First of all, what is worldschooling?
Worldschooling is a mix of traveling and education. Worldschoolers don’t go to a school instead they learn by traveling around the world. It is a student lead learning type of thing.
According to Ashley Dymock there are four main approaches to worldschooling:
- Settled Globetrotters: Families have a home base but travel occasionally
- Unconventional Traditionalists: Families travel to different schools around the world
- Structured Adventurers: Families are always traveling, living a nomadic lifestyle
- World Un-Schoolers: Families are traveling, and live as if school doesn’t exist
There are so many different definitions of worldschooling. Next year I would say I’m going to be a mix of a settled globetrotter and structured adventurer. I’m going to be traveling quite a bit of the time but I’m still going to come back to my home base.
Here are the top 3 misconceptions of worldschooling
1. Education
Lots of people I talked to were concerned about how worldschoolers get an education. It really isn’t that complicated. Everyone who travels learns new things, so instead of going to school worldschoolers learn different ways of life, nature, culture, history, science, math, music and so much more just by going to new places and doing new things. Basically the world turns into your classroom. What kids learn worldschooling is normally based off their interests and they actually get to experience things instead of learning out of a textbook. To learn the more academic subjects like math and science, most kids learn from online classes like Khan Academy. Another concern is whether worldschoolers or homeschoolers can still go to university. It’s different at every universities but a lot of universities now have a registration policy for homeschoolers. So yes, worldschoolers/homeschoolers can go to university, normally by doing an SAT or a test.
2. Social Life
Another common question is, how would this way of living affect the social life of my kids? When you travel you meet so many new people no matter what language they speak. Socialization when you’re worldschooled is great because you become friends with lots of different people who are from different cultures and different ages. I think it’s important to get to know different types of people. Worldschooling is becoming more popular so there are groups on facebook that you can join to learn and make connections with other families around the world. Even just playing at the park or beach you can meet lots of people, and who knows, you might make lifelong friends.
3. Financial Life
The biggest misconception that the most people had was; I need to be rich to worldschool. This is not true at all! Depending on where you are it can be more expensive to live in a big city then to be traveling the world. When you’re worldschooled it doesn’t always mean flying to a different destination all the time. You can also drive to your destinations and camp or stay in hostels to keep costs low. When you get to your destination you can stay there for a few months instead of always moving, that is also cheaper then traveling to different places everyday. When families decide to worldschool, parents normally sell their house or rent it, and sell a lot of their belongings before starting their adventure. Another way to save money while traveling is to go places that are free like beaches, forests and going on hikes or self guided tours. Also parents find ways to work online or find jobs where they are traveling.
Lots of people have asked me about worldschooling and I’ve explained it to them many times but they still don’t understand how it’s just, in general, a great alternative to school, and you get to learn stuff you are interested in. I get it though, this amazing way of life isn’t for everyone. But to me, it sounds like Worldschooling is just a fun way of learning and a great new way of life!