Episode Transcript
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So you know, what we like aboutworldschooling is that it's so flexible
and it really just can be adaptedto every family.
It's like learning style.
This is Worldschooling Q&A.
I'm Astrid,creator of The Wandering Daughter.
As a traveling family,we've spent four years traveling
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full time to over 18countries and six continents.
Wherever we go, we try to learn
as much as we canabout the countries and cultures we visit.
While we didn't coined the term,we like to call this worldschooling.
Using the world as our classroom.
Each week, my husband Clint, and I willanswer one question about worldschooling
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and share our experiencesof traveling the world with our kids.
Ready to get started?
Great.
Let's dive in.
So our question for today.
Is how do I determine if worldschoolingis a right fit for my child?
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That is a very good question.
I'm going to what do you think would be?
How would you answer that question?
I think there is several thingsto consider.
I think the first to considerwould be, the age of your kids.
Actually,one thing that we get asked a lot,
since we started worldschoolingand actually a lot of the parents
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who work at schoolbefore they get asked a lot,
my kid is, for example,
my kids are four years old,four and six, for example.
Can I go?
Worldschooling is it irresponsible? Is it?
Does it make sense?
They want to even remember this. Yeah.
What we found in all the familiesthat we've met,
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we start actually traveling when our kidstechnically were four and seven.
Yeah. We went. We? For those of you that,
are new
to, the wandering daughter and our family,we traveled around the world
for four years from 2018 to 2021.
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And. 2022. Yeah. Full time. Right.
Yeah. Yeah.
And so we started pretty young, and.
Yes. Where our son doesn'tremember some of the early stuff.
From this travels.
There's other things that they pick up.
Adaptability, social interactions.
That's somethingmaybe we can cover in a future episode.
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But, there's things that they pick up fromjust the travel itself
that is the sticks with them,even if they're not fully conscious
of those memories.
Now, obviously, there's,
like, budget stuff to considerif you are bringing kids that young.
There's accommodations.
We were out of the
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we were out of any sort of like, infant
type of dependent type of thingsthat we would have to bring with us.
Yeah.
But there were considerationswe had to do, like car seats, for example.
That kind of stuff.
So I think. Yeah. Yeah. That was,that was something.
There are some more logisticswhen they're younger especially like
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one thing too is likethe parents will be carrying the bags.
Right, right.
So just keep that in mindthat, that that is something.
But I think considering age,
obviously the older they are and it's not
that it gets completely easierwhen they're older.
Because when they're older,then there's other things that are
can become challenges or logistics,
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like social interactionis a lot more important.
Spending time,you know, if it's been friends or family
or just having downtime or.
Yeah, being more tired
or wanting to do more physical activitiesor that kind of stuff.
So there's, there's considerationsacross the board.
Having said that, though,I don't think age is really a factor.
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I think I think youI think you consider the age.
Think about how to adapt your plan to it.
Absent.
Yeah. Yeah.
But age shouldn't be a limiting factor.Yeah.
It shouldn't deter you from old schooling.
I think the other thing
so not just
age but like how does your child learn.
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You know, what's the best waythat you or your child or you.
Like what are the types of things that youhow do you learn best.
Like do you like to read.
Like do you retain informationfrom reading
or is it more like tactile hands on stuff?
I think also just the types of activitiesthat you like to do as a family.
(04:40):
So, you know, what we like aboutworldschooling is that it's so flexible
and it really just can be adaptedto every family's, like learning style.
Our our family, I think we learn best
through like,workshops and, activities and,
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we like to do a lot of, like,cultural tours and stuff.
And I always notice that the kidsask questions when we're doing that.
Like, we'll do,
a couple of years ago we went
to Mexico and we did like, a chocolatemaking, workshop.
And the kids were, like,
really engaged with making, you know,asking, like, where does this come from?
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Or like, what do we need to do?
When we were in Indonesia,
we did like a tours of, like, Volunteers
Village and learned about, like,
how the rice is, like, plantedand we learned about,
like, the, the way that they make,
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the what do you call it that offerings.
And so. Yes.
So, you know, for our family,we are very much like we don't
we will read books
ahead of time or we'll watch videos,but we learn the best when we're, like,
actually doing things and,and seeing it with like, all our senses,
experiencing it with all our sensesand not just with our, brain.
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What else?What else would you add? I think,
I think
it's really important probably to include,
thinking about the physicaland emotional considerations.
Right.
And this can be as light as just,you know,
on the physical side,
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you can do a lot of walking.
We did a lot of walking. You did?
If that is going to be something,
I mean, that's going to be a considerationregardless, right?
Yeah.
Just make sure you workthat into your planning.
Right.
Like taking breaks. That kind of stuff.
But there also may be physical limitationsthat some families have.
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We are definitely privileged and luckythat we didn't have any
physical limitations. Yeah.
But we definitely metlots of families that that do.
And they have to figure outthose logistics as well.
Emotional considerationsas well too. It is
it is a little jarring.
It can be a little jarring,to take the kids out of context.
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I mean, that's it.
You can't ignore that fact.
And you have to be really conscious
about the emotional toll that it can take.
Both the highs and the lows. Right.
And if there are otheremotional considerations that your family
needs to that already dealwith on a day to day basis.
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Make sure that youthat you think about that.
Having said that, we've met, many families
who successfully travel with all sortsof emotional considerations.
And they yes,
it can be stressful,but it also is really rewarding.
And oftentimes because of either
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the lack of supportor just the frustration that they have
here at quote unquote, home.
Yeah.
Traveling is actually a lot of timesa better experience for them.
And the world is goingis a better experience for them.
So, but still something that you needto keep in mind.
Yeah.
And that coverssome of the, like emotional, you know.
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We're not going to sugarcoat it.
Like, if you're traveling full time, like,
you know, world's goingdoesn't have to be full time travel.
But if you are doing fulltime travel, there's a lot of
hard things about it.
You know it.
It can be lonely.
You can go through periodswhere it's just us, it's just the family.
And we're not really,engaging with, other people or
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or the interactions with other peopleare kind of shallow because we are like,
you know, by nature, kind of transientunless you're spending a lot of time
in, in one space.
So, like I do coversome of that in my, on my website,
on The Wandering Daughter and like,
just about how to deal with some of,
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like, the, emotional parts of,and how to help your children
deal with some of the emotional challengesof schooling.
Yeah.But kind of turning it on a positive.
No, I think whatClint was just saying is that
there are so many different
types of families that were old school,and that was one of the greatest things
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that we loved was just seeing, like,how diverse,
like the worldschooling community is.
You know, you have like solo moms,you have large families,
you have small families, you have familieswith like kids that range from,
you know, babies to teens. And,
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and just like families of color,
I think that makes it
it's helpful then to realize, like,
oh, you know,it can fit for your family, too.
You just have to adjust,
and be flexible and adapt.
Yeah.
And all sorts of all sortsof configurations where we met
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LGBTQ families, we met families that have,
children that have autism.
We've met families with,
other emotional
needs, ADHD, we've met families
from all different kinds of faiths,actually,
we'veI mean, literally every configuration
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you can possibly think of, it's easyto kind of see or read some of these books
or see some of the Facebook groups and geta perception of what the world is going.
Community is like, yeah,
but for everyone posting on a Facebookgroup, for example, there's,
you know, 30 other families that are rolescoring that you don't hear from as much.
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So, yeah.
Anything else?
No, I think that's it.
Well, that's all for today.
Thank you for joining uson this episode of Worldschooling.
Q&A with Astrid and Clint.
Be sure to check out the show notesfor any links we mentioned in the episode,
and visit my website,
TheWanderingDaughter.com, to dive deeperinto worldschooling and family travel.
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Until next time, happy travels. Bye.