Worldschooling - Why We Loved It!

Worldschooling allowed my family to spend every second together, having fun, facing challenges, overcoming them, exploring, laughing, learning.

Worldschooling was our best ever choice (after having kids and getting married, I guess). It was an unconventional choice and we found ourselves to be one of the founders of the movement.

But then, opting out of the school system in unconventional too. I think homeschooling actually draws more looks of disbelief and snarky words than the mention of worldschooling.

Maybe because the general public don’t know what worldschooling is, while they think they may know about homeschooling. They’re mostly wrong about that.

I’m in the fortunate position of being at the end of our worldschooling journey, so I can say with 100% confidence that worldschooling is wonderful, and that it works.

We travelled with our boys for years, over 50 countries. We still travel with them today, but they’re well past school age so we don’t use that term “worldschooling” any more. We’re just travelling, and everyone learns from travel, it’s unavoidable.

We just went to Japan, first time. I knew really nothing about Japan. I do now. It’s inevitable that you learn as part of the process of planning and executing a trip.

I just finished a book written by famous psychologists on peer-attachment vs parent or adult-attachment. It covered the basics of why peer-attached kids are not desirable for families, for the individual child, or for society. Peer-attached kids take their guidance from peers, as I did. My kids didn’t, and they’re better for it.

I didn’t know of this concept until last week, when Cyclone Jasper turned off the power for 8 days and I had time to read. These ideas align perfectly with everything I ever thought about not putting the kids in school.

Parent or adult-orientated kids are different and I noticed, well over a decade ago at my first ever homeschool camp, that the homeschooled kids were different. Different in a good way. That was it, that was the secret.

Academically, my worldschooled kids did great, although that’s not important to us. I ticked all the boxes academically and it didn’t make for a better or happier life, so I never pushed them in that direction.

One child is working part time, he’s testing the waters of employment, seeing what works for him. That’s a great way to go about figuring it out and he has all the time in the world. He was far better prepared to enter the workforce than I was after university.

The other is my business partner, he’s also figuring it out. They’re happy, we have enough money, we have a tight family unit and a good life. They can do anything they like (so long as it’s legal and kind) and we’re here to support that.

If you’d like to read more on worldschooling, how it’s done, affording it, and family travel, you need my main website https://worldtravelfamily.com

I’m new to Substack, I joined today. It’s like old-school blogging, back before blogging was a cash cow. I believe there are chats in Substack. If I can help anyone figure out worldschooling or homeschooling, or family travel (gap year maybe) - I’m here to help. There was no better life for us than being a digital nomad family, it was the best of lives, I like to help people find their own way to live their best life. Whatever their best life may be.