How to Make the World a Classroom

Most people have heard of homeschooling, it has, after all, been around for decades! As access to computers have made curriculum options available for busy parents, more families have joined the homeschooling community, causing an explosion in popularity over the last few years.

Today, there are tons of subsets in the homeschooling market. From very rigid schedules that use textbooks and look a lot like traditional schooling that’s simply done at home, to the completely child-led, no curriculum concept of unschooling, there’s a method for every family!

What is Worldschooling?

Have you ever heard the term “worldschooling” and wondered what it was all about? Worldschooling isn’t really a style of homeschooling because it’s about geography rather than content and methodology. It is an educational philosophy that a student can receive no greater education than by experiencing and interacting with the world around them.

You can homeschool without worldschooling but it’s difficult (though not impossible) to worldschool without homeschooling. We found ourselves diving into this concept shortly after we began homeschooling our two youngest daughters and then set off to explore France for 3 months. We fell in love with the concept and how well our girls adapted.

Parents who worldschool their children believe that the world is a classroom and the more you immerse yourself in new places, cultures, and experiences, the more you will learn and grow. This involves children learning traditional subjects, often through an online program, and using the world around them to enhance and reinforce that education. It can, and likely will, change the way you approach everything in life.

Here are some of the reasons a family might want to consider worldschooling:

• They have a passion for traveling and for sharing those travels as a family because they believe that shared experiences bond a family and provide memories for a lifetime.

• They desire the flexibility to explore their child’s passions and specific talents in ways not provided by the school system or allowed by its rigid schedule.

• They see their child’s unique learning style as an asset rather than something to “overcome.” They also understand that their child’s slower (or faster) pace is more a measure of their current capacity to take in specific information, not an indicator of their learning ability.

• They wish for their entire family to have the opportunity to immerse themselves in other cultures, languages, and customs to acquire a more accurate world view.

• They have a preference for providing an education that emphasizes experiential learning that will bolster their child’s knowledge.

When every day is an opportunity to learn through your interactions and experiences you’ll approach life differently; you’ll explore more passionately and retain what you learn by reinforcing it with real-life experience. When there is no limit to when and where you can learn, you’ll find yourself learning on weekends and holidays, while traveling the world, or just taking a walk. The world becomes so much bigger and brighter and more exciting! You learn without even realizing it because you’re immersed in a lifestyle of learning.

Worldschooling can be as simple as just traveling to different countries and immersing your family for days or weeks at a time while simultaneously completing a curriculum. It could also mean spending several months in a location and enrolling your child in a local school to help them make friends, learn the language, and “live like a local” before moving to the next destination to repeat the process. Worldschooling can be done full-time or it can be a way to enhance your homeschooling experience by taking occasional overseas journeys to gain immersive knowledge.

Do We Homeschool or Worldschool?

The answer to whether we homeschool or worldschool is that we actually do both! In our last post on How to Get Started Homeschooling, we provided examples of the different types of homeschooling methods. We fit mostly into the Relaxed/Eclectic homeschooling category, mixing in a bit of the Multiple Intelligences and Unit Study homeschooling styles. We rely on a combination of online curriculum and real-world experience to educate our girls. When we travel, we incorporate the opportunities provided in our location to reinforce learning or introduce new material through experiences.

In our case, the schooling journey happened in phases. We had been considering taking a family gap year to travel the U.S. in an RV. We had even set the date to leave on our adventure. In March of 2020, just a few months before our scheduled departure, the world as we knew it changed. We, along with the rest of the world, learned new terminology like “lockdown,” “flatten the curve,” and “quarantine” as leaders and governments tried to determine how to deal with a global pandemic.

Along with most parents, we began working remotely and watched as our daughters’ schools closed in favor of “virtual learning.” For us, this was an opportunity. We watched our girls over that next year. We found that they thrived in an online format but that they were often frustrated by the pace of instruction, the distraction of the other students, and the schedule for live classes.

We decided that we wouldn’t be sending them back to a school building and that we needed to take more responsibility for their education if we wanted them to be successful long-term. We began homeschooling in August of 2021 and less than a month later, we took it on the road for a 3 month trip to France!

The difference between homeschooling and worldschooling is mostly just location and the opportunities that traveling allows us to incorporate into their learning experience. Now, learning is not confined to specific subjects, a classroom setting, or a particular schedule. We all learn by experiencing the people, places, and things around us.

How Do We Worldschool?

One of the main reasons we chose to homeschool was to enable us to travel without the limitations of a school calendar. When we travel, we take as few items as possible. Our goal is to avoid having to check luggage when flying. As a result, each person has a carry-on suitcase and a backpack. That’s it!!

We knew that taking our homeschooling on the road would mean that we couldn’t be carrying books and other equipment. We’d have to find an online curriculum that met all of our needs. After researching several programs, we decided on Power Homeschool through Acellus. We liked that it gave us the ability to choose the courses and add or delete them throughout the year. It also had the flexibility we needed, allowing our girls to learn from anywhere and on any schedule. That said, families need to find the curriculum and learning style that works for them. You are only limited by your own thoughts and perceptions!

We enrolled each of the girls in their core classes like Math, Science, History, Social Studies, and Language Arts. We then chose some elective courses. Sophie took a robotics coding course through Acellus and Rachel took a free Art History course offered through Khan Academy. We also set them up on Duolingo so they could begin learning French about a month before we would travel to France.

This combination has worked well for us and it gives us the flexibility to travel without hauling a truckload of books with us. They carry a pencil, a notebook, a laptop, headphones, and an 8x10 whiteboard with dry erase markers. It all fits into their backpack, along with other travel necessities, and they can be set up for a school day in less than 5 minutes anywhere!

The rest of their schooling is experiential. In addition to Duolingo, our girls learned French by playing with local kids on the playground in Nice and Avignon and by interacting with wait staff in restaurants. Geography lessons consisted of looking at the map of France and studying the various regions. Physical education was as easy as taking a walk to get groceries and as fun as a trip to a local zipline park in Bayeux where they learned how to properly use their gear to traverse the obstacles.

We toured several places in France that really helped our girls understand the events of World Wars I and II. From the beaches of Normandy, to damaged statues in Caen, and even an immersive attraction at an amusement park, they were flooded with information while being in places where actual events took place!

It was so impactful that Sophie wanted to know more. Seeking to build on her knowledge, she found the book I Survived the Nazi Invasion (part of a whole series of historical fiction books written for tweens). This led her to read a number of books in the series. I can’t imagine a better history lesson taking place in a classroom with a textbook! It’s amazing how exposing your kids to one learning opportunity can trigger a passion for knowing more.

How to Get Started with Worldschooling

If this option appeals to you, there are some simple steps you can take to prepare. It helps to have some experience homeschooling before you get started but it’s not essential. Here are some of the things you’ll want to consider or do before joining the worldschooling community:

• Determine how much time you want to spend worldschooling – Traveling full-time vs part-time demands different levels of planning and financial commitment. If you’re also working remotely or if you’re moving from place to place often, teaching full-time might be too much. Our online platform takes much of the daily burden off of our shoulders. When we travel, we like to stay in one place for a few weeks. It allows us to integrate into our environment but also allows us to have both school/work days and sightseeing days.

• Know the laws – U.S. citizens are subject to their home state’s laws, even when traveling abroad. If you will be in any one country, outside of the U.S. for more than 6 months, you will likely become subject to that country’s laws. In some countries around the world, homeschooling is not legal (Germany, Greece, and Sweden are examples).    

• Determine your budget for your journey – If you already work remotely and are not limited to your home town or country then you’re already in a great position to consider working while worldschooling. Otherwise, you’ll need to consider how to finance your travels. You’ll need to plan ahead to make sure you have enough saved to cover your expenses while you’re on your adventure. In addition, when you worldschool, you have to get out of the “vacation” mindset. You may be in a wonderful location but there’s still work to be done. Travel has to become a way of life rather than a special occasion. (Otherwise, things will not get done and the cost of activities and accommodations will add up fast!)

• Choose your curriculum – When we first considered homeschooling, we couldn’t imagine traveling while schooling. Visions of trying to carry mountains of books and supplies came to mind. We solved this by choosing an online curriculum that could be accessed from anywhere at any time of day and on any day of the week. A white board and dry erase markers are the only things that our girls add to their luggage that they wouldn’t have brought on any other trip.

• Use each location to enhance learning – Research your locations to take full advantage of learning opportunities that can enhance your child’s education. Be sure to include things that build on your children’s passions and look for creative ways to make even fun amusement park days into a learning experience. After visiting Claude Monet’s House and Gardens, our girls wrote short essays about the artist and Impressionism.

• Find support! – Since you’re not based in just one location, You’ll want to think more globally about your support community. There are lots of groups on social media that are dedicated to  worldschooling. A few of the Facebook groups that I belong to include Worldschoolers (which has over 65K members), Worldschooling families with tweens/teens, and Worldschooling Central - A Family Travel Community - Education with Travel. These are great places to get questions answered, find resources, or share experiences. There are even families that use social media to find out if other families are in the same town so they can connect in-person while traveling!

• Hit the road and enjoy the journey! – There are so many amazing benefits of making travel a way of life for your family. Even the challenging moments provide opportunities for problem solving. Your children will learn by doing, and the life skills they gain are priceless!

What’s Next for Us?

With three full years of homeschooling (and a bit of worldschooling) now under our belt, we don’t anticipate going back to a traditional school environment in the foreseeable future. Since leaving, we’ve seen so many amazing benefits! (You can read about some of the most notable in our 10 Benefits We’ve Gained from Homeschooling post.) Above all, we’ve created more freedom for our family to travel and spend more quality time together in the years that we have them under our roof (wherever that might be). Those opportunities are priceless!

We have more world travel on our schedule with plans to go back to Europe, venture to Asia for the first time, and explore more here in the United States. Ultimately, we’d love to travel to all 7 continents but we’re taking it one trip at a time. Our current online format is the best way to facilitate those travel goals.

We don’t know what the future holds. We just know that we are enjoying the freedom to travel and experience this phase of life together. Yes, there will be challenges and obstacles, but we know that “Everything Always Works Out!”

Have you considered homeschooling or even worldschooling? What keeps you from taking that step? Share your thoughts and questions in the comments below. Homeschooling and worldschooling might be easier than you think!