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The decision to take children out of the formal education system with the intention of homeschooling can be pretty scary. Now add to that the decision to pack up your lives and head out into unchartered territories and it can be downright terrifying! You may be filled with self-doubt, worried that your kids level of education will suffer or that you will spend your days planning lessons and teaching. Well, worry no more! A couple of us traveling homeschoolers got together to give you excellent tips and advice on homeschooling while traveling.
Firstly, I think it is important to clarify some of the terms used in regards to various methods of schooling.
Homeschooling: At a basic level this entails teaching school subjects at home. The basic subjects such as science, math, history, geography and languages are covered, although the method of teaching can vary quite extensively from family to family. Some homeschoolers follow the exact school curriculum, do assignments, tests and final year exams, while others may use the subjects as a guideline and forgo any formal testing. There are numerous online classes and virtual classrooms that one can subscribe to.
Unschooling: This can be described as student-led learning, whereby children learn what they are interested in, without direction from adults. The adult’s role is to facilitate by taking note of what the children are interested in and then providing the correct environment and resources to enable the learning.
Worldschooling: This is the combination of education and travel, where the children learn history through experience, maths by converting currencies and languages through having to communicate with locals in foreign lands. Worldschooling families use whatever schooling method works for them from traditional homeschooling to radical unschooling. For those families doing slower travel may even enroll their kids at local schools while they travel.
Our Homeschooling Journey
Q1: How long you’ve been traveling homeschoolers?
Tai and I started traveling in January 2017 so have been homeschooling for the past 2 years. We use Time4Learning and Khan Academy which are 100% online so no need to carry books or download worksheets.
Tai has ADHD and staying in the schooling system meant medicating him with Ritalin and having a facilitator by his side all day telling him to be quiet. For me, there was no choice. I had to remove him from the education system that was failing him and the alternative was to homeschool.
Q2: What was your biggest fear about homeschooling before you started and how did you conquer it?
- How much of my time would I need to dedicate to his studies every day? In Grade 4 we averaged one hour a day. Grade 5 required 2 hours a day. And my input was probably 30minutes per day! He just logged into the lessons and the videos and animations did all the teaching.
- Socialisation!! His peers at school were nasty to him, but on the road, he meets a myriad of people of all ages, with whom he interacts on a daily basis. That’s all the socialising he needs.
Q3: What is your top homeschooling tip while on the road?
Don’t make the kids do projects on each museum or place you visit. Rather let them enjoy the experience and then encourage fun discussions around what you saw and learned.
Q4: What advice would you give to prospective traveling homeschoolers?
Be flexible and adapt to where you are and what experiences are on offer. You can always catch up with lessons but you won’t always have the opportunity to hike over the Albanian Alps, ride a Hot Air Balloon in Laos, watch sunrises from temples in Myanmar or zipline across a canyon in Montenegro.
Don’t let fear stop you from experiencing this magical way of living. Your kids will learn so much more than it would ever be possible to teach them at school and they will be more grounded and well-rounded people because of it.
Click here if you’d like to sign your kids up on the Time4Learning platform
Homeschooling Tips from Nicky Williams of Go Live Young
Q1: How long you’ve been traveling homeschoolers?
I’m Nicky, and myself and my hubby, along with our three boys, recently undertook a trip around the world. In 2016/17 we undertook a nine month round the world trip as a family of five. The boys were 8, 10 and 12 at the time of travel. Throughout this time we homeschooled our three boys.
Q2: What was your biggest fear about homeschooling before you started and how did you conquer it?
As a teacher the homeschooling didn’t really worry me, it was more how we were going to fit it in while travelling the world. Our plan was to do a couple of hours each day to cover maths and literacy. The rest (history, geography, science and RS) would all be done through travel and the experiences we undertook. Once we started travelling we quickly realised that it worked best if we tried to schedule the learning first thing in the morning, before our day’s activities. We settled on two hours a day, five days a week. The boys quickly got used to the routine and structure and were much more ready to work first thing in the morning.
Q3: What is your top homeschooling tip while on the road?
Follow a routine that the kids get used to. For us, this was two hours a day, first thing in the morning. This way the kids get used to it and it stops the moaning and groaning when the books come out!
Q4: What advice would you give to prospective traveling homeschoolers?
Go for it. Travel brings so much learning in so many ways. Ours learned so much from travelling the world, learning from doing and seeing, rather than from books. They’ve learned how volcanoes and earthquakes happen, know more about Buddhism than most adults, learned about the war in Vietnam and the atrocities that occurred in Cambodia, and seen with their own eyes how people live all around the world. More importantly, perhaps, they’ve developed confidence, adaptability and communication, way beyond their years.
Read more about their travels at www.goliveyoung.com
Worldschooling Advice from Kendra Szudera of A(Broad) with Kids
Q1: How long you’ve been traveling homeschoolers?
I have 3 kids. We’re from Idaho, USA, and we’ve been traveling since July 2018. We have been housesitting since March 2018, starting with some housesits in our hometown. We’ve been homeschooling off and on since we began traveling, but it’s looked very different over the months depending on our location and what our learning priorities are.
Q2: What was your biggest fear about homeschooling before you started and how did you conquer it?
I think I was pretty cavalier about homeschooling before I started, actually! I was fortunate that my older two kids were far ahead of their grade levels in regular elementary school, and both enjoy learning. I was most nervous about trying to teach my youngest, who would have gone into kindergarten this year, how to read!
Q3: What is your top homeschooling tip while on the road?
Be flexible! Depending on your travel speed and how long you spend in each location, schooling opportunities can look very different. We are not tied to one method of schooling or curriculum, and decide what we want school to look like in each location based on how long we’ll be there, what local resources are available to us, and what our main learning goals are. For example, we spent 4 weeks attending a Spanish language school and considered that the extent of our schooling for that time period. We spent almost 3 months in Costa Rica and decided to send the kids to a local dual-language school to help them with their Spanish and to make friends. We’re currently in Puebla, Mexico, and hired a local Spanish tutor who comes 3 days/week. We also use a combo of online and other resources. We like Khan Academy for math for all 3 kids; the youngest one is using BOB books bought on Kindle for learning to read; we play card and board games, and they all take classes on Outschool.com. Most of their Outschool classes are their choice, with the exception of a middle school essay writing course, which I made compulsory for the oldest kiddo! There are some fascinating classes on Outschool, and the kids love browsing through and picking the ones that interest them. And, of course, we do lots of learning about each location.
Q4: What advice would you give to prospective traveling homeschoolers?
If you feel at a loss for what to do for schooling, just start wherever is easiest and go from there! You could start with one of the resources I mentioned above (Khan, Outschool, local tutor, local school) or just start by learning about what’s around you. We’ve learned so much about each place we’ve been to by talking with locals and getting out and exploring. Also, go easy on yourself. Some days, homeschooling has been a total loss for us. Either the kids are too antsy, parents are too tired to be effective, or there’s something else we’d rather be doing. We go with the flow and try not to force it. There are just as many, or more, days where homeschooling goes so smoothly and easily that I feel like we’ve been doing it for years! (Uploaded photo is from a version of Scrabble with the 5 year old–spelling and math in one! 🙂
Read more about their travels at www.abroadwith4kids.com
Homeschooling Advice from Leanne Heggie of Cake and Eat it 3
Q1: How long you’ve been traveling homeschoolers?
Mum and Dad and Miss B (11) fulltime travelling Australia in our Motorhome and each year time roadtripping UK & Europe in our campervan. We have been homeschooling for two years with Miss B, since hitting the road fulltime. Our eldest (now adult) daughter has travelled multiple countries and Australia too. I did all my high school by correspondence and knew all the possibilities it provides.
Q2: What was your biggest fear about homeschooling before you started and how did you conquer it?
Will it be enough? I think that as soon as your baby is born you ask yourself this question more than once a day. Am I doing enough, are they eating enough, are they growing enough…you get the idea!! So when you think of taking them from the schooling environment, of course, you are going to ask yourself this question. I learnt from an early age – if you want to learn, that is exactly what you will do irrespective of your environment and resources. I try to pass on to Miss B, not the expectation to learn but the importance and love of learning new things.
Q3: What is your top homeschooling tip while on the road?
This will depend on what mode of travel and how much space/weight restrictions you have but I think the best tool we had was a whiteboard for anything from drawing, spelling tests, maths formulas/calculations. Encourage conversation of what their favourite thing that day was, every night – you will be surprised what is important to them and a great opportunity to google more info on their favourite things – always learning!.
Q4: What advice would you give to prospective traveling homeschoolers?
Understand what your expectations are if it is a short say year-long trip, do not be too hard on yourself there are learning opportunities EVERYWHERE. Always ask at a monument or museum when buying tickets if they have any educational material or worksheets that you can use during your visit. If you are going for a longer period, download the curriculum for your country/state/region and save it as a pdf to refer back to to ensure you are covering relevant curriculum. Buy a year level relevant workbook or download worksheets to enhance learning. Check out our Educational Websites and Resources page which has hundreds of resources for schooling on the road and growing all the time!
Read more about their travels at www.cakeandeatit3.com
Conquering Unschooling Fears from Nadja of Eastern Heart Western Mind
Q1: How long you’ve been traveling homeschoolers?
My 12yo son has been unschooling for over 6 years, with brief stints of homeschooling here and there. Two years ago, we left South Africa – I became a digital nomad and my son (and I!) started worldschooling. We have a blended approach to learning, some parts worldschooling, some parts unschooling, and some parts what we call skillschooling.
Q2: What was your biggest fear about homeschooling before you started and how did you conquer it?
At that stage, the alternative was medicating my son for ADHD as per his preschool’s request, so the fear of what his life and future would look like if we *didn’t* dive into alternative education was far greater!
Of course, I’d lie if I say our learning journey since then have been devoid of fears: I’m a mother concerned about my child’s well-being and doing what’s best for him, but I’m simultaneously not immune to society’s predominant beliefs, which does *not* – usually – support making choices that deviate from the norm.
Thus, whenever I have dark nights of the soul about my son’s education, I do a mental checklist to put things back into perspective:
- What led to our decision?
- What would the alternative look like?
- How does this lifestyle and the choices we make daily match the key values I want to instill in my child?
- What is making me fearful, and is it a rational fear? If no, how can I work on my internal environment to quell this fear? If yes, what changes need to be made?
As a writer, I stay sane by writing about and reflecting on our lives. So when the going gets tough, I also make a point of revisiting past wins.
When all else fails, I turn to friends who have watched us unfold and blossom to remind me I’m doing the right thing!
Q3: What is your top homeschooling tip while on the road?
Inflexibility and perfectionism: At the root of all unhappiness! When travel becomes a lifestyle and no longer just a holiday, the same logic applies as it did in our lives back home. There are good days and bad, great days and days you think will never end. Learning is no different.
Some days you’re on top of it and it makes you feel like you’re well on your way to conquering the world, some days you’ll feel like you’re failing miserably, and you question why you ever made such “stupid” choices as to dare self-educate your child/ren, and on the road, at that!
This, too, shall pass!
The reason we made this decision in the first place was to prepare our younglings for “real life” in the best way possible. Nothing gets more real than travel as a lifestyle!
Q4: What advice would you give to prospective traveling homeschoolers?
Fear will always be there. Courage is not the absence of fear: It’s feeling them, and doing it anyway! Making decisions that you know deep down is right for you and your family despite what the world thinks is perhaps the bravest thing you could ever do. Take it from someone who’s done it, and thrives: It’s also one of the best things you’ll ever do!
Read more about their travels at www.easternheartwesternmind.com
Homeschooling Tips from Emma Burrows of Our Big Worldwide Walkabout
Q1: How long you’ve been traveling homeschoolers?
We are the Burrows family; Emma (blogger and educator-in-chief), Doug (cooker, cleaner and chauffeur) and Issy (an eight year old mischief maker). Doug and I have always travelled and when Isabelle came along we applied for her first passport at 4 days old. She took her first 4 hour car journey at 8 days old and we travelled from the UK to NZ with her at 15 months old. We started full-time travelling and homeschooling in April 2018 and haven’t looked back.
Q2: What was your biggest fear about homeschooling before you started and how did you conquer it?
Ironically I genuinely didn’t worry about it before we started, I’ve worried about it ever since. At the beginning, I made loads of mistakes and I still do. After endless tears (hers and mine) I let go and for a month did nothing. At the end of it, I realised Isabelle learned more and was far more receptive if I just chilled out. Ironically I was following the system I wanted to escape.
Q3: What is your top homeschooling tip while on the road?
If they miss a lesson or 50 it’s not the end of the world. Relax and let them enjoy the journey and you will all reap the benefits.
Q4: What advice would you give to prospective traveling homeschoolers?
De-schooling is so important for you and your children. Before you can homeschool you need to unlearn everything that you’ve learnt whilst in school.
Read more about their travels at www.facebook.com/OurBigWorldwideWalkabout
Advice from Traveling Homeschooler Brandon Pearce of Pearce on Earth
Q1: How long you’ve been traveling homeschoolers?
Our family sold our house in 2009 to begin traveling the world and learning together. Our three daughters are now ages 15, 13, and 7, and the youngest was born in Costa Rica. So far, we’ve lived in and visited over 40 countries.
Q2: What was your biggest fear about homeschooling before you started and how did you conquer it?
Our biggest fear about homeschooling was that our children wouldn’t learn what they needed to thrive in the world as adults. As we gave them more freedom to direct their own education and support to follow their ambitions, our confidence has grown in seeing them develop themselves, their skills, and mindset in beautiful ways. Our oldest daughter now has her own video editing business, our oldest two have helped create a mini-school in Bali with other children, and each of our children is thriving in their own passions.
Q3: What is your top homeschooling tip while on the road?
Our top homeschooling tip on the road is tailoring your travels to your children’s interests. For example, spend time in places where your children have the opportunity to participate in classes, learn from teachers, attend conferences or study environments that interest your kids the most and that will encourage them to grow.
Q4: What advice would you give to prospective traveling homeschoolers?
It can be very difficult to travel and homeschool long-term without a supportive community. Get involved in the local communities where you spend time. Reach out to online homeschooling groups. And attend conferences like the Family Adventure Summit, where you can meet hundreds of other people who are doing this, who understand what you’re going through – and receive the opportunity to make new friends and encourage and support each other in the journey.
Read more about their travels at www.pearceonearth.com
Homeschooling Tips from Shannan Swindler of Captivating Compass
Q1: How long you’ve been traveling homeschoolers?
We love to travel and learn along the way. Our home base is now Scotland. We travel whenever possible usually to the places with the cheapest airfare.
Q2: What was your biggest fear about homeschooling before you started and how did you conquer it?
I didn’t have any fears before I started. But once I was 100% responsible, they kicked in. I found a community of like minded homeschoolers for support. When we relocated to Scotland I lost that weekly community, so decided to start my own with a friend.
Q3: What is your top homeschooling tip while on the road?
Plan to learn on location, by looking for engaging activities & use digital curriculum for subjects like math that you need to keep up on while away.
Q4: What advice would you give to prospective traveling homeschoolers?
Remember that every day is a day for learning. So much cultural and like skill learning is happening that it’s OK to not always have a BIG learning experience every single day. Slow travel brings natural learning at an easy pace.
Read more about their travels at www.CaptivatingCompass.com
Homeschooling Advice from Astrid Vinje of The Wandering Daughter
Q1: How long you’ve been traveling homeschoolers?
We are a traveling family of four, currently on a three year trip around the world trip. Right now we’re in Mexico, but we plan to travel throughout Europe, Asia, Africa, and South America during our trip. We’ve been homeschooling since July of this year.
Q2: What was your biggest fear about homeschooling before you started and how did you conquer it?
My biggest fear before homeschooling was being able to have the patience to teach my kids. Now that we’ve been homeschooling for almost six months, I acknowledge that having patience is definitely still not my strong suit. But I’ve been surprised at how many learning opportunities we’ve had during our travels that don’t require me to sit down and do formal lessons with the kids. We go to museums, we watch videos about the cultures we experience, and we read about the different places we’ve been visiting. These have all been learning opportunities for the kids but in a more experiential rather than formal way.
Q3: What is your top homeschooling tip while on the road?
Let your travel experiences guide the lessons you provide your kids. Dive deeper into your travels by incorporating your travel experiences into your kids’ learning.
Q4: What advice would you give to prospective traveling homeschoolers?
Don’t stress about following a specific curriculum. Each child is different and learns in their own way. It’s okay to take a more relaxed approach to teaching and learning because your kids will learn so much just from their travel experiences. If you must focus on something, then focus on the fundamentals: reading, writing, and math. Every other subject is just an offshoot of those fundamental subjects.
Read more about their travels at www.thewanderingdaughter.com
Adapting to Homeschooling from Melissa Conn of The Family Voyage
Q1: How long you’ve been traveling homeschoolers?
We have been homeschooling and traveling for 15 months
Q2: What was your biggest fear about homeschooling before you started and how did you conquer it?
Our biggest fear was that our son wouldn’t keep up with his public school peers. Turns out that he kept up and will move ahead a grade!
Q3: What is your top homeschooling tip while on the road?
For the early grades, just focus on reading and math in daily seat work – science and social studies can be learned in context during your travels.
Q4: What advice would you give to prospective traveling homeschoolers?
Try to test out a few different materials before you go. We discovered that our son doesn’t do as well with online programs as with workbooks, so after banging our heads for a few months we changed our plans entirely! Workbooks are much heavier to lug around, but school has been much smoother for all of us.
Read more about their travels at www.thefamilyvoyage.com/family-gap-year/
Homeschooling Tips from Lori of Fitz 5 On The Go
Q1: How long you’ve been traveling homeschoolers?
We took a gap year with our kid ages 3,6,10 and traveled to Canada, US, Costa Rica, Copenhagen, Morocco, Portugal, Spain, and Ireland. We just homeschooled the year we travelled.
Q2: What was your biggest fear about homeschooling before you started and how did you conquer it?
I like having a lot of references and enjoy getting most of our books from the library. The books I liked the most were way too heavy to take with us. My oldest did a lot of reading on the Kindle and we carried workbooks. I would also say that it was really difficult to find other kids to interact with. Look for worldschool meet-ups and hang out at playgrounds.
Q3: What is your top homeschooling tip while on the road?
Use what is around you to learn. We studied marine biology while at the beach, Geology at Crater Lake and in the mountains, and world history through many of the museums we visited.
Q4: What advice would you give to prospective traveling homeschoolers?
Plan to stop in areas that already have steady groups of traveling families. Facebook groups can be a great way to find places. Otherwise, try and sign up for classes and activities with other kids.
Read more about their travels at www.fitz5onthego.com
Homeschooling Advice from Kirsty Bartholomew of Lost in Landmarks
Q1: How long you’ve been traveling homeschoolers?
I live in the UK with my now 18 and 17 year olds. We’ve always homeschooled the kids, that is until this year! They’ve both gone on to college this year, Marcus has gone to learn body shop and working with cars and Alex is studying to get A-levels to get into University. We always wanted to travel and having the kids to be homeschooled was perfect for that. It took us until they were 11 and 12 before we managed to break free and give traveling a go. We bought an old campervan, loaded all our things in it and spent the next 6 months traveling around Europe and the UK. We came back for the winter and headed out again the following year, this time we traveled slower, renting apartments and housesitting.
Q2: What was your biggest fear about homeschooling before you started and how did you conquer it?
It’s always been a worry about what others think. The only way to conquer that for me was to make sure I’d researched about it and when we decided to go for it, to do it with all our hearts.
Q3: What is your top homeschooling tip while on the road?
There’s opportunities to learn in everything from the historic sites to watching the locals around a supermarket – leave the workbooks if you can and enjoy and open up to what it around you. I loved the opportunity to learn myself while out travelling and that in turn inspired our kids to learn as well.
Q4: What advice would you give to prospective traveling homeschoolers?
Get the kids to keep a diary of what they did. It keeps some writing practice going while also providing a really nice snapshot of the trip from their perspective.
Read more about their travels at www.lostinlandmarks.com
Worldschooling Tips from Thais Saito of World Trip Diaries
Q1: How long you’ve been traveling homeschoolers?
I have 4 kids. We’ve been homeschooling for 6 years, and we came back from a 30 months trip a few months ago.
Q2: What was your biggest fear about homeschooling before you started and how did you conquer it?
There are many myths, like socialisation (this one’s big) and my lack of qualification, but with lots of research, we found out we’re enough!
Q3: What is your top homeschooling tip while on the road?
Computers. They’re way better than tablets and there’s everything you need online. We used it for everything! And an e-book reader also makes magic!
Q4: What advice would you give to prospective traveling homeschoolers?
Being on the road is a new level of homeschooling. Go, let the kids experience, see, smell and feel all there is around them! It opens up their minds and ours!
Read more about their travels at World Trip Diaries
Homeschooling Tips from Alex Palambo of Laska Baby Travel
Q1: How long you’ve been traveling homeschoolers?
I’ve been homeschooling for over 4 years until May of last year when we decided to sell our possessions and leave in a van indefinitely.
Q2: What was your biggest fear about homeschooling before you started and how did you conquer it?
Not being qualified to educate because I had no teaching experience or wasn’t even thinking of becoming a teacher (until then LOL). Luckily, I’ve met a lady that was a parent liaison officer at a DE school department, so her simple guidance made a difference, otherwise it’d be very daunting to start HS registration process without help or knowledge
Q3: What is your top homeschooling tip while on the road?
Spend time researching and get insight knowledge from experienced HS families and then choose what learning style suits your children better – you’re the only one who knows them well!
Q4: What advice would you give to prospective traveling homeschoolers?
Kids need practical experiences, they need life skills. Make those a priority, they can always catch up on the book work but not on the educational travelling time.
Read more about their travels at www.laskababytravel.com
Are you homeschooling, unschooling or worldschooling your kids? I’d love to hear your experiences!
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8 Comments
Thanks for putting this awesome collaboration post together. We’ve been worldschooling our now 5-year old for nearly two years which included taking the opportunity to meet the wonderful Heggie family in Bali and employing the Pearce’s eldest daughter to do some video editing! We’re currently back in NZ awaiting the birth of our second child (any day now!) and looking forward to returning to the road as soon as we get the newborn a passport!
Oh, how amazing that you’ve been in contact with 2 of the Worldschooling families on this list. Its things like this that make you realise what a small world we live in! Good luck with your new addition and when you’re back on the road maybe we can also meet up? That would be wonderful 🙂
Jeanne,
Thank you so much for this post. It re-affirms once again that worldschooling is one of the best ways to raise our kiddos, who are going to know this world, love it, and make it a better place. From worldschooling part-time, we are now fully preparing for a family gap year, all inspired by families like yours and the ones in the post above. The change to homeschooling is my biggest stumbling block so far, but your post is helping so much to plan for it, and get excited about it. My oldest daughter has multiple special needs, including blindness and autism. There are school services in places, but it is liberating to finally decide by myself what is best for my child, and my family. Thanks so much for you story! Looking forward to following your adventures.
Hi Anastasia, Thank you for your wonderful comment. I am so excited for you as you embark on what will be a life changing experience. I was so nervous when we started but I just knew in my heart that mainstream schooling was not for my son and that I had to do something different for him. This journey has been unbelievably rewarding and Tai has grown in ways I could never have imagined. Good luck with your adventures and let me know how you are getting along on the road.
I love this article….I’m definitely a Worldschooler…. I like how nice and simple you explain everything!
Thanks for your message and go go Worldschoolers!
Thank you so much for this detailed article. I wish I’d had the courage to ravel and homeschool my son (now 15). I notice that most of the bloggers you’ve interviewed have kids who are younger than my son – I’d really love to know how homeschooling works once you’re into the rhythm of key school exams (GSCE/A level etc).
You’ve definitely sparked (OK resparked) an interest for me, but it would be a huge step at this stge in my son’s education, so I need LOADS of info!
Great post!
Hi Coralie. Thanks so much for reaching out. My son will be 13 next year so we are definitely getting to that higher level of education. I don’t see travel being an issue though. Tai’s online curriculum does not require exams for a few more years, but when we get to that stage I think we would just need to slow down the travels around exam time to give him the opportunity to study. My advice would be to find an online schooling system that works with your traveling lifestyle. We use Time4Learning as everything is 100% online, so no need to lug books around. The travel alone will be an incredible education for your son and he will gain more from one year on the road than anything he can learn in a book. Don’t be scared, just do it!