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October 8, 2025 16 mins

Show Notes: Worldschooling Q&A – Episode 5

Episode Title: Episode 5: How do i get started with worldschooling?

Hosts: Astrid & Clint, creators of The Wandering Daughter

Episode Summary:

In this episode of Worldschooling Q&A, Astrid and Clint answer one of the most common questions families ask: How do I get started with worldschooling?

They walk through practical, low-pressure ways to begin—like taking short local trips, connecting with worldschooling communities, and exploring books and videos. Whether you’re dreaming of a gap year or just curious about traveling with more intention, this episode offers encouragement and resources to help you take the first step toward a worldschooling lifestyle.

 

🎧 Ready to dive in?

 

👉 For full show notes, links to resources, and a breakdown of topics covered, visit:

https://thewanderingdaughter.com/episode-5-how-to-start-worldschooling/

Mark as Played
Transcript

Episode Transcript

Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:00):
And you'll likely find someone that youcan meet up with and have a conversation.
And in our experienceand we're like this too.
But in our experience,when we were getting started, the people
who were already traveling the worldand doing world going,
they're more than eager
to talk about their experiencesand share what they've done.

(00:22):
And and it's not an exclusive groupby any means.
This is worldschool and Q&A.
I'm Astrid,creator of The Wandering Daughter.
As a traveling family,we've 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.

(00:45):
While we didn't coined the termwe like to call this worldschooling.
Using the world as our classroom.
Each week, my husband, Clint,and I will answer one question
about worldschooling and share our.
Experiences. Of traveling the.
World with our kids.
Ready to get started?
Great. Let's dive in.

(01:11):
So today's question is
how do I get started with work schooling?
So one thing I would suggestis to go to my website
and read the articleHow to Become a Worldschooling Family.
I cover like 11 tips to that
you can use to like,get started on worldschooling.

(01:34):
But beyond that, I think what would besome suggestions that you would add?
Sure.
I think the one thingwe always tell families to ask is this,
and this is probably one of the numberone questions that gets asked
almost all the time from any of the quoteunquote, veterans or world going.
Is is how to get started?

(01:56):
Well, it's going and the one thingwe always say is start small.
And why is it so small?
It can be as small as,
booking a hotel or booking a,
preferably like, a house or an Airbnb.
Something where you're,
like in more of a house situationand not necessarily a hotel.

(02:17):
I think you get in a hoteland it's still kind of like vacation mode.
Yeah.
But like, if you can get into a house,say, Airbnb or house
sitting or homeexchange or something like that.
It can be as simple as a weekendin the same city.
And if you want, preferably
trying to go outside the citya little bit, for a few hours.
So you're kind of out of the contextthat you're normally in.

(02:39):
And really, it's just like pretending.
It's like playing house,pretending you're living there.
Whether that's going grocery shopping,going to the parks, going,
going, seeing a movie, like not doing
your traditional vacation types of things.
Yeah.
Exploring something, you know,if you are seeing in the city

(03:01):
that you already in ghost,that we've done this before.
We stay in a neighborhoodwe've never, like, spent time in.
Yeah.
And we'll go stay the weekendin that neighborhood
and see what it's like to wake upand go to a cafe
for the morning and kind of walk aroundand explore the area.
So, starting small,and then working your way up from there.

(03:23):
Yeah.
Anything I.
I would say I really like that ideaor I like that suggestion
because I think so many timesand I've seen that,
you know,I've heard families talk about this like,
oh, I'd love to go world curling,but the idea of, like, taking a big trip,
you know, taking a year off or somethingis just so

(03:43):
daunting and like, well,you don't have to do that.
You could just do, like, a small weekendtrip, like Clint said, like, just take
just take baby steps and then workyour way towards that big trip.
If that's something that is for you.
I think that said, and
I would say

(04:05):
also it helps to be,
familiarize yourselfwith the Worldschool community.
So joining like a Facebook groupor multiple Facebook
groups would be very helpful.
And there's a lot there's like,oh gosh, we are worldschoolers.
Worldschool in central.
Project Worldschool,those are some of the big, big ones.

(04:26):
But there's also just like Facebookgroups, smaller Facebook
groups, for different destinationsthat you're planning on going to.
Yeah.
Literally every destinationcould think of it's Bali
or Turkey or France or Spainor wherever you're thinking of.
Thailand.
Just type in worldschooling
and the destination you want to go toor the country you want to go to.

(04:49):
And or the cityyou want to go to region, whatever.
And chances are you're goingto find a world's going group.
And when we say small groups,
the world is going the big world.
Sewing groups are like,almost 10,000 or more people, right?
Those groups are so small.
When we say
small groups are still several hundredto a couple thousand in these groups.

(05:11):
So there's plenty of people.
Yeah. To, to interact with.
And I think that brings meto my next point.
Okay.
I would I would want to add to isthat it's not just like destinations too.
There's like different types of,
different styles of worldsgoing in Facebook.
Facebook groups out there.
So like for worldschoolersthat are also into like games.

(05:34):
I think there's like a specific Facebookgroup for that
or worldschooling, worldschoolerswho have teen kids.
There's a Facebook group of thatso that you can really like,
align yourself with folksthat are similar to you
and, understand,
like understand their experienceor learn about their experience.

(05:56):
I have a Facebook
group too, for worldschoolers
who are more interested in travelingmore ethically and sustainably.
So, yeah, they'reyou are welcome to join that,
Facebook group to connectwith other families that align with that.
Yeah. Lastly.
The thing thingI was going to say off of joining group

(06:17):
or anything like thatis just talk to someone.
There's,
there are a ton of worldscholars out there already.
Ton of digital nomads, ton of digitalnomads who have grown up and had families.
So now they're digital nomad families.
There are a ton of people doing this.
Dual nomadism has existed for,for, 20 years now.

(06:40):
Plus.
Yeah.
It's there's a ton of people doing this.
Which is strange because you don't really
you don't really hear too much about it,but there are a lot of people out there
doing it.
So literally justyou can do a search for world's going
or digital nomad familiesor digital nomads in general,
and you can find people and then havean online conversation with them.

(07:01):
Or if they're in,if they're in the same city,
I can almost guarantee if you just typein the city that you live in,
or the region that you live in and,
world's going or digital nomad,you'll find like post something
in a Facebook group and say,hey, I'm, I'm in Seattle, for example.
Is there anyone that they've seenthat wants to meet up?

(07:21):
And you likely find someone that you canmeet up with and have a conversation.
And in our experience,and we're like this too.
But in our experience,when we were getting started, the people
who were already traveling the worldand doing worldschooling,
they're more than
eager to talk about their experiencesand share what they've done.

(07:44):
And and it's not an exclusive groupby any means.
Yeah. There's no gatekeeping here.
Yeah, exactly.
Yeah.
And, you know, it's just if you are kindof a little bit more introverted
or you're not sure of how to get,you know,
how to contact people, you can also startwith just like reading books.
There's several books out thereabout, worldschooling,

(08:09):
which is great, like thathave been published in the last few years.
I know when we started, there wasn't verymany, but now, like, lots of people have,
done it so that it's it's becoming moreof a popular topic in literature.
And say we,
I would suggest, reading

(08:29):
this book by Zali Polen.
She's a friend of ours,but she does a great book about,
how to get started on worldschooling.
It's called Hit the Roada Badass Woman Now,
a Badass moms guide for familieswho want to travel.
I love this title.
Because she is a badass woman.
And then also another book is Wonder Year.

(08:51):
This is, a little bitmore like a how to guide.
Whereas Dahlia's book is a lot morefocused on like, families stories.
So I think both of those booksare helpful for that.
And then I, we,I actually also wrote an e-book,
similar to,

(09:13):
similar to like a how to guide as well.
It's called hey kids, Let's Go Travel.
And it covers like the different thingsto consider
if you're going to be taking a gap yearor doing like a worldschooling trip.
So like reading a book is helpfulor watching videos.
There's a lot of videos,out there of families that travel. Now,

(09:34):
if you're starting to get to the pointwhere you're more serious, right?
Or you want some more handson kind of coaching or or guided
you just you're to
the point where you're willing to commit,financially as well.
There are a couple directionsyou can go to that.
Yeah.

(09:55):
There's hubs. World's going. Hubs?
Yeah.
And there's also coaching.
And I'll let you talkabout the coaching side.
I'll just touch on thethe world's going hubs.
So world's going hubs is really what itis, is the family history of worlds going?
That has decided to organize
some sortof gathering somewhere around the world.

(10:16):
And this can be as simple as,hey, there's going to be a number of us
that are going to meet up in,
Guatemala for example.
Right.
And we're just going to bein the same region.
Nothing's planned
beyond that, other than a group of usare going to be here in March.

(10:37):
It can
be people already living in the area,like in La Dora in southern Spain,
in the Andalucia region,where there's already just families.
That are foreigners that are living there.
Following kind of world's going world.
And then there's familiesthat will come in and visit
and then interact with those familiesalready living there

(10:58):
so that it can be on that leveland it can be on the complete,
like almost all inclusive resorttype of feel,
where you pay for the privilege
of having your lodging and your mealscovered and activities covered,
and you're in a certain area,but you're there with other families.

(11:19):
And that'skind of an all inclusive package.
So it's it's kind of a booming
booming is and a little bit in quotes.
But it's, it's a trending thingthat's happening right now.
And I think that's just becausein the world's going world, there's a,
there's a desire for community.
Yeah. Yeah.
And so that's why I think these hubsare popping up a lot more.

(11:42):
And what I love about like the hubsor just the meet ups and things is that
then you get to connectwith other families and you get to like,
share experiences and, make friendships
for with people that are kind of similarminded as you are.
And that's really nice to have.
I think,

(12:02):
you know, worlds going
if you're traveling full timeand it can sometimes be lonely.
And I think,
just finding families that are that
share the same worldview as you or sharethe same thirst for experiencing
the world as you,maybe you guys have different,
you know, religious views and backgroundsand stuff like that,

(12:24):
but there's still this,like, desire to experience the world.
That's always refreshing to find.
And whenever you travel,
to kind of end with, the idea of,like a course.
So, you know, sometimes you might be

(12:45):
the type of person that's like,I don't know how to do this on my own.
You know, like, I've read the booksI have, like, join the group.
I've done everything and still, like,not ready to take that next step.
I need somebody to, like, hold my hand.
We know,
a fantastic course,
offered by this woman named Liz Queen.

(13:06):
It's called Trailblazing Families.
And, she does,
12 week coursethat guides families through the process
of getting ready to launch for, like,a bigger, worldschooling trip.
And this is more of, like,
I, I think she would call it, like,a lifestyle redesign

(13:27):
where you're basically, like,
changing your whole lifeand jumping into that,
like, life of being a digital nomad.
So, if that's somethingthat you're interested in, I think I,
we highly suggest looking into her course.
And she does, like,she has, Facebook groups
and she meets with hercohorts, things like that.

(13:48):
So it's very hands on and,
really helpful.
One, one quick thing I would just add
to that another kind of,
kind of the opposite of what Liz is doing,where it's all in.
It's just kind of starting small to that.
You can start today
if you have a,
another family that you've alreadykind of done some travel with

(14:10):
or you've experimented with one ofthe one of our favorite memories is we
we booked a house in Mexico for a month
with another familythat we've hung out with.
And that was incredible.
All the things about worldgoing came to be in that as far
as spending time together, being ableto set boundaries with each family.

(14:31):
Yeah, learning together,experiencing new cultures.
Yeah.
So that's, if you already have kind ofa, a family friend
that, you feel comfortable maybedoing a week or two together somewhere.
Yeah, that can be a great wayof experiencing that community aspect
and also experiencinga friendship on a different.
Yeah, yeah.

(14:52):
Anything else you'd like to add?I don't think so.
We covered it. All right.
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.

(15:12):
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.
If you're listening to this on Spotify,you can tap the Bell icon to get notified
when new episodes come out.

(15:34):
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.
Links to these are also in the show notes.

(15:55):
If you have any worldschooling questionsyou'd like us to answer.
For future episodes,feel free to throw them.
In the commentsor send us a message at The Wandering
daughters.com/podcast.
Until next time, happy travels. Bye.
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