WorldSchooling
My family and I have a bit of an unusual lifestyle…or at least many think it’s unusual. Right now we are in Greece. A month ago we were in England, Wales, Scotland, Ireland and Northern Ireland. In a few weeks we hope to be somewhere in the Middle East (and so it goes). A few years ago we began "WorldSchooling". Yep, that’s right, getting an education as we travel the world. I say we because as the primary goal is to provide an international, multicultural education to my children as we travel the world, I find that I too am receiving an education right along with them!
This all seems a bit unique but believe it or not there are many of us world schoolers out there. When we started I didn’t know it was a thing. We had been traveling and met a family that was traveling long term. As the kids and I discussed this family we thought what an amazing opportunity it would be. So, years later, here we are. We originally set out for a year, returned to traveling on and off for three and have now decided that full time travel is where we’re meant to be.
So, what does this look like? Well, it looks different for every family because there really are no rules. Everyone does what works for their family, when it works and how it works. For us in particular all three kids (all are now teens and preteens) “go” to an online school as we travel. This means that most of their classes are online. In our case they can self design their classes, take actual traditional type classes (other than the fact that they are online) or choose classes offered by an outside source and get credit for those classes. The beauty of all this is there is a never ending opportunity to learn about things they are interested in - as long as you can find or develop a class! Or, you can supplement what they are learning by incorporating it into areas they are studying about…for example, we are currently in Greece, have visited the Palace of Knossos, Homer’s Tomb, the Parthanon, etc while they are studying ancient Minoan people, Greek Mythology and The Odyssey. Coincidence? In this case a brilliant one but in the case of my third child he’s incorporating his travels with his love for mythology and ancient civilizations and turning it all into an in depth class…with the world, books, movies as his classroom. His teachers are tour guides and drivers, boat skippers and museums, local people. He views films, reads books, uses the internet - all similar to his friends with the added bonus of getting to the actual sites.
This isn’t a life or an educational style for everyone and we don’t even know that it will be the only one for us but right now, at this time, we’ll stick with world schooling and all the benefits it brings to us!
