September 27, 2025 • 13 mins
Show Notes: Worldschooling Q&A – Episode 3
Episode Title: Episode 3: What are the key skills my child will develop through worldschooling?
Hosts: Astrid & Clint, creators of The Wandering Daughter
Episode Summary:
In this episode of Worldschooling Q&A, Astrid and Clint explore a powerful question: What are the key skills my child will develop through worldschooling?
Drawing from their four years of full-time travel, they highlight the real-world benefits of using the globe as a classroom—from academic growth in geography, language, and math to life skills like adaptability, empathy, and confidence. With personal stories and practical insights, this episode is a great listen for any parent wondering how travel can truly shape a child’s education.
🎧 Ready to dive in?
👉 For full show notes, links to resources, and a breakdown of topics covered, visit:
https://thewanderingdaughter.com/episode-3-learn-from-worldschooling/
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:00):
I think it helps to build that confidenceand kind of related
to the adaptability and flexibilityto, you know,
knowing that, okay,this is an uncertain situation.
But, you know,I have I'm able to be flexible
and I'm able to adapt to new situations.
(00:20):
This is world. School and Q&A.
I'm Astrid,creator of The Wandering Daughter.
As a traveling family,we spent four years traveling
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 world's schooling.
(00:41):
Using the world as our classroom.
Each week, my husband, Clint, and I willanswer one question about worldschooling
and share our experiencesof traveling the world with our kids.
Ready to get started?
Great. Let's dive in.
(01:04):
So today'squestion is what are the key skills
my child will developthrough worldschooling? Wow.
It's a loaded question.
As to what we think.
Yeah, exactly.
What what would be if,maybe the first couple.
Well, like,you know, some of the basic stuff
or obvious things are just,
(01:27):
learning about different cultures.
So understanding historyor not even history,
but just like being able to,see what things are like
in other places in the worldbesides your own.
And then also like geography, right.
Like we're going to another country.
Where is it on the map?I just point to it.
(01:49):
And that's a good.
That's a good one. Yeah.
What would you add to that?
Yeah.
Just to expand on that,I think, geography,
in the aspect ofjust knowing where some place is.
Yeah.
There's a funny joke on the movie Crazy
Rich Asians where,she doesn't know where Singapore is.
And, you know,that kind of stuff is is cool.
(02:10):
Like, you actually, know, we would travelwith a map, a big world map.
And we we'd make surethat we kind of pointed out
where we were in the mapor where we're going or where we've been.
Yeah.
So that's a fun way.
I think also culturally, yeah.
Just seeing how other people live.
I mean, I think going grocery stores,
(02:31):
seeing what's on the store shelves,that kind of stuff,
those are all key skills and,
and things that we really valuedas a family.
Asset.
What would you saybeyond kind of those cultural
or those just family values skills?
Like are there curriculum skillsthat you can learn, or are there
(02:52):
other things that might adaptto kind of what
I think the non worldschooling familiesright now would.
Sushi is like skills. Yeah. So like
you knowone is like language learning right.
Where especially if you're goingto another country that doesn't speak
the languagethat you're, that you speak, as a family,
(03:14):
you that's a good skill to, to gain,
is like learning a few phrasesfrom that country or in that language.
Just to be, like, respectful and stuff.
I think another one would be kind of goingwith,
well, I guess like math, right?
If you're going to a foreign country,you're going to be,
(03:37):
using a foreign currency or a differentcurrency than your own and sort of switch
making that like exchange of like, well,in the US, it's, you know, $5.
What does that make it inthe other country or vice versa, like,
it's €10.
How do we figure out how much that costfor us in like U.S.
(03:57):
dollars?
Trying to think of other stuff like
physical fitness.
Right? Yeah.
You're walking a lot.
You're doing or or you're doing,like, activities.
We like to do bike riding,when we're in other countries.
So that's a good one.
(04:18):
Good skill that they'll learn.
In fact,our kids learned how to swim, and,
and I think,
solidified their bike riding skillswhile we were traveling.
Yeah, the swimming was a huge one.
Yeah, they were not really.
They were just kind of beginning swimmingwhen we started traveling.
And they really solidified it,and became strong swimmers, actually.
(04:41):
Yeah. That was we were traveling.
I think for me, there's also like a couplethat are really important.
Resilience or adaptability.
Yeah.
That one's more subtle.
And you won't,you don't even I mean honestly
you almost don't even
have to actively or intentionally,
(05:01):
you know,put that at the front of your brain.
Because just the adaptabilityof going to different places
and learning the context and adjusting,
and the, the resiliencethat kind of that builds and fosters
and we see that reflected now, now thatwe're not traveling as much right now.
Yeah.
Because our kids are older in school.
(05:23):
We we see that resilience, echoedthroughout their lives.
Now, whether it's meeting new peopleor when activities
come up or events come upor things like that,
they adjust very, very quicklyor they find
they know themselves
deeplyto also know where to set boundaries.
(05:44):
And I think that's the other one thatI was going to say is like reflection,
like self-reflection,the ability to set boundaries.
Yeah.
The ability to say yes or noor to advocate for self-care or downtime,
that became really critical,I think, while we were traveling to is,
knowing when you've kind of peakedand you're tired
(06:05):
and you just need a break and being ableto communicate that effectively, to kids.
Yeah. Yeah. I mentioned a lot of this.
I have an article on my website, actually,
covering,like the educational benefits of travel.
And I mentioned a lot of that in there.
And something that I'd want to add is like
(06:25):
traveling.
I think one of the big skillsthat it gives
kids and grown ups is like criticalthinking skills.
Kind of related to, to reflection.
Yeah.
But but thinking about like where you are
and your role in the world, like where youare in the world and what role you play
(06:45):
and what impact that you makeas, a citizen of the world, you know,
if you are
actively engagedin like your worldschooling experience
and taking your travelsas more than just like
entertainment or like a break
from from reality, like if you're
(07:09):
looking at the exhibitor like taking in the experiences
that you're you're havingand thinking about like,
how does that compare to thingsthat I've experienced in the past,
or how doeshow does the way that this culture operate
compared to my home culture,then those are things.
(07:29):
That's a big skill that I think,
you can gain from worldschoolingand that you just can teach your kids
that will help them to be like, more,
I don't know, engaged adults.
I think to extend off of thatto one thing I would say is
like empathy and compassion.
Yeah.
I mean, so engaging with the world andand critical thinking, seeing how
(07:53):
how other people live, also
builds incredible depth and empathy.
I think compassion and seeing,
not only just like
seeing how other people live,but actually like experiencing themselves
or understandingthat cultures can be vastly different
(08:15):
and can be very similarin a lot of ways too.
One thing we like to doa lot is go to parks,
for example, or grocery stores,and those kinds of things
both allow the kids and us to see
how parenting is the same across cultures.
And it's also vastly different,in some cases.
(08:38):
So, yeah, I think those are great.
What else? Is there anything else?
You might have mentioned thisthat, earlier, but
I think confidence is another big thing.
You know, travel.
Travel in general forces us
sometimes to step outside of ourof our comfort zones.
(08:58):
And I think that the the act of like,
you know, trying something that you are
you've never done before oryou're not sure what the outcome will be,
and then it becomesthis like positive outcome.
I think it helps to build that confidenceand kind of related
to the adaptability and flexibilityto, you know,
(09:21):
knowing that, okay,this is an uncertain situation, but,
you know, I have I'm able to be flexibleand I'm able to adapt to new situations.
I think that helps to build confidencein your kids that they can
Respond to things,
in a,
(09:43):
you know, positive way or.
Yeah, there's a couplethere's a couple of things,
like with the confidencethat we've noticed.
One just landing in a new place.
And not it can be very overwhelmingwhen you first land the place.
But the confidence of, like,we've done this before.
We know how to get transportation.
We know how to get to our place.
We know we're going to settle down
(10:04):
and find a grocery storeand just kind of settle in for a minute.
That confidence is we've seenthat echoed to our kids as well.
Even when we comenow that we're back in the States,
you know,for a longer period of time. Yeah.
And then the other thing, is language.
I mean, when we first started traveling,even though we had the kids kind
(10:26):
of learning some Spanish, for example,neither one of them really wanted to
to try it out at a restaurant,not even to say simple things.
Like, thank you.
But now they go into a restaurant,
and it doesn't even matterif it's like a Spanish
speaking restaurant,like if we're Mexico or something. It's.
We were in Japan recently,and both of them learned enough phrases
(10:49):
to say, you know, things like,thank you or this was delicious or.
Yeah, I mean, there was like,there's just a sense of pride
and learning being ableto learn a few phrases and say it.
Yeah.
So that that was that's really cool. Yeah.
I can also that same trip,we were also in Indonesia
and our daughter had been like practicingin Indonesian a lot.
And she I do remember, a moment when,she came to me and she's like,
(11:14):
I was at the storeand they spoke to me like I was Indonesian
and I could understandwhat they were saying.
Like, she was very excited.
You could tell.
Like, that's the type of stuff that I,
I love seeing, from our travels.
It's like this, like, yeah,I did this thing and I'm like,
yeah, the confidence.
(11:34):
Yeah.
I mean, also like,you guys taking dance classes
while we were travelingand just the confidence to walk into mean
classic that can be intimidatingeven even at your in your home.
Right. Yeah.
The ability to walk into,say a dance class
in say, you know,
Tokyo, for example.
(11:55):
And be confident. Right.
I think, says a lot.
So is there anything else?
No, I think that's it.
Okay. Yeah.
Well, that's all for today.
Thank you for joining us
on this episode of Worldschooland 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,
(12:16):
TheWanderingDaughter.com, to dive deeperinto worldschooling and family travel.
If you like what you hear,
please consider supporting The WanderingDaughter on Patreon.
It really helps us outand keeps the show going.
You'll also get exclusiveperks like episode transcripts,
additional resources, accessto office hours with us, and more.
You can find us on Spotifyor the podcast app of your choice.
(12:37):
If you're listening to this on Spotify,you can tap the bell icon to get notified
when new episodes come out.
And if you like this episode,please give us a five star review.
It really helps new people find our show.
If you're watching this on YouTube, don'tforget to like
and subscribe and tap the bellicon to get notified of new episodes.
You can follow me on Instagram
at Wander Daughter or follow The WanderingDaughter on Facebook.
(13:01):
Links to these are also in the show notes.
If you have any worldschooling questionsyou'd like us to answer for future
episodes, feel free to throw themin the comments or send us a message
at The Wandering daughter.com/podcast.
Until next time, happy travels. Bye.
I think it helps to build that confidenceand kind of related
to the adaptability and flexibilityto, you know,
knowing that, okay,this is an uncertain situation.
But, you know,I have I'm able to be flexible
and I'm able to adapt to new situations.
(00:20):
This is world. School and Q&A.
I'm Astrid,creator of The Wandering Daughter.
As a traveling family,we spent four years traveling
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 world's schooling.
(00:41):
Using the world as our classroom.
Each week, my husband, Clint, and I willanswer one question about worldschooling
and share our experiencesof traveling the world with our kids.
Ready to get started?
Great. Let's dive in.
(01:04):
So today'squestion is what are the key skills
my child will developthrough worldschooling? Wow.
It's a loaded question.
As to what we think.
Yeah, exactly.
What what would be if,maybe the first couple.
Well, like,you know, some of the basic stuff
or obvious things are just,
(01:27):
learning about different cultures.
So understanding historyor not even history,
but just like being able to,see what things are like
in other places in the worldbesides your own.
And then also like geography, right.
Like we're going to another country.
Where is it on the map?I just point to it.
(01:49):
And that's a good.
That's a good one. Yeah.
What would you add to that?
Yeah.
Just to expand on that,I think, geography,
in the aspect ofjust knowing where some place is.
Yeah.
There's a funny joke on the movie Crazy
Rich Asians where,she doesn't know where Singapore is.
And, you know,that kind of stuff is is cool.
(02:10):
Like, you actually, know, we would travelwith a map, a big world map.
And we we'd make surethat we kind of pointed out
where we were in the mapor where we're going or where we've been.
Yeah.
So that's a fun way.
I think also culturally, yeah.
Just seeing how other people live.
I mean, I think going grocery stores,
(02:31):
seeing what's on the store shelves,that kind of stuff,
those are all key skills and,
and things that we really valuedas a family.
Asset.
What would you saybeyond kind of those cultural
or those just family values skills?
Like are there curriculum skillsthat you can learn, or are there
(02:52):
other things that might adaptto kind of what
I think the non worldschooling familiesright now would.
Sushi is like skills. Yeah. So like
you knowone is like language learning right.
Where especially if you're goingto another country that doesn't speak
the languagethat you're, that you speak, as a family,
(03:14):
you that's a good skill to, to gain,
is like learning a few phrasesfrom that country or in that language.
Just to be, like, respectful and stuff.
I think another one would be kind of goingwith,
well, I guess like math, right?
If you're going to a foreign country,you're going to be,
(03:37):
using a foreign currency or a differentcurrency than your own and sort of switch
making that like exchange of like, well,in the US, it's, you know, $5.
What does that make it inthe other country or vice versa, like,
it's €10.
How do we figure out how much that costfor us in like U.S.
(03:57):
dollars?
Trying to think of other stuff like
physical fitness.
Right? Yeah.
You're walking a lot.
You're doing or or you're doing,like, activities.
We like to do bike riding,when we're in other countries.
So that's a good one.
(04:18):
Good skill that they'll learn.
In fact,our kids learned how to swim, and,
and I think,
solidified their bike riding skillswhile we were traveling.
Yeah, the swimming was a huge one.
Yeah, they were not really.
They were just kind of beginning swimmingwhen we started traveling.
And they really solidified it,and became strong swimmers, actually.
(04:41):
Yeah. That was we were traveling.
I think for me, there's also like a couplethat are really important.
Resilience or adaptability.
Yeah.
That one's more subtle.
And you won't,you don't even I mean honestly
you almost don't even
have to actively or intentionally,
(05:01):
you know,put that at the front of your brain.
Because just the adaptabilityof going to different places
and learning the context and adjusting,
and the, the resiliencethat kind of that builds and fosters
and we see that reflected now, now thatwe're not traveling as much right now.
Yeah.
Because our kids are older in school.
(05:23):
We we see that resilience, echoedthroughout their lives.
Now, whether it's meeting new peopleor when activities
come up or events come upor things like that,
they adjust very, very quicklyor they find
they know themselves
deeplyto also know where to set boundaries.
(05:44):
And I think that's the other one thatI was going to say is like reflection,
like self-reflection,the ability to set boundaries.
Yeah.
The ability to say yes or noor to advocate for self-care or downtime,
that became really critical,I think, while we were traveling to is,
knowing when you've kind of peakedand you're tired
(06:05):
and you just need a break and being ableto communicate that effectively, to kids.
Yeah. Yeah. I mentioned a lot of this.
I have an article on my website, actually,
covering,like the educational benefits of travel.
And I mentioned a lot of that in there.
And something that I'd want to add is like
(06:25):
traveling.
I think one of the big skillsthat it gives
kids and grown ups is like criticalthinking skills.
Kind of related to, to reflection.
Yeah.
But but thinking about like where you are
and your role in the world, like where youare in the world and what role you play
(06:45):
and what impact that you makeas, a citizen of the world, you know,
if you are
actively engagedin like your worldschooling experience
and taking your travelsas more than just like
entertainment or like a break
from from reality, like if you're
(07:09):
looking at the exhibitor like taking in the experiences
that you're you're havingand thinking about like,
how does that compare to thingsthat I've experienced in the past,
or how doeshow does the way that this culture operate
compared to my home culture,then those are things.
(07:29):
That's a big skill that I think,
you can gain from worldschoolingand that you just can teach your kids
that will help them to be like, more,
I don't know, engaged adults.
I think to extend off of thatto one thing I would say is
like empathy and compassion.
Yeah.
I mean, so engaging with the world andand critical thinking, seeing how
(07:53):
how other people live, also
builds incredible depth and empathy.
I think compassion and seeing,
not only just like
seeing how other people live,but actually like experiencing themselves
or understandingthat cultures can be vastly different
(08:15):
and can be very similarin a lot of ways too.
One thing we like to doa lot is go to parks,
for example, or grocery stores,and those kinds of things
both allow the kids and us to see
how parenting is the same across cultures.
And it's also vastly different,in some cases.
(08:38):
So, yeah, I think those are great.
What else? Is there anything else?
You might have mentioned thisthat, earlier, but
I think confidence is another big thing.
You know, travel.
Travel in general forces us
sometimes to step outside of ourof our comfort zones.
(08:58):
And I think that the the act of like,
you know, trying something that you are
you've never done before oryou're not sure what the outcome will be,
and then it becomesthis like positive outcome.
I think it helps to build that confidenceand kind of related
to the adaptability and flexibilityto, you know,
(09:21):
knowing that, okay,this is an uncertain situation, but,
you know, I have I'm able to be flexibleand I'm able to adapt to new situations.
I think that helps to build confidencein your kids that they can
Respond to things,
in a,
(09:43):
you know, positive way or.
Yeah, there's a couplethere's a couple of things,
like with the confidencethat we've noticed.
One just landing in a new place.
And not it can be very overwhelmingwhen you first land the place.
But the confidence of, like,we've done this before.
We know how to get transportation.
We know how to get to our place.
We know we're going to settle down
(10:04):
and find a grocery storeand just kind of settle in for a minute.
That confidence is we've seenthat echoed to our kids as well.
Even when we comenow that we're back in the States,
you know,for a longer period of time. Yeah.
And then the other thing, is language.
I mean, when we first started traveling,even though we had the kids kind
(10:26):
of learning some Spanish, for example,neither one of them really wanted to
to try it out at a restaurant,not even to say simple things.
Like, thank you.
But now they go into a restaurant,
and it doesn't even matterif it's like a Spanish
speaking restaurant,like if we're Mexico or something. It's.
We were in Japan recently,and both of them learned enough phrases
(10:49):
to say, you know, things like,thank you or this was delicious or.
Yeah, I mean, there was like,there's just a sense of pride
and learning being ableto learn a few phrases and say it.
Yeah.
So that that was that's really cool. Yeah.
I can also that same trip,we were also in Indonesia
and our daughter had been like practicingin Indonesian a lot.
And she I do remember, a moment when,she came to me and she's like,
(11:14):
I was at the storeand they spoke to me like I was Indonesian
and I could understandwhat they were saying.
Like, she was very excited.
You could tell.
Like, that's the type of stuff that I,
I love seeing, from our travels.
It's like this, like, yeah,I did this thing and I'm like,
yeah, the confidence.
(11:34):
Yeah.
I mean, also like,you guys taking dance classes
while we were travelingand just the confidence to walk into mean
classic that can be intimidatingeven even at your in your home.
Right. Yeah.
The ability to walk into,say a dance class
in say, you know,
Tokyo, for example.
(11:55):
And be confident. Right.
I think, says a lot.
So is there anything else?
No, I think that's it.
Okay. Yeah.
Well, that's all for today.
Thank you for joining us
on this episode of Worldschooland 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,
(12:16):
TheWanderingDaughter.com, to dive deeperinto worldschooling and family travel.
If you like what you hear,
please consider supporting The WanderingDaughter on Patreon.
It really helps us outand keeps the show going.
You'll also get exclusiveperks like episode transcripts,
additional resources, accessto office hours with us, and more.
You can find us on Spotifyor the podcast app of your choice.
(12:37):
If you're listening to this on Spotify,you can tap the bell icon to get notified
when new episodes come out.
And if you like this episode,please give us a five star review.
It really helps new people find our show.
If you're watching this on YouTube, don'tforget to like
and subscribe and tap the bellicon to get notified of new episodes.
You can follow me on Instagram
at Wander Daughter or follow The WanderingDaughter on Facebook.
(13:01):
Links to these are also in the show notes.
If you have any worldschooling questionsyou'd like us to answer for future
episodes, feel free to throw themin the comments or send us a message
at The Wandering daughter.com/podcast.
Until next time, happy travels. Bye.
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