are some terms used in the worldschooling community?

• 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 soon)
• Hybrid schooling: anything goes! a blend of any of the above

We hope these definitions and context help you enter the conversation and community. For a peek at what worldschooling can look like, check out our Fernweh Families posts in this blog. We hope they help inspire your own journey!

The post What is Worldschooling? appeared first on Wonder Year Travel.

Behind the headliners of Rio de Janeiro and the Amazon lies what National Geographic calls Brazil’s best-kept secret: the Pantanal.

Home of the social media sensation, the capybara

Located primarily in the Brazilian state of Mato Grosso do Sul, the Pantanal also crosses the border into Paraguay and Bolivia. At around 68,000 square miles – 20 times the size of the Everglades – it is the world’s largest tropical wetland area and largest flooded grassland savanna.

Getting there isn’t easy. Our family of four arrived at Campo Grande Airport via Rio de Janeiro then Sao Paulo, followed by another five hours by road to reach our pousada (inn). We visited in September, toward the end of the Pantanal’s dry season. The wet season, loosely corresponding to summer, has higher temperatures and humidity – and many more mosquitoes. Our timing was no accident, as the roads in the region are also more passable when the waters recede.

Some questioned why we were traveling with children into the region (ours were the only kids at the pousada). Still, we all found the area fascinating, with loads of worldschooling opportunities in the twists and turns of both waters and conversation. If you’re ever able to visit, you might study:

The climate and hydrodynamics that govern the region

The floodplain, fed by tropical rains and their runoff, is defined by seasonal shifts between phases of standing water and phases of dry soil. Water fluctuations between the phases range from two to five meters seasonally. Locals do their best to build structures above the high watermark, but we did see photos of past guests roaming the pousada grounds in shin-deep water.

Morning conversation, quite a view

Phenomenally diverse fauna

Over 260 species of fish, including stingrays and piranha, swim in the often-murky shallows. During the dry season, 650+ species of birds congregate around the remaining water sources. Our sightings included hyacinth macaws, toucans, crest-headed kingfishers, caracaras, savannah hawks, ibis, heron, jabiru, roseate spoonbills, and rheas. On land you might find anteaters, capybaras, anacondas (yes! saw a huge one!), jaguars (elusive! didn’t see any!), turtles, caiman, and armadillos. We particularly enjoyed the river otters: four feet long versus their smaller cousins back home, they are both quick and fierce.

Armadillos of the Pantanal

Conservation dynamics

According to The Nature Conservancy, “The strategic location of the Pantanal makes it more vulnerable to the advance of large scale agriculture, cattle ranching, water pollution, dams and transport navigation, thereby increasing the pressure on the local habitats.” Despite being one of the most-preserved wetlands in the world, less than 2% is under federal protection. There’s much to learn about public and private initiatives aimed to guarantee its long-term sustainability. The Nature Conservancy (https://www.nature.org/en-us/get-involved/how-to-help/places-we-protect/pantanal/) and World Wildlife Fund (https://wwf.panda.org/wwf_news/?324090/Journey-of-Water-in-the-Pantanal) can help get you started.

If you’re planning travel to The Pantanal, here are some of our favorite resources:

• https://www.nationalgeographic.com/travel/article/exploring-pantanal-brazil
• https://www.nationalgeographic.com/travel/article/brazils-best-kept-secret-the-pantanal-wildlife-biodiversity-wetlands
• https://whc.unesco.org/en/list/999/
• https://www.pantanalescapes.com/about/about.html
• https://national-parks.org/brazil/pantanal-matogrossense

And if you have them, bring binoculars! You’ll likely use them here more than anywhere you’ve ever been.

Where the dirt road ends…

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VISIT WISH-LIST DESTINATIONS

What have you always wanted to see and experience? Do you have inspirational travel photos posted on your computer or fridge? Are there places that are just calling your name? Spin the globe. Choosing your worldschooling destinations is a great time to involve the whole family. Being curious about a place will make your kids all the more engaged once you’re there.

What does your family like to do together? Kayaking? Exploring the mountains?

CHOOSE PLACES TO PRACTICE MULTILINGUALISM

You might plan some or all of your itinerary in order to learn a new language or reinforce a second or third one. Are your kids taking language classes at school and you’d love for them to converse with native speakers? Adults, too, may see great value in language immersion.

BUILD AROUND YOUR FAMILY’S FAVORITE ACTIVITIES

Think about how you like spending time as a family. Do you prefer being outdoors? Camping, biking, or trekking can drive an itinerary. Are you drawn to water? You might build your trip around kayaking, surfing, or diving hot spots. Maybe you are more of a big-city crew, with a love of museums and restaurants. Building in some of your family’s favorite activities can help keep everyone engaged.

How do you want to travel? Fast or slow?

CONSIDER NATURAL SEASONS AND CULTURAL EVENTS

Research the best time of year to visit your high-priority destinations. Some places will work any time of the year; others might have peak times for desirable weather conditions or seasonal flora or fauna: wet or dry salt flats in Bolivia, butterflies returning to San Juan Capistrano, monsoon seasons in Southeast Asia, or the fall foliage in New England. You can choose worldschooling destination to coincide with festivals, events, or cultural celebrations you want to attend, such as the Thai New Year celebration water fights or Day of the Dead happenings in Oaxaca. Prioritize key events and anchor your trip around their locations.

CHOOSE SUSTAINABLE TRAVEL

The choices we make about travel—destinations, transportation, accommodations, and even souvenirs—have an impact on the local environment and people. Asking questions and being aware of how our presence in a place affects the local community is a responsibility we can all embrace. And it’s not just about doing the right thing; many travelers note that their most memorable experiences had a strong local flavor. What a great way to embed critical thinking into your journey: choose worldschooling destinations that have positive impact.

TRAVEL TO FIND COMMUNITY

More Wonder Year families are arranging their itineraries so they can connect with other traveling families at schools, summits, hubs, pop-ups, and informal gatherings. Sparks fly when worldschooling kids connect with each other! 

OTHER LENSES FOR CHOOSING DESTINATIONS

Here are some other ways you might create your itinerary:

• Around homestays, home swaps, or volunteerism
• Via around-the-world air travel, which often requires that you travel in only one direction: east or west
• Off-season all the way to maximize easier bookings, lower costs, and fewer crowds. One downside: you may find accommodations, sites, restaurants, and tours closed for the season, or you may encounter construction and repairs underway.
  

  Are there far flung locations that have always been on your bucket list?

• Country collecting: some travelers want to visit as many countries as possible. Just make sure you keep it meaningful by taking time to really appreciate the local people, places, and culture.
• By theme: you may wish to choose a worldschooling theme, such as historical events or interesting flora and fauna, as you go. 
• Educational programs: alternative schools, experiential programs, and immersive experiences geared toward worldschoolers are rapidly proliferating, offering families the opportunity to enroll their children and build itineraries around their attendance.
• Personal history or connection: some families like to visit their ancestral homes or retrace their forebears’ migration paths.
• Friends and family: extended travel can offer the chance to visit those you might not often see, or to stay with them for longer periods of time than is usually possible. This can also provide a nice break from being alone on the road, give the kids friends or cousins to play with, and save some money, too.
• Convenience: sometimes you just have to choose what is easy and makes sense—a good stop between two of your favored destinations, or somewhere inexpensive to spend a few nights. If you have the right attitude, you can almost always turn these sojourns into wonderful opportunities.

ADDITIONAL ITINERARY CONSIDERATIONS

Travel Advisories

Before choosing your final worldschooling destinations, check current safety conditions, travel advisories, and warnings for the places you are interested in visiting. The US Department of State website is an excellent place to start, with tour companies and travel blogs providing additional insight about real-time safety considerations.

So many magical places to visit!

Seeing the Sites

When you first commit to extended travel, six, twelve, or eighteen months might seem like a long time. Once you fill it with your planned itinerary, you might realize that there will never be enough time to see everything you want. In the places you visit, please try to let go of the notion of covering everything. No matter where you are or how long you’re there, you’ll still have to choose the things you most want to do. Savor what you are fortunate to experience, and release the rest. For those places you don’t want to miss, be aware that booking lead times for hot destinations and activities are picking up. As our society has become increasingly mobile and more travelers are hitting the road each year, some national parks, museums, tours, top-rated campgrounds, and other popular attractions are newly requiring advance bookings, and reservation lead times have gotten much longer. Nearby accommodations and transportation may also be affected, so monitor what you’ll need to book in advance versus on the ground.

Planning versus Winging It

Try to find balance between planning before you depart and figuring things out while you are on the road. A fellow traveler shared this: “When you’re planning, you don’t know everything that’s there. You only see the tourist stuff before arriving, but once you’re on the ground, you can really see all there is to experience with your family.” Leave room for some spontaneity and changes of plans, while of course keeping in mind the cost of adjusting or canceling reservations.

Scheduling Downtime

One of the most important pieces of advice we can offer is to leave downtime in your itinerary. As much as you think you want to cover a lot of ground and see as much as you can, travel fatigue is a very real thing. When you are traveling full time, occasionally it can start to feel more like work than play. In fact, sometimes you’ll need a vacation from the traveling. In addition, you’ll likely need days set aside for future travel planning, laundry, cooking at “home,” and catching up on worldschooling lessons.

If you find this helpful, stay tuned for more travel planning tips coming to our blog soon. Or, consider pre-ordering our book, Wonder Year: A Guide to Long-Term Family Travel and Worldschooling.

The post Where Will You Go? Choosing Destinations for Worldschooling appeared first on Wonder Year Travel.

Break Free From Plastic! 

If we want to leave a healthy and beautiful Planet Earth for our grandkids and their grandkids and seven generations hence, we need to consider the consequences of our choices, like using plastic. 

Single-use plastic is any plastic that is used only one time, and then is thrown away. When plastic is tossed out (which 90% is), it has catastrophic effects on the land, air, sea, animals and people. Your old flip flops, plastic sunglasses and rubber duckies end up floating on the surface of the ocean in massive gyres such as the Great Pacific Garbage Patch. Other plastics break down into tiny particles and make their way up the food chain. Plastics have been detected in corals, mussels, barnacles, fish, birds and marine mammals. Scientists have even detected microplastics in the falling rain and in human blood. It’s ubiquitous, and it’s bad. But you can make a difference. 

Here are eight things family travelers can do to be part of the solution: 

1. Plan ahead and buy gear wisely – carry a lightweight/portable water filter instead of buying water in plastic bottles; purchase bamboo toothbrushes and combs, carry reusable storage containers to avoid styrofoam packaging.
2. Put together a clever travel kit that includes metal utensils and straws, a reusable bowl, thermos, and cup.
3. Shop at local markets instead of grocery stores to avoid plastic wrapping on produce. (The local, fresh fruit and veggies taste better too!)
4. Skip the straw when ordering a beverage or say “no thanks” when offered a straw.
5. Always have three reusable shopping bags with you and of course a refillable water bottle + steri-pen.
6. Support organizations doing clean up work. We love and volunteer with the Inland Ocean Coalition, which clears debris from rivers that will flow into the oceans. It also helps the freshwater ecosystems along the way. Surfrider Foundation and other coastal protection groups organize beach clean up events in many coastal locations.
7. Check out and follow the global movement #breakfreefromplastic and #plasticfree.
8. Learn from the locals – many countries and cultures do not rely on single-use plastic. What approaches can you incorporate into your life?

Sustainable Air Travel 

Many family travelers these days have read about sustainable air travel and are eager to learn more with the hope of reducing their traveling carbon footprint.

To deepen our understanding, we interviewed two experts in the field – David Powell, PhD,  Stanford University Professor Emeritus of Mechanical, and Aeronautical and Astronautical Engineering, who also happens to be a pilot and also happens to be Annika’s father! We also interviewed Andrew Gettleman, PhD, an Atmospheric Scientist with Pacific Northwest National Laboratory and former Visiting Professor at University of Oxford, UK, who also happens to be a lifelong traveler and also happens to be Julie’s neighbor! 

The upshot of our conversations is this: While air travel accounts for just 3% of global climate impacts, every industry needs to do its part if we, as a global community, are going to achieve carbon neutrality by 2050. The industry has heeded the call, and today there is a robust and exciting conversation among many scientists, engineers, policymakers, and industry leaders. Viable options already exist. 

Here are some of the solutions in practice and in the R&D pipeline: 

First, Sustainable Aviation Fuel, or SAF, is being produced and commercial airlines are buying it by the millions of gallons. It’s made from non-petroleum based products like corn, wheat, algae, greases, and other agricultural residues. SAF emits substantially less carbon than jet fuel made from petroleum. Good news: the current generation of jet engines can use a blend of SAF and traditional fuels without any hardware modification (90% SAF + 10% petroleum based). Additionally, once we are all driving electric vehicles, there will be a lot of corn-based ethanol available for air transport!

Second, electric airplanes and hybrid electric airplanes are in the skies and will be part of the long-term solution. Electric planes run on batteries, and one of the biggest challenges is the weight to energy ratio, or energy density. Electric planes can definitely serve regional or shorter-distance flights, and once enough of our kids go into STEM fields, we may see viable long-distance electric airplanes in the mix of solutions. 

Third is hydrogen fuel cells, a promising route to emissions-free propulsion, including in the air. Hydrogen fuel cells generate electricity by electrochemical reaction – hydrogen and oxygen – rather than combustion. Hydrogen can be produced from many types of processes and sources, even from seawater. Powering aircraft with hydrogen fuel cells is significantly more efficient than internal combustion, and when we crack this nut, we will have carbon-free propulsion.  

Pr. David Powell assures us that sustainable air travel is “on the horizon,” and it will come with a mix of these technologies and others. It’s a balancing act of cost, weight, and energy density. Science and innovation are working to combat climate change and meet consumer demand in brilliant ways. 

Dr. Andrew Gettleman assures us that we can speed up our path to net zero by looking at system-wide opportunities. For example, rerouting planes around regions where contrails readily form can reduce the warming effect. 

As family travelers, there are a number of ways we can reduce our carbon footprint. For example, we can take fewer flights or, where available, take trains, buses, or electric vehicles. We can vote with our pocketbook and, where possible, choose flights or airlines that are promoting sustainability. Many airlines have responded to consumer demand by offering carbon offsets. Offsets function like a certificate that can be traded to lower the amount of CO2 in the atmosphere. If you purchase an offset, your dollars fund climate change projects like reforestation or renewable energy. The CO2 emitted from your flight is “offset” somewhere else by one of these projects. NOTE: There has been fraud in this market, so if you elect to purchase an offset, it’s important to make sure it’s a certified program. The Points Guy has a good article here that compares the airlines offering offsets. 

One of the many wonderful things about long-term travel is that we can be thoughtful, deliberate, and conscientious with our choices, even if something takes more time. So think global, act local. Happy Travels and Happy Earth Month!

For more tips on sustainable travel, please sign up for our newsletter here on our website. We’ll continue to share insights, resources, and tips to support family travelers. 

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Fernweh is a German word coming from fern (“far”) and weh (“pain”) – literally, “far pain,” most often translated to English as “a desire to travel,” or, more simply, “wanderlust.”

Our second traveling family is the Tolk Family – Stephanie and her husband Scott are in the second year of world travel with their daughters Mira and Penelope, ages twelve and thirteen. In her own words, Stephanie shares with us her insights of both inward and outward journeys.  

We are a family of four originally from Portland, Oregon. Prior to leaving the country, we had a fairly traditional lifestyle, with both my husband and I working nearly full time while our children attended public school. Because my husband and I had experienced the joys and personal growth associated with international travel, we’d known for many years that we would take our children abroad. 

Worldschooling in Giza, Egypt near the Great Pyramid

Please tell us a bit about your journey (trip duration or how travel fits into your lives, “big picture” view of your route, slow vs. fast travel, any trip themes or shared travel goals).

After a pandemic-related postponement, we left the US in September 2021 and have taken two school years out of the country with a visit home for a few months in between. During the first year, we traveled quickly, visiting 13 countries on three continents, and during the second year, we chose slower travel, prioritizing learning Spanish in three countries in Latin America. As we plan to return to the US in the summer of 2023, we’re organizing a hybrid that includes part of the year in Oregon and part of the year abroad.

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

My husband and I knew for a long time that we would travel with our daughters, and we always envisioned the journey beginning in middle school when the girls would be old enough to independently engage with our surroundings but young enough to value family time. We spent a lot of time talking with the girls about our trip, bringing up pieces in conversation over many years so that they never felt the idea was sprung upon them. Where appropriate, we engaged them in research, asked them about their dreams and wishes, helped them envision what a typical day might be like, and more, to build buy-in and excitement.

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

Exploring the famed library at Ephesus, Turkey

I’m writing from Merida, Mexico in Yucatan State, a few blocks from the oldest cathedral in Mexico, built just after the arrival of the Spanish. While we’re here for just a short time as we move between cities, I’m fascinated by the way in which Yucatecos embrace and celebrate their cultural heritage. On two consecutive nights we’ve attended cultural events: one night, we watched traditional dancing in the Parque Santa Lucia, and on the following night, we saw a multimedia display on the cathedral cataloging the history of the city and state in a vibrant exhibition.

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

My children had been in public school for many years prior to our first year of worldschooling, and on average, we spent six waking hours together each day. When we pulled the children from school, we doubled that number, and when we left the US, my husband and I began working remotely. With all of these additional hours together, we began to understand one another more, to notice our patterns, what drove us mad, and who needed breaks when. We tapped into one another’s rhythms in ways we hadn’t been able to do while living a busy American life, developing empathy for one another’s needs and deeper connections.

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

I believe there are two types of community for worldschoolers–other traveling families and local people living in traditional, non-touristy spots abroad—and both are important to access and know. Sometimes, worldschoolers gravitate toward other travelers from the US, Canada, or Europe, visiting worldschooling hubs, expat communities, or towns that are popular with digital nomads. These communities offer camaraderie, comfort, and like-mindedness. But as we’ve all chosen to travel to transcend our comfort zones, immersion into local communities is also vital for expanding our perspectives and building respect and understanding of other ways of life. We’ve found the latter through Workaway experiences, overland travel, stays in less popular destinations, and simply by wandering markets or public squares.

Snorkeling near Krabi, Thailand

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

I wish someone had told me not to be too attached to my assumptions before I left home. Worldschooling is a process of evolution. Perhaps at first you think that five nights in a hotel is a long stay, but months later, you’re booking for a minimum of two weeks. Maybe you envision keeping pace with school at home through online courses or workbooks, but months later, you’ve opened to a completely different way to learn. As we travel, we become inspired by the places we see and the people we meet, and we become influenced to evolve and change.

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

When I was 22-years-old, I moved to Mali, West Africa for two years, and while I’d thought I had a global worldview from previous travels, it expanded enormously in Mali. I spent another 25 years using that worldview in daily life, perhaps understanding the impact of foreign policy differently or seeing social issues in an expanded light. What I didn’t expect from worldschooling in my 40s is that my worldview could expand even more, matching the current chapter of life. As a middle-aged woman, an entrepreneur, a mother, and an educational guide for my children, I’ve gained another layer to my global perspective, borrowing ideas from the world around me to be a better businessperson, teacher, and mother.

Wandering ancient Inca agricultural terraces near Cusco, Peru

What’s your favorite story to share about this experience? 

One of my family’s favorite worldschooling experiences took place in rural, eastern Czech Republic, on the opposite side of the country from Prague and quite close to the Slovakia border. We had arranged a Workaway with a Czech host family, our “work” being simple: we were just to speak English. On one lovely fall day, we joined the family—parents and three sons—to the country home they shared with the adult siblings and their families. The cousins amounted to 13 children in all. 

Within walking distance of Castle Hukvaldy, constructed in the 13th century, we spent the day wandering the castle grounds and surrounding park and enjoying meals and games back at the family home. In the evening, the Czechs sang traditional songs by a fire while the children played on a swing, and most of us spent the night in a jumble of thick blankets on the floor. Later that year, we would venture inside the Great Pyramid at Giza, snorkel with sea turtles, hike in the mountains of northern Vietnam, tour Machu Picchu and much, much more, but those moments of connection and play in rural Czech Republic reminded us that relationships matter more than just about everything else.

From Annika on the Wonder Year team: 

Stephanie is an interviewee for our upcoming book Wonder Year. I’ve appreciated the depth of our conversations about power and privilege, ethics and true volunteering as a family. Another Returned Peace Corps Volunteer, we talked about authentic ways to make travel a true exchange rather than an act of consumption. I deeply admire Stephanie’s intentional mindset in parenting, education and travel as well as her entrepreneurial spirit. 

Stephanie has a fantastic Udemy course on Worldschooling here. She also is a contributor to an anthology of essays by worldschooling families called Worldschooling: Innovative Parents Turing Countries into Classrooms. Also, you can check out her website, Deliberated Detours www.deliberatedetour.com, for fabulous resource offerings including private coaching. To read more of her writing, go to stephanietolk.medium.com.

You can follow her on social media: 

Facebook Deliberate Detour

Instagram @deliberatedetour

Personal Page @traveling_zolks

Fulfilling a bucket list dream in Machu Picchu, Peru

To read about more inspiring families, click here to meet the Pages.

The post Fernweh Families: The Zelenka/Tolks appeared first on Wonder Year Travel.

Fernweh is a German word coming from fern (“far”) and weh (“pain”) – literally, “far pain,” most often translated to English as “a desire to travel,” or, more simply, “wanderlust.”

Our first travelers are the Page Family – dad Andrew (46), a geologist from the UK born in Indonesia; mom Yasmin (42), an ex-teacher and now co-op facilitator who grew up in Sweden with parents from Finland and Pakistan; and their children Teo (11), Viggo (8), and Avani (21 months). Yasmin shared insights from their family, and to preserve her voice, her answers are provided in British English.

To help introduce your family, please tell us a bit about your journey.  

Andy and I lived in Sweden for a little while and then in the UK together for nearly 12 years before setting off on our trip. We resided in many different locations and really enjoyed our life there. All our children were born in the UK. We lived down south in a village by the Hampshire/West Sussex border for seven years before making the decision to sell our house and travel. After shipping our campervan from the UK to South America, we have been slow traveling in Mexico and Belize. We’ve recently settled in Sattva Land, an off-grid retreat centre in the jungles of the Maya Mountains on the Hummingbird Highway.

Teo and Viggo climbing palm trees in Hopkins

(Read a more in-depth story from Yasmin about how they came to be in Belize, published as a “Stories from the Road” entry in the Wonder Year blog here.)

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

The most important practical ingredient was Andy getting the green light from work. Being able to keep his job meant that he could work remotely while traveling and potentially moving to Belize. The long-term idea is to go down in work time, so he can spend more time in the community and with the family. Right now it’s working really well even though he’s technically full-time. 

On a more ideas, or perhaps even spiritual, level is the understanding that we are only here in this particular physical form once. When freaking out about overwhelming life decisions, we try to remind ourselves how fleeting things are and how we don’t have much time together, really. Trying to stay connected to our own mortality, might make us a little bit braver/crazier. We are incredibly happy with the decision to spend more time together, and less time working and having to be away from each other. 

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

Right now we’re inside the wooden Garden House, looking out at the lush jungle outside, with a couple of buildings nestled into it. Nature and all the extraordinary creatures here are awe-inspiring! We have toucans, butterflies and hummingbirds flying all around us. There are also plenty of bugs that we are learning to live with.  

We feel that it’s a life less sanitised. It’s more intense in every sense, more awe-inspiring and more challenging. All at the same time!

Avani, 21 months, at Sattva Land

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

We unschool pretty confidently so don’t have many plans for the children except to facilitate their interests. They will probably do more ‘formal’ academic work as they grow older, and perhaps have a clearer sense of what they want to pursue. During this journey we have all learned and experienced so much that we haven’t felt the need to incorporate much else. The boys have a weekly maths video call with their grandad that they really enjoy, which keeps them in touch at the same time. They also take some online classes with Outschool, such as chess and history. Most of the time learning happens organically, such as when they make a smoothie recipe book, experience a cultural event or attend horse camps.  

When our oldest son Teo turned 10, he wanted to take the junior open-water diving certification. Never having taken an exam before, we wondered how he would fare with the theory. He did fail the first time, with one point, and got extremely frustrated. Then he got determined and (still studying on his own) finally passed the test. That showed us that you don’t need years of preparation once you put your heart and mind into something. 

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

That we can do anything together. That we value our connection and our time together. We don’t try to escape each other or our feelings when things are hard, but we deal with it. And really try to see each other. Saying that, there’s still plenty of sibling rivalry and all that! And us parents regularly get overwhelmed and don’t do parenting right, absolutely. But overall we feel pretty grounded in all this. 

Also that we can experience both the joyful and the challenging together. We don’t want to shy away from the realities of life, as there are plenty of difficult things that you will encounter while travelling. To fulfill everyone’s needs can be hard, and sometimes it isn’t possible. Particularly our oldest, who will be 11 soon, needs more friendships and autonomy now. We try to meet that need as best as we can, but it isn’t always easy when living quite isolated, albeit in a community. Most children who are here at the moment are younger than him, so we’re very much trying to invite other families with older kids! The football team and other homeschooled kids we know do provide some of that for now. 

Hands-on geography at the co-op

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

Community to us means almost everything. That people who connect with each other on some level come together, and that there is alignment. A community can be diverse, and there must be a welcoming of different perspectives and disagreements, but there should always be a foundation of care for each other. 

We have met other travelling families along the way, and here in Belize we regularly meet with the other families we have gotten to know. It’s a small country so almost everyone knows each other, and it’s a growing community. It is amazing that we’ve found other homeschooling families who want to do fun things and learn together. There is also quite a lot of interest in what we are doing, so we can really feel the potential and the energy that comes with that. The intentional living community is our shared dream, although it took me a bit of convincing Andy to begin with! The kids seem happy for now living here, and if things change we’ll cross that bridge when we get to it! 

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

It is as if we have expanded. Our hearts, minds, everything. Our love for everyone back in our home countries has only grown, even though we don’t see each other regularly, and has also been extended to the new people and places we meet. Of course one doesn’t need to travel far for this to happen, but it has been our experience.

Yasmin and Avani drumming at a friend’s birthday party

The other aspect is the more challenging one. The shadows that we perhaps could escape from a little more easily back home (to some extent at least), we are very much faced with here. It’s the way the world is run and the stark injustice of it. The imperialism and post-colonialism that the majority of people are affected by here. Although we’re in no way wealthy, having a ‘western’ salary in a ‘developing country’ (we don’t really agree with the terms but just for clarity here), is a hard thing to navigate. Travelling, worldschooling etc, is a privilege most people in the world can’t afford. Perhaps it’s not the right thing to do. But then again, living in a country such as Britain, we witnessed the effects of world politics and fair share of injustice there, too. We’re hoping that our children will grow up seeing the whole world as theirs to take care of, a deeper understanding of differences, and with an open mind and heart. 

The other day the kids at our learning co-op were setting up a lime juice stand, wanting to earn some money. I suggested they could also try and raise some money for the local ecology centre here. They then decided that they wanted to raise money for the kids in need here in Belize. They have seen real poverty first hand, and heard the stories of struggle from the children themselves, while buying them a meal. 

What’s your favorite story to share about this experience? 

That we basically just visited Sattva Land once and kind of just knew intuitively that we wanted to live there. We’re now renting a home here and are starting our house build. A pretty life-changing decision!

Boat trip with friends to Moho Caye, Belize

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

We are looking forward to continuing to build the learning co-op here, which we will also be extending to worldschooling families and others visiting the area in the future. We are planning to host worldschool hubs and similar gatherings. We’re also opening up to those looking to potentially join a community long term. We have a lot of gratitude that we have found people who deeply care and are offering their time, knowledge and love to our children, and all the children involved. We feel so excited to continue on this journey, and to see where it takes us.  

Many thanks to the Page family for spending time with us to share their experiences. You can follow along and learn more about their journey at @thefreewheelingfive. And make sure to read Yasmin’s guest post in Stories from the Road to learn more about their life in Belize.

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