Maybe you’ve heard the phrase from another parent or read it somewhere online and you’re curious. So what counts as world schooling, anyway? Is it just a summer trip? Do I have to train for it?
World schooling is when you take your child completely out of the normal school system and go traveling. You take your child on trips around the world and teach lessons through traveling. It’s based around seeing different cultures and meeting a variety of people.
In some ways, it’s a branch of homeschooling because you will be teaching your child yourself using whatever method works best for you.
It is NOT a summer trip. It’s a completely different schooling method. It’s a lifestyle.
Is it Right For Me?
Do you have the ability to travel? This is the most important question to answer to determine whether world schooling is right for you. It will work best for parents who either have enough money saved up to take a year off for traveling, or for parents with remote jobs who can work while traveling.
The other question to ask is how much your child will enjoy it. World schooling will work best if your child is curious about other cultures and eager to learn. They will also need to be able to learn in a less structured environment. Students who require the rigid structure of a school system will not do well trying to learn while constantly traveling.
What Are The Benefits?
Getting to travel, for one! Many parents feel that having a child prevents them from traveling as much as they like because they are stuck in the school system schedule. This isn’t true! Parents can choose the world schooling method and continue traveling the world with their child.
For the student, the benefits are numerous. Instead of being cooped up in a classroom, the student will be exploring the world and engaging in new experiences. This will set their imagination on fire instead of suppressing it and drive the student to want to learn more because they genuinely love the lessons they are learning.
It will give the student hands-on experience instead of merely reading about the world in a textbook. They will become deeply knowledgable about the world they live in. This will also help the child be more empathetic to others since they will have the chance to meet a wide variety of other people.
World schooling can also benefit the child’s future. Having traveled the world will look good on both college applications and job resumes. It’s an experience that not everyone has, so they will stand out when they talk about their experiences.
The best benefit of world schooling is getting to spend quality time with your family. Instead of everyone being away from each other pursuing separate interests, you’ll all be together forming memories that will last a lifetime. Your child is only young once, and world schooling will give you incredible opportunities to spend quality time with them.
What Are The Downsides?
Nothing is all positive, and world schooling is no exception. One major downside is that the child probably will not be able to develop a consistent, in-person friend group. The constant traveling means they will meet many people, but it also means leaving those people they meet behind.
In the age of the internet, this downside can be partially managed by keeping in touch with friends they meet online.
Another downside is that you will be teaching whatever material you want your child to learn to them yourselves. You will need to have a solid knowledge base on what they need to learn to make sure they don’t fall behind their peers. If this isn’t well handled, they might return to the school system only to find themselves needing to repeat a grade.
Finally, as mentioned before, the structure of traditional schooling is beneficial to many children who do not function well with the uncertainty that is inevitably a part of world schooling. You can do your best to put some basic structures in place to alleviate this, but it is still likely to be an issue.
Where Do I Get Started?
If you’re sold on the idea of world schooling, the next thing you need to know is that it will require a lot of planning!
First, you’ll need to decide how long you would like to try world schooling for. It’s a good idea to start by trying it out for a year and seeing how it goes.
Once you’ve made that decision, you’ll need to calculate how much money you need and where this money will come from. You don’t want to get stranded in another country without money for a plane ticket!
You’ll need to look into how to get passports for everyone in your family, and you’ll need to look up travel rules for the countries you want to visit. Some countries require special visas and some have requirements around vaccines you must get before visiting.
Countries all have their own rules for how long you will be allowed to stay there. Make sure you know this information and plan accordingly.
Look on homeschooling website to find out what material you will need to cover while world schooling and what resources are best for learning that material. Decide on how you’d like to teach the material.
Most importantly, connect with other world schoolers! The best way to learn about something is to talk to others who are already doing it. Join world schooling communities online and see what methods they are using for world schooling. They are likely to be full of good advice for how to plan your travel and teach your child the content they need to know.
Conclusion
World schooling is a great option to give your child an exciting experience that will stay with them for the rest of their lives. Your family will get the benefit of traveling extensively as you learn about the world, and you’ll get to be together as you bond over a love of traveling. It will benefit your child intellectually, emotionally, and psychologically. It will require work up front, but that work will pay off in dividends as you see the look on your child’s face when they discover the world for the first time.
