Why We Don’t World School Our Kids

Worldschooling is a wonderful experience for your kids but it just isn’t for us.  Here’s why.

I have a confession to make…. We are a “traveling family” but none of our girls do homeschooling, roadschooling, worldschooling, [insert travel related word here] schooling. They go to a regular-schmegular public school.

And – here’s the kicker – we prefer it that way!

We love following full time traveling families [seriously they’re the coolest] but for us, worldschooling doesn’t fit our family model.

So why don’t we want to do worldschooling our kids?

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1. Our blended family just isn’t setup for it.

We have one daughter that is here full time, one that is here half the time, and another that is here a fourth of the time.  Our life as a family is a complicated tangle of visitation schedules, school calendars, and shared holidays that we lovingly manage so that the entire family can benefit.  Traveling full time and worldschooling would just put an unwanted hitch in our get up.

 

2. We are fans of traditional schooling.

We might get boo’d and hissed at for this one but we like traditional schooling.  The kids enjoy having structure to their days, socializing with their friends, and learning from their teachers.  We enjoy the structure as well but we also appreciate not doing double duty as their parents and their teachers.  It sounds cliche but we are both products of public schooling and we are doing okay.  We are confident the same will be true for our girls.

 

3. We like having a “home” for our girls and for ourselves.

Traveling is a blast but by the end of our journey we are longing to be at home in our own house in our own bed with our own familiar things.  In fact, apart from our travels, we spend most of our free time at home or close to it.  No telling where the future might lead us but for now we don’t want to give up our home base.

 

4. We both love our jobs and what we do.

I’m sure each our managers would be surprised to hear this but we both love our jobs :)  It is meaningful and worthwhile for us.  Both of us have the flexibility of occasionally working from home but our jobs to do not allow us to work remotely full time — and we’re okay with that.  At this point of our lives anyway.

 

Will one [or any] of these reasons change in the future?  Maybe!  But for now the lesson in the madness is that travel doesn’t have to be a big grand journey to be worthwhile.  “Regular” travel as “regular” people is okay!  Don’t believe the Internet hype!

We will continue to unashamedly find what works for our us, our family, and our budget and we encourage you to do the same!