November 11, 2024 • 59 mins
How does a single mum from Australia's Sunshine Coast end up world schooling in Tuscany?
Denise Georges shares her courageous leap from skepticism about homeschooling to embracing world schooling in the beautiful countryside of Italy.
After losing her job during the pandemic, Denise discovered the transformative power of alternative education systems, all while navigating personal challenges and societal expectations. Her story is a testament to the strength required to break away from conventional paths for the sake of family and personal fulfillment.
We chat about the innovative Boundless Life program, founded by Mauro Rapici, which offers families the chance to live and learn in stunning global locations. With destinations spanning Europe and beyond, this episode uncovers how families can effortlessly balance work, education, and adventure.
Denise invites you to redefine family life and education by embracing travel and the path less travelled. Get inspired to break free from societal pressures, explore new possibilities, and perhaps embark on your very own boundless journey!
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www.r Hey it’s Nicki here interrupting this episode to quickly say, if you’re like us and feeling torn between your career as an educator vs. your beliefs for child development, We’ve created a 5 step e-guide to unlock your purpose without compromising your values. This Treasure Map is completely free, takes ten minutes, and is available from our Raising Wildlings website. So dive in and s If you enjoyed this episode of Raising Wildlings. We invite you to check out Your Wild Business, our signature business course for education change-makers who are ready to create or refine their own nature play businesses. Your Wild Business is the only program that focuses on the business side of nature play, with sustainable practices, processes, and systems that will cut down your administration work, giving you more time to focus on building a business that is centered around your e Other ways we can help you:
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Ever wanted to pack up your life, leave the country
and whisk your family away toTuscany to world school?
Well, today we're chatting withDenise Georges, a mum from the
Sunshine Coast who has done justthat with the Boundless Life
World Schooling Program.
We like to acknowledge thetraditional custodians of the
land on which we record todaythe Kabi Kabi and Gubbi Gubbi
(00:22):
people.
We recognise their continuedconnection to the land and
waters of this beautiful place.
We recognise Aboriginal peopleas the original custodians of
this land and acknowledge thatthey have never ceded
sovereignty.
We respect all Gubbi Gubbielders, ancestors and emerging
elders and all First Nationspeople listening today.
Speaker 2 (00:42):
Welcome to Raising Wildlings, a podcast about
parenting, alternative educationand stepping into the
wilderness, however that lookswith your family.
Speaker 1 (00:51):
Each week, we'll be interviewing experts that truly
inspire us to answer yourparenting and education
questions.
We'll also be sharing storiesfrom some incredible families
that took the leap and aretaking the road less traveled.
Speaker 2 (01:04):
We're your hosts.
Vicki and Nikki from WildlingsForest School, pop in your
headphones, settle in and joinus on this next adventure.
Speaker 1 (01:12):
Hello and welcome to the Raising Wildlings podcast.
I'm your host, nikki Farrell.
Good, well morning andafternoon to you.
Denise, thank you so much forjoining us all the way from
Italy.
How are you today?
Speaker 3 (01:23):
I'm really good.
I'm excited to be here chattingto you guys and, yeah, to your
listeners about you know thisincredible program that my son
and I are doing currently overhere.
Speaker 1 (01:33):
Yeah, you might be a little confused because I've
said welcome to Denise fromItaly with a very Australian
accent like my own.
Can you talk to us, Denise?
Let's go right back from thestart.
Tell us how the heck an Aussieended up with her son.
World schooling in Italy.
Speaker 3 (01:49):
Okay, so it has been a little bit of a journey.
Now for your listeners, I havebeen listening to this podcast.
Well, it's been a while, butback in 2020, definitely I was
gorging on your content because,you know, I'm a single mum.
I've been a single mum to mynine-year-old since the day he
(02:11):
was born, and I had to go backto work when he was six months.
So that's just the life that Iunfortunately had to live.
It's life.
It's life.
Put a roof over our heads andfood on the table.
It's not necessarily what Iwanted to do, however and I am a
(02:32):
dental hygienist by professionit was something that I've been
oh gosh, it's 17 years now sinceI graduated, and so you know,
growing up in Sydney and then Ihad him in Melbourne.
We eventually found our way tothe Sunshine Coast in Queensland
, and I was working in apractice that had a lot of
(02:54):
families coming through thatwere homeschooling families, and
I'd never really been exposedto that before, been exposed to
that before, growing up in acity very suburban and similarly
, in Melbourne, I was right inthe guts of the city.
(03:15):
For me, homeschooling justseemed so wacky and so
alternative and so left of scent, like just too alternative for
me and I had my ownpreconceptions about it.
But what I started to noticewith all these families that I
was now in contact with was howthe children were just.
They seemed so mature.
They were able to haveconversations with me rather
(03:37):
than grunting at me.
That's what I was used to.
There was just something aboutit.
It was one of my patients thatsaid you need to listen to this
podcast, it's going to open youreyes, and so that's how I found
you guys, and then it was liketotally on my radar.
However, I never had theopportunity to homeschool
because I had to work full time.
(03:58):
There was no other option forme at the time.
So then COVID happens and Ilost my job.
It was taken away from me.
I was not going to partake inthe mandates, so I found myself
unemployed.
I didn't have a plan B, but itwas like, well, I've got this
(04:19):
time now.
So I actually put my son hadcompleted one year of state
school in prep and there weremany issues that came up for me
throughout that year that I wasjust not okay with.
A lot of things that happened,and I am a state school girl,
like I grew up in that system.
I went to a Catholic girlsschool and I, you know, I came
(04:42):
out of school with great grades.
I also came out of schoolhaving no direction, no idea who
I was, no idea what I wanted todo.
And then, you know, because Iwas listening to your podcast at
the same time like everythingshifted in my thinking about
education and so I decided, well, I don't have a job Like I
literally have all this time now.
(05:03):
I pulled my son out of schooland I thought I'm going to
homeschool him.
And so, you know, in themeantime I had to pack up my
life.
I couldn't service my mortgageanymore.
I had to.
Luckily, my mom was on thecoast as well, so she took us in
and we lived with her for awhole year.
I was working as a cleaner threedays a week.
(05:24):
I was able, as a cleaner, threedays a week, I was able to find
these incredible communities onthe coast.
Actually, he did come and doyour forest school-like thing as
well.
So I found these incrediblecommunities, and so he was going
to a couple of differenthomeschooling co-ops a couple of
days a week as I was cleaningin co-ops a couple of days a
(05:45):
week as I was cleaning and inthe time in between, I sat down
and I was educating my son.
My ideals, however, were veryhigh and the reality for me
didn't match that, and so Istruggled, because I knew from
listening to your podcast that Ineeded time to unschool myself,
(06:06):
because it was I was cominginto it with the same thought
processes around how to teachand educate and learn, um, and
so that you know that I wasexposed to growing up.
So it just wasn't working.
So we spent a lot of timecamping and hiking and doing
(06:27):
stuff outside, which is where wejust we thrive, we love it.
So it was.
It was fine for six, six months, and then he got a place in a
local Montessori school and andthat was wonderful.
In the meantime, I actuallystarted an online business,
which I didn't have, you know, Ididn't have great grand plans
for it.
I was hoping to earn an extrahundred dollars a week because
(06:50):
at the time I was reallystruggling financially, I was
burning through all of my smallamount of savings and I just
needed another way to earn anextra hundred bucks a week so I
could fill my car up with petrol, cause at the time I was, you
know, putting $40 in here, $20in there, when I could.
Some days like I remember this,one day specifically where I
dropped my son to hishomeschooling co-op and I drove
(07:14):
away in tears because I didn'thave enough money to actually
pay for the day for him.
I only had $20 in my bankaccount and I was just, and she
said don't worry, just, you canpay me tomorrow.
I was like this is not the lifethat I want.
This is not the life that Idreamed, and at that time, there
was no idea about when it wasgoing to change, when it was
going to end, when, you know,I'd be allowed back in my
(07:36):
profession, or if I ever would.
It was just.
There was so much unknown, so Istarted this online business.
I just need to be able to putpetrol in my car and this is how
I got to Italy.
Because two and a half yearslet's fast forward to today.
Two and a half years later itis now my full-time income.
I am no longer doing dentalhygiene and this business being
(08:01):
able to work remotely.
I can work anywhere, servicingmy customers, helping out my
team and the way that I came tobe here and how I found out
about it is my son.
He loves to cook and he's beenin the kitchen just pottering
(08:21):
around with me since he couldsit up straight and sit on the
kitchen bench and, uh, I thinkit was it was a January this
year when, um, I sat down withhim.
We're just sitting up atRainbow Beach, which is a really
, really beautiful part of theSunshine Coast, if you guys know
it.
We we go there a lot to justfill our cup, and I was just
(08:42):
sitting with him and I had thisthought, just like download into
my brain from absolutelynowhere.
I just looked at him and I saidyou know what, one day we are
going to live in Italy and youare going to refine your cooking
skills over there, like usinglike the most incredible produce
.
I'm like you'll the taste ofthe tomatoes in Italy.
Like you'll.
Just because he didn't liketomatoes at the time.
I'm like you're gonna, you aregoing to love tomatoes one day
(09:05):
because you're going to tastethem in Italy.
That's a real tomato.
Although I've got to say, likeliving where we live on the
Sunshine Coast, we do haveaccess to incredible produce,
and tomatoes do taste prettygood over there.
We do.
However, yeah.
So I just looked at him andhe's like okay, mum.
However, yeah, so I just lookedat him and he's like that's it,
okay, mum.
And for the next week he waslike peppering me with questions
(09:28):
about why Italy?
Where did I like to go in Italy?
What food did I like to eat?
What was my favorite dessert?
And I hadn't been to Italy LikeI've been twice, but I hadn't
seen a lot.
It was, you know, flying in,flying out, one of those like
very quick trips, and I said,well, I didn't get to Florence.
But one place I didn't get towas the Tuscan countryside, and
(09:52):
that's where I would really loveto go, having watched under the
Tuscan sun a bazillion times.
Speaker 1 (09:58):
Every woman's dream.
Speaker 3 (10:00):
So I said that's where I want to go.
And it was literally one weeklater.
I was at the beach in Noosawincing myself off under the
showers with my eyes closed.
I heard someone call out myname and I opened my eyes and it
was friends of ours who I knewhad been traveling the world for
a year with their family.
Like, she has two young girlsthat are similar age to my boy
(10:23):
and I didn't realize she wasback.
I said, oh my gosh,congratulations on being back.
I want to hear all about yourtrip.
And and I knew that one of thefirst places they came to was
Italy and I said, oh my gosh,like I want to hear about Italy,
especially because I said to mylittle boy, um, last week that
I really want to go to Italy.
And she said, oh, but have youheard of Boundless Life?
You've obviously heard aboutBoundless Life.
(10:45):
And I said, no, I haven't heardof that.
And she said, well, it's thisprogram.
And she went on to explain itto me and I said, oh, that
sounds amazing because they'rein a number of different
destinations.
And I said where are they inItaly?
And she said they're in Tuscany.
And I just like I got shiversdown my body.
I said, oh my goodness, youneed to tell me all the details.
(11:06):
I need to find out all aboutthis, because I was literally
saying to my boy that we mightdo this when you're in high
school, when you're a little bitolder.
But she gave me the details.
I jumped on a discovery callsoon after and I said oh my gosh
, if you have a space this year,book us in, take my money, like
I need to do this.
(11:26):
And so it was just.
You know, when the universeputs signs in front of you, you
just walk towards them, and thatis what we did.
So that was a very quickturnaround from knowing about it
to being here, and we arecurrently I think this is our
fifth week in Tuscany now, andwe're here for the three month
cohort, and it's just beenabsolutely fabulous.
Speaker 1 (11:49):
So good, I have so many questions and I'm sure our
listeners do too.
But again, like the alignmentof that and we were saying
before the interview, like thefull circle of Denise, to be on
the podcast sharing about worldschooling within just a few
years of listening to is just amind blowing for me, cause I
forget that again that this goesout to anyone but my little old
(12:11):
self.
So it's so, so cool.
All right, so let's backtrack.
Boundless life.
What is it?
Speaker 3 (12:20):
So I.
Last week we got to meet thefounder of boundless life and,
uh, I really enjoyed hearingbecause I didn't know the story
about how it all came to be.
Boundless Life has been inexistence for only three years
and we're in six locationsaround the world, mostly in
Europe, but with more to expand.
(12:42):
And the founder of BoundlessLife his name is Mauro Rapici, I
think.
Hopefully I'm not getting hisname wrong.
He's originally from Brazil buthas been living in Canada with
his family for over a decade Ithink 14, 17 years, something
like that he had been like.
(13:03):
I think.
He started two different techcompanies.
So that was his backgroundsoftware, tech, engineering.
They had a beautiful life inCanada.
He, you know, had a beautifulhome, three young girls.
But he said to his wife you know, I really just want to take off
for a year.
I just want to pack up and gotravelling for a year and see
(13:25):
the world with the girls.
And she said, well, okay, well,let's do this.
And so he spoke to some oftheir friends.
There was one family.
They're like that's a greatidea, can we join you?
And he said, well, yes, okay.
So they started this WhatsAppgroup and then, very quickly,
(13:45):
there was 40 families in thisWhatsApp group wanting to do the
same thing, wow.
And he said wow, like am Imeant to be organizing all of
your holidays now, like what ishappening here?
But he was very intrigued.
He's like why are there so manyfamilies wanting to do this?
Like what?
What's the instigator, what'sthe motivation behind this?
(14:07):
And he wanted to know.
So he started speaking to thefamilies and interviewing them
and he realized that, you know,they all had the same desire.
They all wanted to spend timewith their families and
experience life before theirchildren get old and don't want
to spend time with them anymore.
And I think your listenersprobably are very aware of this
(14:28):
statistic.
Like 75% of the time we'regoing to spend with our children
, it's over by the time they're18.
By then, like, they want to goand spread their wings and see
the world and you know, ifyou're lucky, they might want to
hang out with you, you know, acouple of times a year.
Well, hopefully more than that.
But so I think, because ofCOVID, I think families around
(14:53):
the world are very I don't know,very tapped into that.
The time is short, but life isprecious and let's make the most
of it.
So that was.
That was where the idea ofBoundless Life came from.
So their very first destinationthat they opened was in Sintra
in Portugal, and it wasrudimentary, like they found a
(15:19):
location.
So what the premise behindBoundless Life is is they set
the families up that come withaccommodation like nice
accommodation.
You have a co-working hub forthe parents so they can have a
space that they can work whenthe children are at school.
Obviously, the education likethe education is a big thing for
(15:41):
the families is that familieswant to travel and immerse
themselves into a culture.
You know not just you knowNorth Americans.
They have two weeks holiday ayear Like that's wild In
Australia, I think four weeksholiday a year isn't even long
enough.
But they want to be able to goaway and still carry on with
(16:02):
living, working remotely,because obviously a lot of
people are doing that now, ornot working at all, taking a
larger leave of absence,immersing into a culture, but
they're not missing out theirchildren, not missing out on
quality education, and so noteveryone is suited to
(16:22):
homeschooling their children ontheir own I'm not and so this
was like a really great, I guess, a way for families to do that
Such a win-win Such a win-win,such a win-win.
And so Sintra opened and eversince then I think there has
(16:43):
been 15 cohorts.
Ever since Mauro and his family, they do this full time.
They've been to all of thecohorts in the different
destinations, bar two, and yeah,it's's just.
I just think he's kept it small, like there was four original
founders.
Two of them have left, um,there's still him and one other
(17:06):
and I think another one hasjoined, and they had a lot of
interest from big playerswanting to, you know, invest
into the company.
But he's actually said no tosome pretty big bucks because
they wanted to control, you know, more than he was happy with.
(17:29):
So they wanted to open, youknow, I don't know a huge number
, very quickly, of BoundlessLife cohorts around the world.
And he said no because if youhis concern was doing that, you
would compromise things and youwould compromise the community,
feel, you would compromise theeducation, and so he said no to
(17:50):
that.
And so he's expanding, butslowly, in order to make sure
the quality remains the same inall of the destinations.
And currently we are, weboundless life are in.
They're in portugal, centralportugal, steeros, in greece,
obviously, tuscany, uh, they'veopened up bali in indonesia,
(18:12):
koto in up Bali in Indonesia,kotor in Montenegro are doing
the first cohort right now andand I don't know if I'm
pronouncing this right Andalusiain Spain, which is, again,
they're just doing the firstcohort now.
And the destinations that theychoose they really so far have
(18:33):
wanted a space that feels safe,that is kind of a little bit off
the beaten track, but also notoff the beaten track, but off
the tourist trail.
Where we are right now.
It is very close to Florence,like you jump on a train and
you're in Florence in half anhour or 40 minutes and, yeah,
(18:55):
the other destinations similar,so you actually feel like you're
part of the community here.
You know the locals welcome usand you know we use Google
Translate a lot, but they alsodo speak English very well here
too, and so what Mauro does is,twice a year they will interview
(19:16):
the parents that have beenthrough the cohorts and see what
they can do to improve, and oneof the things that the parents
have been asking for are, thisyear, locations next, but within
a space or a neighbourhoodwhere all of the families are
close by, so within 15 minutes,close, you know, in walking
(19:38):
distance.
That's what we have right hereand that's what the other
destinations are like, so I canwalk to any other family's home
like within minutes to maximum,I think, maximum eight minutes
and the co-working hub is veryclose and the education center
is very close.
So for the first time ever, myson is walking himself to school
(19:59):
, which I would actually justnot allow in, even though we
live in a very safe space inplace in Australia.
Speaker 1 (20:06):
Um, that's so good, though, even environmentally, to
know that your commute anywhere, for all the things you need is
eight minutes.
Speaker 3 (20:15):
Yes, yeah.
Speaker 1 (20:16):
Oh good.
Speaker 3 (20:18):
Did that answer your question?
I feel like I went on a tangent.
Speaker 1 (20:20):
No, that answered quite a few, but I have so many
more.
Okay, so let's talk about cause.
I know one of the firstquestions are going to be
logistics and practicality, socan you talk to us about how
other families are doing it?
You've kind of talked about howit's set up, but what does a
day look like for you and foryour son?
Speaker 3 (20:43):
Yes, sure.
So firstly, logistically, thatwas one of the biggest draw
cards for me is that they makeit so easy.
As a single parent, all of thedecisions come to me like rest
on my shoulders, and it can be alot when you're traveling.
There are so many things tofactor in, so many things to
decide, and I've got no one tobounce off ideas, it's just me.
(21:05):
And so when I looked atBoundless Life and I spoke to
the people from here, I realizedthat it was going to be
seamless and it absolutely was.
All I had to do was pack mysuitcases, book my flight, I got
picked up at the airport, I gotwelcomed into, someone was
(21:25):
waiting for me at our homeshowing us through, and they had
a little bit of food and carepackage waiting for us.
And the next day we got here alittle bit late.
The next day, school startedand it was absolute.
Like the transition wasseamless.
My son he was a little bitnervous to start came out of
there on his first day soexcited he ran to school the
(21:47):
next day.
And they like logistically, Ifound it so simple, I didn't
have to find my accommodation.
Like, logistically, I found itso simple, I didn't have to find
my accommodation, I don't haveto pay bills, I don't even have
to pack school lunches or cleanmy home.
For three months that's neverhappened.
Oh my God, sign me up, it getsdone for me.
So, like an average day lookslike Monday to Friday.
(22:11):
The kids go to school, so theystart at.
Drop-off is at a quarter tonine in the morning, pick-up is
about a quarter past three.
There's a couple of days whenmy son does extracurricular
activities, so I pick him up at4.30.
And he walks himself to school.
I get up, I work on my businessuntil usually around midday, so
(22:32):
for about three hours I'll beconnecting with my team, with my
customers, creating content.
Uh, then I like sometimes thethe mums here.
We go out for a lunch on aThursday and we, you know, have
some wine.
That that goes into.
That's a long lunch.
It goes into a school pickup,uh.
And then sometimes, yeah, Imight go for a walk, I might go
(22:55):
and explore, I might jump on atrain and go into Florence.
It's usually on the weekendsthat we will go out into the
Tuscan countryside.
So the last two weekends I'vehired a car and we've gone and
seen some incredible things,like the southern part of
Tuscany, has these cascadingthermal pools, that just this
(23:18):
warm water just gushes out ofthe ground and it just flows
over these incredible cascades.
Incredible stuff like that wasa bucket list stuff for me, so
there's been a bit of gettingout of my comfort zone.
Well, that was the biggestthing.
That was the thing that Ifeared the most was driving on
the other side of the thing thatI feared the most was driving
on the other side of the road,driving manual on the other side
of the road, and I haven'tdriven manual for over 20 years,
(23:42):
so that was a bit scary, butmost of the weekend.
So every second weekend thekids finish, sorry, every second
Friday the kids finish schoolearly, so at noon, which gives
the families a long weekend.
Some people just hang in townbecause there's actually there
was festival after festival inthis tiny little town since we
(24:03):
arrived.
On the weekends there's alwayssomething going on.
The Italians love to celebrateall sorts of things.
But then, yeah, other times we,you know, we had a weekend in
Cinque Terre and did a hike overthe beautiful you know
mountains over there.
It was absolutely gorgeous.
So the day to the day, Mondayto Friday, is fairly similar, I
(24:25):
guess, to what we would do inAustralia.
The community here is amazingas well.
So we do, like the families gettogether, we do dinners.
Like the families get together,we do dinners.
You know the where I am sittingright now, just outside of the
co-working hub, is our smallpiazza and there's a couple of
restaurants there that openearly especially for us, like
the boundless families, becausewe, you know, we like to eat
(24:48):
dinner early because we've allgot young kids, so we'll
sometimes catch up there, havedrinks, have pizza uh, yeah,
it's, it's a beautiful,beautiful life how flexible.
Speaker 1 (24:57):
So if you wanted to take an extra day or two off, is
that a concern?
Is it almost expected?
Like, how does that work?
If you're like you know what,I've got a sudden urge to go
somewhere for an extra longweekend.
Is that a problem?
Speaker 3 (25:08):
I haven't had the conversation yet, but I know
some families have done it.
Look, it might be one of thosethings that they prefer you not
to, but they understand if youdo.
And I haven't felt the need todo it yet, because most of what
we want to see is quiteaccessible for a weekend.
If we wanted to do somethinglike go to Rome or further south
(25:30):
, to Naples or that, then you'dneed a longer weekend and I
think some families are planningthat.
So, and it also depends, someof the families have younger
kids and they're not quiteschool age yet, so they have
their.
They've got their differentgroups for the kids, so the one
to five-year-olds are in theexplorers group and I think
(25:55):
they're fairly lenient.
Speaker 1 (25:58):
I was just thinking like the way you'd plan it
anyway, like if you wanted toexplore longer, you'd just tack
it on at the end, wouldn't you?
It's yeah, and, like you said,the urgency's then taken away.
If you've got time in theafternoon yourself to explore
and to research and think aboutwhat you want to do on the
weekend, you're not tied tocleaning your home, doing the
gardening, getting ready for thenext school fate.
Speaker 3 (26:21):
You've got that time back.
It really, yes.
It feels so freeing, it'swonderful.
Speaker 1 (26:36):
Yeah, what made you take the leap, other than, you
know, the universe slapping youin the face with all the signs
that you had to go?
There would still be a lot ofpeople right that would have
either looked at the price orjust said, no, it's too scary,
it's too much, it's toosomething.
You know.
Whatever objection you want toput in there, what made you do
it and what would you say tothose people that you know would
have all of those objections?
Speaker 3 (27:00):
If you can possibly find a way to do it, I would
jump on the opportunity.
The thing that I guess for me.
I don't want to compromise mytime with my son anymore, and
before I had kids well, kids achild I loved to travel and it's
(27:21):
not something that I wanted togive up.
And obviously, when COVIDhappened, my son was, I think,
four or five and travel did cometo a halt.
And then, once I had that time,that extra time with him that I
hadn't had before, I was like Idon't want to give this up.
And, and we did during theCOVID times we still did so much
(27:41):
camping Like we he and I wereout in Queensland as much as we
could be, um, and it honestlylights.
It lights us up, it's what itjust it's something that I have
to do.
It's not a I cannot just be ahomebody Like.
I have to go out and I enjoypushing myself into you know,
(28:03):
places of discomfort, because Iknow from experience that that
is where the fun, juicy lifestuff happens.
And so I tell this story oftento people that I know that when
my son went to school which wasso he was five for the first
time, our connection fragmentedand he, yeah, he, just, he
(28:30):
wouldn't want to hug me anymore,he wouldn't kiss me anymore, he
wouldn't hold my hand anymore,he would pull away, like just
any time that I tried to getclose to him, and even though we
still slept in the same bed,and in fact we still do.
But that really broke my heartand I thought surely this is too
soon, surely this happens whenthey turn 13.
(28:52):
Like, what is going on?
And I thought that I'd lost myson in that way, like, and then
it wasn't going to come back.
But when I lost my job and wewere spending more time together
, like, it literally came back.
He would hold my hand everytime we were in the car, he
would be the one to reach out tograb my hand and he doesn't
(29:14):
mind so much being kissed andcuddled anymore.
He will walk across the room togive me a cuddle and it.
That was a real wake-up call aswell.
It's like the, the, thefragmented relationship happens
because we I was that stressedout mum that was rushing him out
of the door at a quarter toseven in the morning, that was
not getting home till a quarterpast six every night, five days
(29:36):
a week, rushing him throughdinner, through bar, through
book to bed and rinse and repeatfor a whole year well, even
prior to that, because he was inlong daycare and I'm like that
is not.
That is not.
The reason we bring childreninto the world is to be this
stressed out, rushing, you know,out the door person who doesn't
(30:00):
have quality time to spend withtheir child.
So I didn't want to.
I didn't want to ever go backto that, which is why I worked
really hard on my onlinebusiness to build it to a place
where I could, on a whim, decideto pack up our life and move
across the world for threemonths, and so it's.
I know that it can be.
It seemed like an expense forsome people, but the payoff is
(30:24):
so worth it and what it shows myson is that you can put your
mind to something and achieve itif you believe in it.
You can do the hard, scarythings and also it's just
building so much resilience inhim, like the people that he is
meeting and the friendships thathe has formed.
There's families from sevendifferent nationalities at this
(30:48):
school and you know his bestfriends.
Some of them, they barely evenspeak English.
There's three families herethat are from Israel that have
escaped a war zone and he is soclose to them, yet they barely
speak English and they haveplaydates, yet they can
communicate in their own way.
(31:10):
And so he and I have had themost incredible conversations
since we've arrived here andalso just being out and
exploring the history of Italyand you know the Romans and the
architecture, and we've had like.
Over the weekend we came acrossthis Banksy exhibition in the
(31:31):
middle of this medieval town, ona hilltop not too far from here
, and we walked through thereand we're looking at Banksy's
artworks in this medieval town,talking about, you know, modern
history and like you knowBanksy's statements about with
his it's just, it's been onething after another.
But what I've noticed is thathis interest in the things that
(31:54):
I'm talking to him about is likeon high, rather than him
sitting down at a desk andreading something out of a book
and then having to write, learndates and then, like, get tested
on.
You know what he was able tomemorize about history.
He's actually having thisexperiential experience.
Speaker 1 (32:17):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (32:19):
And like feeling it and he's engaging, like he's
engaging so much in the thingsthat we're discussing and things
that we're seeing and he'sasking so many questions and
it's just been incredible.
So, for anyone that has thesefeelings that, oh, I couldn't do
that, how's it going to work?
In terms of my own work, I'mtelling you you can make it
(32:41):
happen, because I am seeing someof the families here are being
very, very creative.
Yeah, talk to us about that.
Well, some families arepermanently world schooling.
They don't have a fixedlocation at all.
Wow, permanently world schooling, like they don't have a fixed
location at all, wow, uh, somehave taken a sabbatical, like an
extended leave of absence,because they heard about
boundless life three years agowhen it opened and they have
(33:04):
been working for three years inorder to make this happen for
their family.
Uh, some families have taken ayear off and they're going to,
you know, kind of maybe hop overthrough the different cohorts,
uh, and you know there's onefamily where her, her work, does
not even know she's left thestate.
(33:24):
Yes, so, so she, she, you know,sets herself up in the cohort
between 5 pm and 2 am monday,monday to friday and she works
and connects with her team fromhere and they have no idea she's
in like on another continentthat's gold.
Speaker 1 (33:47):
I am here for that, I .
I'm here for shaking up thestatus quo.
You know like we think whatwe're doing is normal and so we
assume that it's healthy.
But gosh, then our healthstatistics and our divorce
statistics and our mental healthstatistics tell an actual the
truth of the story.
And so to to shake that up and,like you said, show your
(34:08):
children that you don't have tolive like that If it doesn't
make you happy.
If it makes you happy, go nuts,go prosper, go enjoy yourself.
But if you want somethingdifferent, you just have to set
your mind to it.
Like that's what I just love somuch about your story.
Tell me how you're finding itsolo, parenting, overseas, with
Boundless Life, anything youwould want to see changed, or
(34:29):
are you finding it fairlyseamless?
Speaker 3 (34:30):
Yeah, I love it.
And guess what?
I'm not the only single mumhere.
There's two others.
There's two other single mums.
Speaker 1 (34:38):
I think I've said so good about 500 times.
I'll try and switch it up, butthis is so good.
Speaker 3 (34:48):
I think that as a single parent, it's so easy
because I've got the communitysupport when I need it.
We are actually living in ablock that has a central
courtyard and there's six otherfamilies within us and it's like
a security door to get in.
So it and it feels so safe.
(35:10):
So if there was a time where Icouldn't go and this is what
happens within our community butthere was a family that went
bike riding off like 96kilometres away for the day and
they realised they weren't goingto get back in time for school
pickup, so they called on afriend and you know we are all
here supporting each other andyou know it just feels.
(35:33):
It feels really safe as asingle parent and, like I said
before, it is so nice not toworry about, you know, doing the
cleaning, packing the schoollunches, because that gets
provided for them.
I get a cleaner one and a halfdays a week.
So Tuesdays they do a fullclean, fridays they do, you know
, the floors and just wipe thebenchtops and clean the bathroom
(35:54):
.
It's like this is absoluteluxury for me.
This is living, barry.
Yeah, this is living.
Speaker 1 (36:03):
It's such an accumulation of solved problems,
not problems, well solvedproblems, and desires as well.
You know these things that weimagine in our heads.
But then the logistics like Isaid, the logistics of
organizing all that and actuallystumbling across a similar
community is pretty slim.
(36:25):
Like you might randomly bumpinto a world schooling community
, but you're not going to findan entire community for your
child to hang out with.
One more question Talk to meabout do you know much about
what their education?
What does school look like foryour son in a day?
Speaker 3 (36:40):
Yes, this is a great question because, again, it's
another drawcard for families.
So the education system isbased off the Finnish school
system.
So if you don't know much aboutthat, it's like the best, one
of the best or the best in theworld.
It's a school system that theydon't do standardized testing,
(37:00):
they don't do comparisons.
You know, child to child.
The children have no homeworkto very, very little homework,
small class sizes, veryindividualized learning as well.
And I actually researched this.
I was like, is this for real?
And I came across so manypapers saying that, yes, like
the teachers care so much aboutthe children and if something
(37:22):
isn't working with one child,they're going to problem solve
with that child.
They're going to ask theirco-workers, they're going to,
they're going to figure it out,because they want the best for
every single, every single child.
Um, so for the little, well,actually, for the explorers and
the pathfinders.
So the explorers, the one tofives, and then the pathfinders,
the six to twelve, um, they useMontessori materials.
(37:44):
So my son is used to theMontessori materials.
It's very, it's hands-on,practical learning.
Um, and for the younger ones,it's definitely play-based
learning and, you know, going attheir pace, giving them the
opportunity to kind of exploretheir world and gain their own
confidence and that kind ofthing.
I can't really speak too muchabout it because I don't know
(38:06):
exactly what the younger kidsare doing, because my boy is one
of the older ones.
But firstly, all of theteachers.
They curate and handpick thebest of the cream of the crop
around the world.
So they are high quality,they're internationally
certified educators and in termsof the school system.
(38:27):
So what they're learning theyhave the kids work on through
the whole cohort and at the endwe have a learning celebration
and the kids get to showcase theproject they've been working on
(38:51):
.
Um, so yeah, it's project-basedlearning but actually involves
all of the subjects like science, maths, english.
Um, I'm forgetting something,I'm forgetting a few other
things actually.
But but what?
When?
I, when I looked into what aquest was, I don't know what
came first, the actual idea ofit or the acronym, but um, they,
(39:12):
they say I quest.
So I is like being inspired orhaving, like imagining something
and then investigatingsomething.
So have an idea and then theyquestion it and they explore it,
and it's usually global issues.
So one of the things that eachcohort does is each cohort they
work on one of the UNSustainable Development Goals.
(39:34):
So this cohort we're working onnumber 14, which is life below
water.
So they're doing a lot of likeproject work and investigation
on that, on life underwaterconservation, animals, like all
sorts of things.
(39:55):
And then with Questly they workto understand and analyse the
evidence and then they evaluate,like evaluate different
perspectives, so they don't justlike go to one perspective,
they want to kind of look at itfrom different angles and then
they synthesise all of theknowledge and you know from the
(40:18):
different viewpoints and thenbuild their own personal idea.
So the kids are very muchencouraged to formulate their
own, you know, ideas based onall of the information they've
been gathering, and then usethat to transform their learning
into meaningful action andimpact.
So that's kind of, I guess, thebasis behind what they try to
(40:42):
do each cohort.
And it's really incredible.
I'm really excited to see whathappens at the end, because I
know all my son has told me.
He's a nine-year-old boy, so Idon't get a whole lot of
information but, he's told mesome of the different projects
that they're working on and hecomes home and he talks to me so
much more about what's beengoing on in school than he did
back in Australia, like he justseems very, very engaged, um, so
(41:06):
yeah, I guess that's kind ofthe basis of what they do, uh,
and depend, and it's the sameevery cohort.
So here in Tuscany they'reworking on the same stuff as
they are in Portugal or Greeceand Montenegro right now, and so
when some of the familiesactually I think more than 50%
of the families end up beingrepeat boundless life families,
(41:27):
so they go on to another one andthen another one, or maybe they
come back only once a year anddo three months, but if they are
to progress from one to thenext, the education carries on
Like it's not being.
Speaker 1 (41:40):
you know they're not going to repeat the same project
again.
Yeah, yeah.
That was one of my questions,like what if you want to go for
a year?
You know three months here andthree months here you're going
to be doing the same stuff, andI assumed that you wouldn't, but
it's reassuring to know that itis changing.
Oh, that sounds amazing.
Is there anything else you'dlike to add about Boundless Life
(42:01):
that I haven't covered?
Speaker 3 (42:05):
They are coming soon.
They're going to be opening upTrailblazers, which is for the
ages of 13 to 14.
And what they're going to dowith that is because at that age
group they believe thatchildren need um like, more of a
continuous um like, rather thanjust doing three months, they,
(42:26):
the trailblazers, they'reactually going to go for nine
months and they're going toimmerse into like, a language.
So they, I think they're goingto be doing like the Spanish um
trailblazing cohort, becausethey are about to open to South
American destinations in Uruguay, uruguay and somewhere else.
(42:47):
Oh, my gosh, I can't believe, Idon't remember, but the the
group is going to go fromUruguay to the other destination
, to Spain, something like that.
Speaker 1 (42:55):
That that's coming Over the three, over the nine
months.
Yes, wow.
So you're not just in one placefor even nine months, it's
three months in each.
That's really awesome.
Speaker 3 (43:07):
Yeah, and also the support staff I should really
touch on.
The support staff here arefabulous, so they have an app
that we can all communicate, youknow, with the support staff,
with each other.
They organise activities forthe parents and for the families
.
So we've done wine tasting andgrape harvesting, we've got
(43:29):
olive harvesting coming up,truffle hunting coming up, so
they do try to, you know, keepus engaged together as a
community as well, which isreally beautiful.
Speaker 1 (43:39):
I'd be so interested to talk to you again after your
three months and I'm sure you'llbe back again too because I
feel like those networks thatyou're creating too are going to
actually be life-changing, youknow, for yourself and for your
son.
But you know you're growing,not not just Sunshine Coast
Australian networks.
You've now got these global,like-minded networks in remote
(44:00):
business.
That can only be an amazingthing for your business.
It can only be an amazing thingfor your son if he chooses to
be a traveler or wants to workoverseas.
Like there just seems like somany pluses to this.
Speaker 3 (44:13):
Yeah, yes, I haven't found any fault yet, that's for
sure.
Speaker 1 (44:19):
Yeah, if this podcast just dies next year you know
where I am or not Maybe I'll bedoing it, but in Uruguay, who
knows?
Speaker 3 (44:28):
Yes, exactly, I would love that.
Speaker 1 (44:31):
Oh, that's so many cool again, like just the
accumulation, that they'vereally thought about all the
barriers and the problems, andthose problems that keep you up
at night, stopping you frommaking that leap.
And they've just solved themfor you, haven't they?
Yeah they have, oh amazing.
All right, we've got a littlebit of time left for rapid-fire
questions.
(44:52):
Are you ready?
Speaker 3 (44:54):
I'm ready.
Speaker 1 (44:54):
All right, Denise, what is your favourite book of
all time and why?
Or if that's too hard, what areyou currently reading?
Speaker 3 (45:01):
Yes, I got anxiety knowing that you were going to
ask me this question.
Speaker 1 (45:04):
I need to switch them up, but that might cause more
anxiety.
Speaker 3 (45:08):
I'm currently not reading anything.
I used to be a voracious reader, but I was just actually
mentioning and this is a greatbook, it's not, it's not a um
anyway.
Actually mentioning and this isa great book, it's not, it's
not a um anyway.
Look, this is a great book thatI mentioned, uh, this week to
people in my community onInstagram was Dark Emu by Bruce
Pascoe, and, and the reason thatI brought this up is because
(45:31):
Australia has a huge, hugehistory of, I would say,
civilisation that isn'tcommemorated by you know
monuments and unearthed you knowbuildings from the first
century History textbooks yes,yes, that's right, and
(45:53):
Australia's history,unfortunately, has been very
whitewashed.
And what I love about this bookby Bruce Pascoe he opened my
eyes to just the genius behindthe First Nations people and the
kind of world that they livedbefore white settlers, which we
did not get taught at school andum.
(46:15):
For anyone that doesn't knowthis book, I really recommend
reading it, especially if youhave children and you want to
give them, you know a a deeperunderstanding about, like, how
they cultivated the land andthey saved seeds and they you
know even just the, thestructures and buildings that
they lived in.
They were much more civilisedthan you realise.
Speaker 1 (46:40):
Yeah, the whole you know, quote unquote just hunters
and gatherers is a total myth.
Hey, and the way that theylived in symbiosis with nature
and yet was essentiallyagriculturalist, yeah, it blew
my mind that I had.
How sad that we weren't taughtthat.
Speaker 3 (47:00):
Yeah, yeah and it was , yeah and it was.
They tried to destroy it, likethe early settlers tried to
destroy all of that evidence.
So, but anyway, yep, that's agreat book.
Speaker 1 (47:09):
Great recommendation.
All right when all right.
Speaker 3 (47:20):
Here's a, here's a more nuanced not nuanced more
personalized question for youwhen do you go?
What do you do to reset after atough day?
Can I say in Italy, oh, I pourmyself a nice glass of wine and
just like catch up with somefriends here.
Speaker 1 (47:29):
But when I don't have any bad days here, If that
doesn't sell the program to you,then I don't know what will.
Speaker 3 (47:35):
But definitely in Australia.
My reset is going camping withmy boy, uh, and often places
where there's no phone reception.
I'll take a weekend off, uh.
We go to Rainbow Beach, we goto the beach, we go hiking um,
it is just my favorite thing todo back in Australia yeah, so
good.
Speaker 1 (47:53):
We just came back from a weekend in tin can bay
with our one of ourhomeschooling co-ops and it was
just, oh, perfect weather.
It was delightful, all right.
If you had to choose just onething to change about the
education system, what would itbe?
Speaker 3 (48:07):
as in the state school standardized.
Yes, let's go with that, yeah,but there's so many things I
know, know what am I, it's alayered onion of a question,
isn't it?
Yes, yes, I would sayeliminating the standardised
testing.
I for me, like I was, because Iwas a good student, because I
(48:33):
was a good rote learner and myvalue came from my grades, and I
don't want that for childrenbecause it also can devalue.
They feel devalued.
My son is an average student.
He would not ever be top ofanything and sometimes he's
actually quite below averagewhen he does the standardised
(48:57):
testing.
Yet I see this really brilliant, engaged learner right now and
I just don't think that thatdoes any good for, like, I
understand why they do it in thestandard school systems, but
that's I don't know.
I just think that that's a bitof a failure for children.
Speaker 1 (49:16):
So interesting I'm digressing here but that's, I
don't know.
I just think that that's a bitof a failure for children.
So interesting, I'm digressinghere.
On a personal level, we had asclose to a regular maths class
as we would ever have this weekand my children were just like
flummoxed by it.
So many like why?
Questions like why did he teachit like that?
Or why does it have to be likethat, why can't we?
(49:39):
And as a next teacher, I waslike, oh, just, I just had most.
I was like that's a validquestion, that's.
I've got no answer other thangroup management, like.
So many of them came back toyou like, well, group management
.
And like, but we're only agroup of six.
I'm like yeah, but that teacherhasn't de-schooled yet, so
they're still teaching to youlike they would to a group of 25
unruly, disinterested,disengaged students.
(50:01):
So, anyway, that was yeah, andpart of it was the comparison.
They're like ah, I was reallyenjoying maths, but now I'm
behind, I feel like I'm dumbfrom one lesson one lesson with
friends no teasing, no bullying,no grading, no assessment.
Speaker 3 (50:18):
They'd already made that comparison I was like, oh
yes, you know, I rememberlistening.
It was an episode of yourpodcast where there was a lady
on that was talking about thischild who couldn't read until he
was like eight years old andshe said you know, he went on.
When he turned eight he'dlearned to read.
He became this voracious readerbut his passion was ballet and
(50:40):
so he became this incredibleballerina and he had a career in
it until he turned 27, 28.
He gave that up, decided to goto medical school.
She said if he was in astandard school system and he
was eight years old and couldn'tread, he would have been
labelled.
He would have been, would havebeen labeled as slow, learning
difficulties needing specialcare and attention.
(51:01):
He he's.
His story about himself wouldhave not allowed him to be a 28
year old man going into medicalschool because he would have
taken that story about beingslow and dumb or whatever, and
through his life and.
Speaker 1 (51:16):
I that that story really stuck with me and it's
stuck with me too, because myyoungest has only just
solidified his reading at ninenine and a half, I would say and
as an English teacher this hasbeen like my biggest.
It's okay, it's gonna likehaving to talk myself through.
It's gonna be okay, it doesn'thave learning difficulties, I
know it's just time and interestand it's okay.
(51:37):
It's gonna like having to talkmyself through.
It's gonna be okay.
He doesn't have learningdifficulties, I know it's just
time and interest.
And it's finally clicked thisyear.
And and from from that one mathlesson I was like can you
imagine if I had to put him inschool like the hatred of
reading that he would have nowcompared to him reading novels,
like novel after novel afternovel this year.
So so yeah, and I know that'snot every school student's story
(51:58):
either, so I do need to padthat a little.
But for those that are on theyou know the Ds and Es and Fs
side of the spectrum, that isthe common story that by high
school, as an English teacher,day one year, eight English
hands up.
If you love English hands up,if you hate it, I can split the
class.
I'm like they're my A-levelstudents, they're my D, e's, f's
.
Wow, I guarantee it.
(52:20):
Yeah, yeah, so sad, all right,and where can we find out A more
about Boundless Life and giveyourself a plug about your
business too?
Speaker 3 (52:29):
Okay, so Boundless Life go to their website.
Just type that into google,it'll pop straight up.
You will find it, and they areon instagram as well.
So on instagram you'll see alot of other families um tagging
boundless life, so you'll beable to see what they're doing
in the other cohorts as well.
Um, it's really great to followalong on their stories and my
business um.
(52:50):
Go to nisi at so n for nellydouble e c y um you'll so N for
Nelly double E-C-Y.
You'll find me on Instagram.
I sell high quality, low-toxhair care, skin care, skin care,
makeup.
I help other women earn anincome from home, just like me,
changing their lives as well,growing, you know, working
(53:10):
towards their goals and theirdreams.
So that's kind of what I do.
And, yeah, have a look andcheck it out.
Get in touch if you've got anymore questions about Boundless
Life, like directly with me orwith Boundless Life themselves.
They're quick to respond.
Speaker 1 (53:27):
Amazing.
Thank you so much Again.
Like Denise gets no plugs fromthis, she's just a passionate
advocate.
So thank you for your time andyour generosity of sharing with
this.
I can't wait.
I guarantee next year there'llbe someone on someone else going
.
I heard Denise's podcast.
I'm now over in Uruguay andwe're in our eighth month and
(53:49):
just loving it, and that's whatI love about this podcast is
that knowledge is power andpower it changes.
It can change the course in thedirection of your life.
I could just think I'm stillsitting in my little old sunroom
in the middle of Sunshine Coast, queensland, and because you
heard this podcast, you're nowin Italy and you, being on this
podcast now, you'll inspiresomeone else to take their
family out and go and explore anadventure as well.
Speaker 3 (54:13):
Thank you, thank you for sharing my pleasure, and
that is exactly why I wanted tojump on, because I think I want
to see as many families and asmany women mothers as possible.
Like literally, just grab lifeby the ball, yes, and just like
be with your children as much asyou can, explore, have fun,
create memories.
That's honestly.
Money comes and goes, but thiskind of life like yeah, yeah,
(54:35):
you're not going to regret doingit.
Say all the time like we've gotyou know mine.
Honestly, money comes and goes,but this kind of life like yeah
, yeah.
Speaker 1 (54:38):
You're not going to regret doing it.
My husband and I say all thetime we're like we've got.
You know, mine are 10 and 12.
Now can you believe it?
And I'm like we've got maybe 10years left, maybe if we're
lucky to go and do all this coolstuff with them, and then if
things go really well, we've gotanother 40 to do whatever we
(54:59):
want on our own, wherever.
But if we want to do stuff withthem, we've got 10 years.
So, like we always every yeardo a trips, you know, every
month, like what are we bookingin a camping trip, a weekend
away?
What's our big trip once a year?
Um, and that's what keeps us oncourse, because if we don't do
that, life just gets in the way.
But maybe we need a three-monthone next few years, or a
nine-month one.
Let the next few years, or anine-month one, let's do it.
Watch this space, yeah, thankyou so much.
(55:21):
It was so good to chat, please.
I'm definitely going to followyou.
Please post a lot.
Let us keep up to date withwhere you're at and what you're
up to, and, best of luck,everyone else stay wild Bye.
What a way to shake up yourlife, break out of the status
quo and see the world withoutcompromising on your child's
(55:41):
education.
I love that Denise has reallythought about what she wants her
life with her son to look likein these really short years that
we have together, and has justmade it happen.
It's absolutely incrediblyinspiring.
Chatting with Denise for me wasa really great reminder about
how, when we share our stories,we show people what other
(56:02):
choices are out there and givepeople permission to do the same
.
I mean, life is really, reallyshort, and our time with our
children is even shorter.
You really only do get one shotat it.
If you want to go and dosomething different and it
doesn't have to be boundlesslife it can be changing careers
or moving to another town, justtaking your career online or I
(56:26):
don't know take up roller derby,dyeing your hair bright green,
taking half a day off a week,downsizing your house, so you
can do that.
We just need to stop trying tokeep up with the Joneses.
We're probably in debt andmiserable anyway.
So this week, this is yourpermission to just do what it is
that you want with your life,and particularly in this phase,
(56:47):
with your children.
That is so short.
I can't wait to hear so manystories about people hearing
this episode.
So many stories about peopleHearing this episode.
The cycle now from Denisehaving started listening to this
podcast to coming back on thepodcast to talk about Boundless
Life.
I can't wait to see who we chatto next, who was inspired by
(57:08):
Boundless Life to do somethingelse even more amazing.
Please let me know if that'syou and want to come on the
podcast.
Until next week, stay wild.
Ever wanted to pack up your life, leave the country
and whisk your family away toTuscany to world school?
Well, today we're chatting withDenise Georges, a mum from the
Sunshine Coast who has done justthat with the Boundless Life
World Schooling Program.
We like to acknowledge thetraditional custodians of the
land on which we record todaythe Kabi Kabi and Gubbi Gubbi
(00:22):
people.
We recognise their continuedconnection to the land and
waters of this beautiful place.
We recognise Aboriginal peopleas the original custodians of
this land and acknowledge thatthey have never ceded
sovereignty.
We respect all Gubbi Gubbielders, ancestors and emerging
elders and all First Nationspeople listening today.
Speaker 2 (00:42):
Welcome to Raising Wildlings, a podcast about
parenting, alternative educationand stepping into the
wilderness, however that lookswith your family.
Speaker 1 (00:51):
Each week, we'll be interviewing experts that truly
inspire us to answer yourparenting and education
questions.
We'll also be sharing storiesfrom some incredible families
that took the leap and aretaking the road less traveled.
Speaker 2 (01:04):
We're your hosts.
Vicki and Nikki from WildlingsForest School, pop in your
headphones, settle in and joinus on this next adventure.
Speaker 1 (01:12):
Hello and welcome to the Raising Wildlings podcast.
I'm your host, nikki Farrell.
Good, well morning andafternoon to you.
Denise, thank you so much forjoining us all the way from
Italy.
How are you today?
Speaker 3 (01:23):
I'm really good.
I'm excited to be here chattingto you guys and, yeah, to your
listeners about you know thisincredible program that my son
and I are doing currently overhere.
Speaker 1 (01:33):
Yeah, you might be a little confused because I've
said welcome to Denise fromItaly with a very Australian
accent like my own.
Can you talk to us, Denise?
Let's go right back from thestart.
Tell us how the heck an Aussieended up with her son.
World schooling in Italy.
Speaker 3 (01:49):
Okay, so it has been a little bit of a journey.
Now for your listeners, I havebeen listening to this podcast.
Well, it's been a while, butback in 2020, definitely I was
gorging on your content because,you know, I'm a single mum.
I've been a single mum to mynine-year-old since the day he
(02:11):
was born, and I had to go backto work when he was six months.
So that's just the life that Iunfortunately had to live.
It's life.
It's life.
Put a roof over our heads andfood on the table.
It's not necessarily what Iwanted to do, however and I am a
(02:32):
dental hygienist by professionit was something that I've been
oh gosh, it's 17 years now sinceI graduated, and so you know,
growing up in Sydney and then Ihad him in Melbourne.
We eventually found our way tothe Sunshine Coast in Queensland
, and I was working in apractice that had a lot of
(02:54):
families coming through thatwere homeschooling families, and
I'd never really been exposedto that before, been exposed to
that before, growing up in acity very suburban and similarly
, in Melbourne, I was right inthe guts of the city.
(03:15):
For me, homeschooling justseemed so wacky and so
alternative and so left of scent, like just too alternative for
me and I had my ownpreconceptions about it.
But what I started to noticewith all these families that I
was now in contact with was howthe children were just.
They seemed so mature.
They were able to haveconversations with me rather
(03:37):
than grunting at me.
That's what I was used to.
There was just something aboutit.
It was one of my patients thatsaid you need to listen to this
podcast, it's going to open youreyes, and so that's how I found
you guys, and then it was liketotally on my radar.
However, I never had theopportunity to homeschool
because I had to work full time.
(03:58):
There was no other option forme at the time.
So then COVID happens and Ilost my job.
It was taken away from me.
I was not going to partake inthe mandates, so I found myself
unemployed.
I didn't have a plan B, but itwas like, well, I've got this
(04:19):
time now.
So I actually put my son hadcompleted one year of state
school in prep and there weremany issues that came up for me
throughout that year that I wasjust not okay with.
A lot of things that happened,and I am a state school girl,
like I grew up in that system.
I went to a Catholic girlsschool and I, you know, I came
(04:42):
out of school with great grades.
I also came out of schoolhaving no direction, no idea who
I was, no idea what I wanted todo.
And then, you know, because Iwas listening to your podcast at
the same time like everythingshifted in my thinking about
education and so I decided, well, I don't have a job Like I
literally have all this time now.
(05:03):
I pulled my son out of schooland I thought I'm going to
homeschool him.
And so, you know, in themeantime I had to pack up my
life.
I couldn't service my mortgageanymore.
I had to.
Luckily, my mom was on thecoast as well, so she took us in
and we lived with her for awhole year.
I was working as a cleaner threedays a week.
(05:24):
I was able, as a cleaner, threedays a week, I was able to find
these incredible communities onthe coast.
Actually, he did come and doyour forest school-like thing as
well.
So I found these incrediblecommunities, and so he was going
to a couple of differenthomeschooling co-ops a couple of
days a week as I was cleaningin co-ops a couple of days a
(05:45):
week as I was cleaning and inthe time in between, I sat down
and I was educating my son.
My ideals, however, were veryhigh and the reality for me
didn't match that, and so Istruggled, because I knew from
listening to your podcast that Ineeded time to unschool myself,
(06:06):
because it was I was cominginto it with the same thought
processes around how to teachand educate and learn, um, and
so that you know that I wasexposed to growing up.
So it just wasn't working.
So we spent a lot of timecamping and hiking and doing
(06:27):
stuff outside, which is where wejust we thrive, we love it.
So it was.
It was fine for six, six months, and then he got a place in a
local Montessori school and andthat was wonderful.
In the meantime, I actuallystarted an online business,
which I didn't have, you know, Ididn't have great grand plans
for it.
I was hoping to earn an extrahundred dollars a week because
(06:50):
at the time I was reallystruggling financially, I was
burning through all of my smallamount of savings and I just
needed another way to earn anextra hundred bucks a week so I
could fill my car up with petrol, cause at the time I was, you
know, putting $40 in here, $20in there, when I could.
Some days like I remember this,one day specifically where I
dropped my son to hishomeschooling co-op and I drove
(07:14):
away in tears because I didn'thave enough money to actually
pay for the day for him.
I only had $20 in my bankaccount and I was just, and she
said don't worry, just, you canpay me tomorrow.
I was like this is not the lifethat I want.
This is not the life that Idreamed, and at that time, there
was no idea about when it wasgoing to change, when it was
going to end, when, you know,I'd be allowed back in my
(07:36):
profession, or if I ever would.
It was just.
There was so much unknown, so Istarted this online business.
I just need to be able to putpetrol in my car and this is how
I got to Italy.
Because two and a half yearslet's fast forward to today.
Two and a half years later itis now my full-time income.
I am no longer doing dentalhygiene and this business being
(08:01):
able to work remotely.
I can work anywhere, servicingmy customers, helping out my
team and the way that I came tobe here and how I found out
about it is my son.
He loves to cook and he's beenin the kitchen just pottering
(08:21):
around with me since he couldsit up straight and sit on the
kitchen bench and, uh, I thinkit was it was a January this
year when, um, I sat down withhim.
We're just sitting up atRainbow Beach, which is a really
, really beautiful part of theSunshine Coast, if you guys know
it.
We we go there a lot to justfill our cup, and I was just
(08:42):
sitting with him and I had thisthought, just like download into
my brain from absolutelynowhere.
I just looked at him and I saidyou know what, one day we are
going to live in Italy and youare going to refine your cooking
skills over there, like usinglike the most incredible produce
.
I'm like you'll the taste ofthe tomatoes in Italy.
Like you'll.
Just because he didn't liketomatoes at the time.
I'm like you're gonna, you aregoing to love tomatoes one day
(09:05):
because you're going to tastethem in Italy.
That's a real tomato.
Although I've got to say, likeliving where we live on the
Sunshine Coast, we do haveaccess to incredible produce,
and tomatoes do taste prettygood over there.
We do.
However, yeah.
So I just looked at him andhe's like okay, mum.
However, yeah, so I just lookedat him and he's like that's it,
okay, mum.
And for the next week he waslike peppering me with questions
(09:28):
about why Italy?
Where did I like to go in Italy?
What food did I like to eat?
What was my favorite dessert?
And I hadn't been to Italy LikeI've been twice, but I hadn't
seen a lot.
It was, you know, flying in,flying out, one of those like
very quick trips, and I said,well, I didn't get to Florence.
But one place I didn't get towas the Tuscan countryside, and
(09:52):
that's where I would really loveto go, having watched under the
Tuscan sun a bazillion times.
Speaker 1 (09:58):
Every woman's dream.
Speaker 3 (10:00):
So I said that's where I want to go.
And it was literally one weeklater.
I was at the beach in Noosawincing myself off under the
showers with my eyes closed.
I heard someone call out myname and I opened my eyes and it
was friends of ours who I knewhad been traveling the world for
a year with their family.
Like, she has two young girlsthat are similar age to my boy
(10:23):
and I didn't realize she wasback.
I said, oh my gosh,congratulations on being back.
I want to hear all about yourtrip.
And and I knew that one of thefirst places they came to was
Italy and I said, oh my gosh,like I want to hear about Italy,
especially because I said to mylittle boy, um, last week that
I really want to go to Italy.
And she said, oh, but have youheard of Boundless Life?
You've obviously heard aboutBoundless Life.
(10:45):
And I said, no, I haven't heardof that.
And she said, well, it's thisprogram.
And she went on to explain itto me and I said, oh, that
sounds amazing because they'rein a number of different
destinations.
And I said where are they inItaly?
And she said they're in Tuscany.
And I just like I got shiversdown my body.
I said, oh my goodness, youneed to tell me all the details.
(11:06):
I need to find out all aboutthis, because I was literally
saying to my boy that we mightdo this when you're in high
school, when you're a little bitolder.
But she gave me the details.
I jumped on a discovery callsoon after and I said oh my gosh
, if you have a space this year,book us in, take my money, like
I need to do this.
(11:26):
And so it was just.
You know, when the universeputs signs in front of you, you
just walk towards them, and thatis what we did.
So that was a very quickturnaround from knowing about it
to being here, and we arecurrently I think this is our
fifth week in Tuscany now, andwe're here for the three month
cohort, and it's just beenabsolutely fabulous.
Speaker 1 (11:49):
So good, I have so many questions and I'm sure our
listeners do too.
But again, like the alignmentof that and we were saying
before the interview, like thefull circle of Denise, to be on
the podcast sharing about worldschooling within just a few
years of listening to is just amind blowing for me, cause I
forget that again that this goesout to anyone but my little old
(12:11):
self.
So it's so, so cool.
All right, so let's backtrack.
Boundless life.
What is it?
Speaker 3 (12:20):
So I.
Last week we got to meet thefounder of boundless life and,
uh, I really enjoyed hearingbecause I didn't know the story
about how it all came to be.
Boundless Life has been inexistence for only three years
and we're in six locationsaround the world, mostly in
Europe, but with more to expand.
(12:42):
And the founder of BoundlessLife his name is Mauro Rapici, I
think.
Hopefully I'm not getting hisname wrong.
He's originally from Brazil buthas been living in Canada with
his family for over a decade Ithink 14, 17 years, something
like that he had been like.
(13:03):
I think.
He started two different techcompanies.
So that was his backgroundsoftware, tech, engineering.
They had a beautiful life inCanada.
He, you know, had a beautifulhome, three young girls.
But he said to his wife you know, I really just want to take off
for a year.
I just want to pack up and gotravelling for a year and see
(13:25):
the world with the girls.
And she said, well, okay, well,let's do this.
And so he spoke to some oftheir friends.
There was one family.
They're like that's a greatidea, can we join you?
And he said, well, yes, okay.
So they started this WhatsAppgroup and then, very quickly,
(13:45):
there was 40 families in thisWhatsApp group wanting to do the
same thing, wow.
And he said wow, like am Imeant to be organizing all of
your holidays now, like what ishappening here?
But he was very intrigued.
He's like why are there so manyfamilies wanting to do this?
Like what?
What's the instigator, what'sthe motivation behind this?
(14:07):
And he wanted to know.
So he started speaking to thefamilies and interviewing them
and he realized that, you know,they all had the same desire.
They all wanted to spend timewith their families and
experience life before theirchildren get old and don't want
to spend time with them anymore.
And I think your listenersprobably are very aware of this
(14:28):
statistic.
Like 75% of the time we'regoing to spend with our children
, it's over by the time they're18.
By then, like, they want to goand spread their wings and see
the world and you know, ifyou're lucky, they might want to
hang out with you, you know, acouple of times a year.
Well, hopefully more than that.
But so I think, because ofCOVID, I think families around
(14:53):
the world are very I don't know,very tapped into that.
The time is short, but life isprecious and let's make the most
of it.
So that was.
That was where the idea ofBoundless Life came from.
So their very first destinationthat they opened was in Sintra
in Portugal, and it wasrudimentary, like they found a
(15:19):
location.
So what the premise behindBoundless Life is is they set
the families up that come withaccommodation like nice
accommodation.
You have a co-working hub forthe parents so they can have a
space that they can work whenthe children are at school.
Obviously, the education likethe education is a big thing for
(15:41):
the families is that familieswant to travel and immerse
themselves into a culture.
You know not just you knowNorth Americans.
They have two weeks holiday ayear Like that's wild In
Australia, I think four weeksholiday a year isn't even long
enough.
But they want to be able to goaway and still carry on with
(16:02):
living, working remotely,because obviously a lot of
people are doing that now, ornot working at all, taking a
larger leave of absence,immersing into a culture, but
they're not missing out theirchildren, not missing out on
quality education, and so noteveryone is suited to
(16:22):
homeschooling their children ontheir own I'm not and so this
was like a really great, I guess, a way for families to do that
Such a win-win Such a win-win,such a win-win.
And so Sintra opened and eversince then I think there has
(16:43):
been 15 cohorts.
Ever since Mauro and his family, they do this full time.
They've been to all of thecohorts in the different
destinations, bar two, and yeah,it's's just.
I just think he's kept it small, like there was four original
founders.
Two of them have left, um,there's still him and one other
(17:06):
and I think another one hasjoined, and they had a lot of
interest from big playerswanting to, you know, invest
into the company.
But he's actually said no tosome pretty big bucks because
they wanted to control, you know, more than he was happy with.
(17:29):
So they wanted to open, youknow, I don't know a huge number
, very quickly, of BoundlessLife cohorts around the world.
And he said no because if youhis concern was doing that, you
would compromise things and youwould compromise the community,
feel, you would compromise theeducation, and so he said no to
(17:50):
that.
And so he's expanding, butslowly, in order to make sure
the quality remains the same inall of the destinations.
And currently we are, weboundless life are in.
They're in portugal, centralportugal, steeros, in greece,
obviously, tuscany, uh, they'veopened up bali in indonesia,
(18:12):
koto in up Bali in Indonesia,kotor in Montenegro are doing
the first cohort right now andand I don't know if I'm
pronouncing this right Andalusiain Spain, which is, again,
they're just doing the firstcohort now.
And the destinations that theychoose they really so far have
(18:33):
wanted a space that feels safe,that is kind of a little bit off
the beaten track, but also notoff the beaten track, but off
the tourist trail.
Where we are right now.
It is very close to Florence,like you jump on a train and
you're in Florence in half anhour or 40 minutes and, yeah,
(18:55):
the other destinations similar,so you actually feel like you're
part of the community here.
You know the locals welcome usand you know we use Google
Translate a lot, but they alsodo speak English very well here
too, and so what Mauro does is,twice a year they will interview
(19:16):
the parents that have beenthrough the cohorts and see what
they can do to improve, and oneof the things that the parents
have been asking for are, thisyear, locations next, but within
a space or a neighbourhoodwhere all of the families are
close by, so within 15 minutes,close, you know, in walking
(19:38):
distance.
That's what we have right hereand that's what the other
destinations are like, so I canwalk to any other family's home
like within minutes to maximum,I think, maximum eight minutes
and the co-working hub is veryclose and the education center
is very close.
So for the first time ever, myson is walking himself to school
(19:59):
, which I would actually justnot allow in, even though we
live in a very safe space inplace in Australia.
Speaker 1 (20:06):
Um, that's so good, though, even environmentally, to
know that your commute anywhere, for all the things you need is
eight minutes.
Speaker 3 (20:15):
Yes, yeah.
Speaker 1 (20:16):
Oh good.
Speaker 3 (20:18):
Did that answer your question?
I feel like I went on a tangent.
Speaker 1 (20:20):
No, that answered quite a few, but I have so many
more.
Okay, so let's talk about cause.
I know one of the firstquestions are going to be
logistics and practicality, socan you talk to us about how
other families are doing it?
You've kind of talked about howit's set up, but what does a
day look like for you and foryour son?
Speaker 3 (20:43):
Yes, sure.
So firstly, logistically, thatwas one of the biggest draw
cards for me is that they makeit so easy.
As a single parent, all of thedecisions come to me like rest
on my shoulders, and it can be alot when you're traveling.
There are so many things tofactor in, so many things to
decide, and I've got no one tobounce off ideas, it's just me.
(21:05):
And so when I looked atBoundless Life and I spoke to
the people from here, I realizedthat it was going to be
seamless and it absolutely was.
All I had to do was pack mysuitcases, book my flight, I got
picked up at the airport, I gotwelcomed into, someone was
(21:25):
waiting for me at our homeshowing us through, and they had
a little bit of food and carepackage waiting for us.
And the next day we got here alittle bit late.
The next day, school startedand it was absolute.
Like the transition wasseamless.
My son he was a little bitnervous to start came out of
there on his first day soexcited he ran to school the
(21:47):
next day.
And they like logistically, Ifound it so simple, I didn't
have to find my accommodation.
Like, logistically, I found itso simple, I didn't have to find
my accommodation, I don't haveto pay bills, I don't even have
to pack school lunches or cleanmy home.
For three months that's neverhappened.
Oh my God, sign me up, it getsdone for me.
So, like an average day lookslike Monday to Friday.
(22:11):
The kids go to school, so theystart at.
Drop-off is at a quarter tonine in the morning, pick-up is
about a quarter past three.
There's a couple of days whenmy son does extracurricular
activities, so I pick him up at4.30.
And he walks himself to school.
I get up, I work on my businessuntil usually around midday, so
(22:32):
for about three hours I'll beconnecting with my team, with my
customers, creating content.
Uh, then I like sometimes thethe mums here.
We go out for a lunch on aThursday and we, you know, have
some wine.
That that goes into.
That's a long lunch.
It goes into a school pickup,uh.
And then sometimes, yeah, Imight go for a walk, I might go
(22:55):
and explore, I might jump on atrain and go into Florence.
It's usually on the weekendsthat we will go out into the
Tuscan countryside.
So the last two weekends I'vehired a car and we've gone and
seen some incredible things,like the southern part of
Tuscany, has these cascadingthermal pools, that just this
(23:18):
warm water just gushes out ofthe ground and it just flows
over these incredible cascades.
Incredible stuff like that wasa bucket list stuff for me, so
there's been a bit of gettingout of my comfort zone.
Well, that was the biggestthing.
That was the thing that Ifeared the most was driving on
the other side of the thing thatI feared the most was driving
on the other side of the road,driving manual on the other side
of the road, and I haven'tdriven manual for over 20 years,
(23:42):
so that was a bit scary, butmost of the weekend.
So every second weekend thekids finish, sorry, every second
Friday the kids finish schoolearly, so at noon, which gives
the families a long weekend.
Some people just hang in townbecause there's actually there
was festival after festival inthis tiny little town since we
(24:03):
arrived.
On the weekends there's alwayssomething going on.
The Italians love to celebrateall sorts of things.
But then, yeah, other times we,you know, we had a weekend in
Cinque Terre and did a hike overthe beautiful you know
mountains over there.
It was absolutely gorgeous.
So the day to the day, Mondayto Friday, is fairly similar, I
(24:25):
guess, to what we would do inAustralia.
The community here is amazingas well.
So we do, like the families gettogether, we do dinners.
Like the families get together,we do dinners.
You know the where I am sittingright now, just outside of the
co-working hub, is our smallpiazza and there's a couple of
restaurants there that openearly especially for us, like
the boundless families, becausewe, you know, we like to eat
(24:48):
dinner early because we've allgot young kids, so we'll
sometimes catch up there, havedrinks, have pizza uh, yeah,
it's, it's a beautiful,beautiful life how flexible.
Speaker 1 (24:57):
So if you wanted to take an extra day or two off, is
that a concern?
Is it almost expected?
Like, how does that work?
If you're like you know what,I've got a sudden urge to go
somewhere for an extra longweekend.
Is that a problem?
Speaker 3 (25:08):
I haven't had the conversation yet, but I know
some families have done it.
Look, it might be one of thosethings that they prefer you not
to, but they understand if youdo.
And I haven't felt the need todo it yet, because most of what
we want to see is quiteaccessible for a weekend.
If we wanted to do somethinglike go to Rome or further south
(25:30):
, to Naples or that, then you'dneed a longer weekend and I
think some families are planningthat.
So, and it also depends, someof the families have younger
kids and they're not quiteschool age yet, so they have
their.
They've got their differentgroups for the kids, so the one
to five-year-olds are in theexplorers group and I think
(25:55):
they're fairly lenient.
Speaker 1 (25:58):
I was just thinking like the way you'd plan it
anyway, like if you wanted toexplore longer, you'd just tack
it on at the end, wouldn't you?
It's yeah, and, like you said,the urgency's then taken away.
If you've got time in theafternoon yourself to explore
and to research and think aboutwhat you want to do on the
weekend, you're not tied tocleaning your home, doing the
gardening, getting ready for thenext school fate.
Speaker 3 (26:21):
You've got that time back.
It really, yes.
It feels so freeing, it'swonderful.
Speaker 1 (26:36):
Yeah, what made you take the leap, other than, you
know, the universe slapping youin the face with all the signs
that you had to go?
There would still be a lot ofpeople right that would have
either looked at the price orjust said, no, it's too scary,
it's too much, it's toosomething.
You know.
Whatever objection you want toput in there, what made you do
it and what would you say tothose people that you know would
have all of those objections?
Speaker 3 (27:00):
If you can possibly find a way to do it, I would
jump on the opportunity.
The thing that I guess for me.
I don't want to compromise mytime with my son anymore, and
before I had kids well, kids achild I loved to travel and it's
(27:21):
not something that I wanted togive up.
And obviously, when COVIDhappened, my son was, I think,
four or five and travel did cometo a halt.
And then, once I had that time,that extra time with him that I
hadn't had before, I was like Idon't want to give this up.
And, and we did during theCOVID times we still did so much
(27:41):
camping Like we he and I wereout in Queensland as much as we
could be, um, and it honestlylights.
It lights us up, it's what itjust it's something that I have
to do.
It's not a I cannot just be ahomebody Like.
I have to go out and I enjoypushing myself into you know,
(28:03):
places of discomfort, because Iknow from experience that that
is where the fun, juicy lifestuff happens.
And so I tell this story oftento people that I know that when
my son went to school which wasso he was five for the first
time, our connection fragmentedand he, yeah, he, just, he
(28:30):
wouldn't want to hug me anymore,he wouldn't kiss me anymore, he
wouldn't hold my hand anymore,he would pull away, like just
any time that I tried to getclose to him, and even though we
still slept in the same bed,and in fact we still do.
But that really broke my heartand I thought surely this is too
soon, surely this happens whenthey turn 13.
(28:52):
Like, what is going on?
And I thought that I'd lost myson in that way, like, and then
it wasn't going to come back.
But when I lost my job and wewere spending more time together
, like, it literally came back.
He would hold my hand everytime we were in the car, he
would be the one to reach out tograb my hand and he doesn't
(29:14):
mind so much being kissed andcuddled anymore.
He will walk across the room togive me a cuddle and it.
That was a real wake-up call aswell.
It's like the, the, thefragmented relationship happens
because we I was that stressedout mum that was rushing him out
of the door at a quarter toseven in the morning, that was
not getting home till a quarterpast six every night, five days
(29:36):
a week, rushing him throughdinner, through bar, through
book to bed and rinse and repeatfor a whole year well, even
prior to that, because he was inlong daycare and I'm like that
is not.
That is not.
The reason we bring childreninto the world is to be this
stressed out, rushing, you know,out the door person who doesn't
(30:00):
have quality time to spend withtheir child.
So I didn't want to.
I didn't want to ever go backto that, which is why I worked
really hard on my onlinebusiness to build it to a place
where I could, on a whim, decideto pack up our life and move
across the world for threemonths, and so it's.
I know that it can be.
It seemed like an expense forsome people, but the payoff is
(30:24):
so worth it and what it shows myson is that you can put your
mind to something and achieve itif you believe in it.
You can do the hard, scarythings and also it's just
building so much resilience inhim, like the people that he is
meeting and the friendships thathe has formed.
There's families from sevendifferent nationalities at this
(30:48):
school and you know his bestfriends.
Some of them, they barely evenspeak English.
There's three families herethat are from Israel that have
escaped a war zone and he is soclose to them, yet they barely
speak English and they haveplaydates, yet they can
communicate in their own way.
(31:10):
And so he and I have had themost incredible conversations
since we've arrived here andalso just being out and
exploring the history of Italyand you know the Romans and the
architecture, and we've had like.
Over the weekend we came acrossthis Banksy exhibition in the
(31:31):
middle of this medieval town, ona hilltop not too far from here
, and we walked through thereand we're looking at Banksy's
artworks in this medieval town,talking about, you know, modern
history and like you knowBanksy's statements about with
his it's just, it's been onething after another.
But what I've noticed is thathis interest in the things that
(31:54):
I'm talking to him about is likeon high, rather than him
sitting down at a desk andreading something out of a book
and then having to write, learndates and then, like, get tested
on.
You know what he was able tomemorize about history.
He's actually having thisexperiential experience.
Speaker 1 (32:17):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (32:19):
And like feeling it and he's engaging, like he's
engaging so much in the thingsthat we're discussing and things
that we're seeing and he'sasking so many questions and
it's just been incredible.
So, for anyone that has thesefeelings that, oh, I couldn't do
that, how's it going to work?
In terms of my own work, I'mtelling you you can make it
(32:41):
happen, because I am seeing someof the families here are being
very, very creative.
Yeah, talk to us about that.
Well, some families arepermanently world schooling.
They don't have a fixedlocation at all.
Wow, permanently world schooling, like they don't have a fixed
location at all, wow, uh, somehave taken a sabbatical, like an
extended leave of absence,because they heard about
boundless life three years agowhen it opened and they have
(33:04):
been working for three years inorder to make this happen for
their family.
Uh, some families have taken ayear off and they're going to,
you know, kind of maybe hop overthrough the different cohorts,
uh, and you know there's onefamily where her, her work, does
not even know she's left thestate.
(33:24):
Yes, so, so she, she, you know,sets herself up in the cohort
between 5 pm and 2 am monday,monday to friday and she works
and connects with her team fromhere and they have no idea she's
in like on another continentthat's gold.
Speaker 1 (33:47):
I am here for that, I .
I'm here for shaking up thestatus quo.
You know like we think whatwe're doing is normal and so we
assume that it's healthy.
But gosh, then our healthstatistics and our divorce
statistics and our mental healthstatistics tell an actual the
truth of the story.
And so to to shake that up and,like you said, show your
(34:08):
children that you don't have tolive like that If it doesn't
make you happy.
If it makes you happy, go nuts,go prosper, go enjoy yourself.
But if you want somethingdifferent, you just have to set
your mind to it.
Like that's what I just love somuch about your story.
Tell me how you're finding itsolo, parenting, overseas, with
Boundless Life, anything youwould want to see changed, or
(34:29):
are you finding it fairlyseamless?
Speaker 3 (34:30):
Yeah, I love it.
And guess what?
I'm not the only single mumhere.
There's two others.
There's two other single mums.
Speaker 1 (34:38):
I think I've said so good about 500 times.
I'll try and switch it up, butthis is so good.
Speaker 3 (34:48):
I think that as a single parent, it's so easy
because I've got the communitysupport when I need it.
We are actually living in ablock that has a central
courtyard and there's six otherfamilies within us and it's like
a security door to get in.
So it and it feels so safe.
(35:10):
So if there was a time where Icouldn't go and this is what
happens within our community butthere was a family that went
bike riding off like 96kilometres away for the day and
they realised they weren't goingto get back in time for school
pickup, so they called on afriend and you know we are all
here supporting each other andyou know it just feels.
(35:33):
It feels really safe as asingle parent and, like I said
before, it is so nice not toworry about, you know, doing the
cleaning, packing the schoollunches, because that gets
provided for them.
I get a cleaner one and a halfdays a week.
So Tuesdays they do a fullclean, fridays they do, you know
, the floors and just wipe thebenchtops and clean the bathroom
(35:54):
.
It's like this is absoluteluxury for me.
This is living, barry.
Yeah, this is living.
Speaker 1 (36:03):
It's such an accumulation of solved problems,
not problems, well solvedproblems, and desires as well.
You know these things that weimagine in our heads.
But then the logistics like Isaid, the logistics of
organizing all that and actuallystumbling across a similar
community is pretty slim.
(36:25):
Like you might randomly bumpinto a world schooling community
, but you're not going to findan entire community for your
child to hang out with.
One more question Talk to meabout do you know much about
what their education?
What does school look like foryour son in a day?
Speaker 3 (36:40):
Yes, this is a great question because, again, it's
another drawcard for families.
So the education system isbased off the Finnish school
system.
So if you don't know much aboutthat, it's like the best, one
of the best or the best in theworld.
It's a school system that theydon't do standardized testing,
(37:00):
they don't do comparisons.
You know, child to child.
The children have no homeworkto very, very little homework,
small class sizes, veryindividualized learning as well.
And I actually researched this.
I was like, is this for real?
And I came across so manypapers saying that, yes, like
the teachers care so much aboutthe children and if something
(37:22):
isn't working with one child,they're going to problem solve
with that child.
They're going to ask theirco-workers, they're going to,
they're going to figure it out,because they want the best for
every single, every single child.
Um, so for the little, well,actually, for the explorers and
the pathfinders.
So the explorers, the one tofives, and then the pathfinders,
the six to twelve, um, they useMontessori materials.
(37:44):
So my son is used to theMontessori materials.
It's very, it's hands-on,practical learning.
Um, and for the younger ones,it's definitely play-based
learning and, you know, going attheir pace, giving them the
opportunity to kind of exploretheir world and gain their own
confidence and that kind ofthing.
I can't really speak too muchabout it because I don't know
(38:06):
exactly what the younger kidsare doing, because my boy is one
of the older ones.
But firstly, all of theteachers.
They curate and handpick thebest of the cream of the crop
around the world.
So they are high quality,they're internationally
certified educators and in termsof the school system.
(38:27):
So what they're learning theyhave the kids work on through
the whole cohort and at the endwe have a learning celebration
and the kids get to showcase theproject they've been working on
(38:51):
.
Um, so yeah, it's project-basedlearning but actually involves
all of the subjects like science, maths, english.
Um, I'm forgetting something,I'm forgetting a few other
things actually.
But but what?
When?
I, when I looked into what aquest was, I don't know what
came first, the actual idea ofit or the acronym, but um, they,
(39:12):
they say I quest.
So I is like being inspired orhaving, like imagining something
and then investigatingsomething.
So have an idea and then theyquestion it and they explore it,
and it's usually global issues.
So one of the things that eachcohort does is each cohort they
work on one of the UNSustainable Development Goals.
(39:34):
So this cohort we're working onnumber 14, which is life below
water.
So they're doing a lot of likeproject work and investigation
on that, on life underwaterconservation, animals, like all
sorts of things.
(39:55):
And then with Questly they workto understand and analyse the
evidence and then they evaluate,like evaluate different
perspectives, so they don't justlike go to one perspective,
they want to kind of look at itfrom different angles and then
they synthesise all of theknowledge and you know from the
(40:18):
different viewpoints and thenbuild their own personal idea.
So the kids are very muchencouraged to formulate their
own, you know, ideas based onall of the information they've
been gathering, and then usethat to transform their learning
into meaningful action andimpact.
So that's kind of, I guess, thebasis behind what they try to
(40:42):
do each cohort.
And it's really incredible.
I'm really excited to see whathappens at the end, because I
know all my son has told me.
He's a nine-year-old boy, so Idon't get a whole lot of
information but, he's told mesome of the different projects
that they're working on and hecomes home and he talks to me so
much more about what's beengoing on in school than he did
back in Australia, like he justseems very, very engaged, um, so
(41:06):
yeah, I guess that's kind ofthe basis of what they do, uh,
and depend, and it's the sameevery cohort.
So here in Tuscany they'reworking on the same stuff as
they are in Portugal or Greeceand Montenegro right now, and so
when some of the familiesactually I think more than 50%
of the families end up beingrepeat boundless life families,
(41:27):
so they go on to another one andthen another one, or maybe they
come back only once a year anddo three months, but if they are
to progress from one to thenext, the education carries on
Like it's not being.
Speaker 1 (41:40):
you know they're not going to repeat the same project
again.
Yeah, yeah.
That was one of my questions,like what if you want to go for
a year?
You know three months here andthree months here you're going
to be doing the same stuff, andI assumed that you wouldn't, but
it's reassuring to know that itis changing.
Oh, that sounds amazing.
Is there anything else you'dlike to add about Boundless Life
(42:01):
that I haven't covered?
Speaker 3 (42:05):
They are coming soon.
They're going to be opening upTrailblazers, which is for the
ages of 13 to 14.
And what they're going to dowith that is because at that age
group they believe thatchildren need um like, more of a
continuous um like, rather thanjust doing three months, they,
(42:26):
the trailblazers, they'reactually going to go for nine
months and they're going toimmerse into like, a language.
So they, I think they're goingto be doing like the Spanish um
trailblazing cohort, becausethey are about to open to South
American destinations in Uruguay, uruguay and somewhere else.
(42:47):
Oh, my gosh, I can't believe, Idon't remember, but the the
group is going to go fromUruguay to the other destination
, to Spain, something like that.
Speaker 1 (42:55):
That that's coming Over the three, over the nine
months.
Yes, wow.
So you're not just in one placefor even nine months, it's
three months in each.
That's really awesome.
Speaker 3 (43:07):
Yeah, and also the support staff I should really
touch on.
The support staff here arefabulous, so they have an app
that we can all communicate, youknow, with the support staff,
with each other.
They organise activities forthe parents and for the families
.
So we've done wine tasting andgrape harvesting, we've got
(43:29):
olive harvesting coming up,truffle hunting coming up, so
they do try to, you know, keepus engaged together as a
community as well, which isreally beautiful.
Speaker 1 (43:39):
I'd be so interested to talk to you again after your
three months and I'm sure you'llbe back again too because I
feel like those networks thatyou're creating too are going to
actually be life-changing, youknow, for yourself and for your
son.
But you know you're growing,not not just Sunshine Coast
Australian networks.
You've now got these global,like-minded networks in remote
(44:00):
business.
That can only be an amazingthing for your business.
It can only be an amazing thingfor your son if he chooses to
be a traveler or wants to workoverseas.
Like there just seems like somany pluses to this.
Speaker 3 (44:13):
Yeah, yes, I haven't found any fault yet, that's for
sure.
Speaker 1 (44:19):
Yeah, if this podcast just dies next year you know
where I am or not Maybe I'll bedoing it, but in Uruguay, who
knows?
Speaker 3 (44:28):
Yes, exactly, I would love that.
Speaker 1 (44:31):
Oh, that's so many cool again, like just the
accumulation, that they'vereally thought about all the
barriers and the problems, andthose problems that keep you up
at night, stopping you frommaking that leap.
And they've just solved themfor you, haven't they?
Yeah they have, oh amazing.
All right, we've got a littlebit of time left for rapid-fire
questions.
(44:52):
Are you ready?
Speaker 3 (44:54):
I'm ready.
Speaker 1 (44:54):
All right, Denise, what is your favourite book of
all time and why?
Or if that's too hard, what areyou currently reading?
Speaker 3 (45:01):
Yes, I got anxiety knowing that you were going to
ask me this question.
Speaker 1 (45:04):
I need to switch them up, but that might cause more
anxiety.
Speaker 3 (45:08):
I'm currently not reading anything.
I used to be a voracious reader, but I was just actually
mentioning and this is a greatbook, it's not, it's not a um
anyway.
Actually mentioning and this isa great book, it's not, it's
not a um anyway.
Look, this is a great book thatI mentioned, uh, this week to
people in my community onInstagram was Dark Emu by Bruce
Pascoe, and, and the reason thatI brought this up is because
(45:31):
Australia has a huge, hugehistory of, I would say,
civilisation that isn'tcommemorated by you know
monuments and unearthed you knowbuildings from the first
century History textbooks yes,yes, that's right, and
(45:53):
Australia's history,unfortunately, has been very
whitewashed.
And what I love about this bookby Bruce Pascoe he opened my
eyes to just the genius behindthe First Nations people and the
kind of world that they livedbefore white settlers, which we
did not get taught at school andum.
(46:15):
For anyone that doesn't knowthis book, I really recommend
reading it, especially if youhave children and you want to
give them, you know a a deeperunderstanding about, like, how
they cultivated the land andthey saved seeds and they you
know even just the, thestructures and buildings that
they lived in.
They were much more civilisedthan you realise.
Speaker 1 (46:40):
Yeah, the whole you know, quote unquote just hunters
and gatherers is a total myth.
Hey, and the way that theylived in symbiosis with nature
and yet was essentiallyagriculturalist, yeah, it blew
my mind that I had.
How sad that we weren't taughtthat.
Speaker 3 (47:00):
Yeah, yeah and it was , yeah and it was.
They tried to destroy it, likethe early settlers tried to
destroy all of that evidence.
So, but anyway, yep, that's agreat book.
Speaker 1 (47:09):
Great recommendation.
All right when all right.
Speaker 3 (47:20):
Here's a, here's a more nuanced not nuanced more
personalized question for youwhen do you go?
What do you do to reset after atough day?
Can I say in Italy, oh, I pourmyself a nice glass of wine and
just like catch up with somefriends here.
Speaker 1 (47:29):
But when I don't have any bad days here, If that
doesn't sell the program to you,then I don't know what will.
Speaker 3 (47:35):
But definitely in Australia.
My reset is going camping withmy boy, uh, and often places
where there's no phone reception.
I'll take a weekend off, uh.
We go to Rainbow Beach, we goto the beach, we go hiking um,
it is just my favorite thing todo back in Australia yeah, so
good.
Speaker 1 (47:53):
We just came back from a weekend in tin can bay
with our one of ourhomeschooling co-ops and it was
just, oh, perfect weather.
It was delightful, all right.
If you had to choose just onething to change about the
education system, what would itbe?
Speaker 3 (48:07):
as in the state school standardized.
Yes, let's go with that, yeah,but there's so many things I
know, know what am I, it's alayered onion of a question,
isn't it?
Yes, yes, I would sayeliminating the standardised
testing.
I for me, like I was, because Iwas a good student, because I
(48:33):
was a good rote learner and myvalue came from my grades, and I
don't want that for childrenbecause it also can devalue.
They feel devalued.
My son is an average student.
He would not ever be top ofanything and sometimes he's
actually quite below averagewhen he does the standardised
(48:57):
testing.
Yet I see this really brilliant, engaged learner right now and
I just don't think that thatdoes any good for, like, I
understand why they do it in thestandard school systems, but
that's I don't know.
I just think that that's a bitof a failure for children.
Speaker 1 (49:16):
So interesting I'm digressing here but that's, I
don't know.
I just think that that's a bitof a failure for children.
So interesting, I'm digressinghere.
On a personal level, we had asclose to a regular maths class
as we would ever have this weekand my children were just like
flummoxed by it.
So many like why?
Questions like why did he teachit like that?
Or why does it have to be likethat, why can't we?
(49:39):
And as a next teacher, I waslike, oh, just, I just had most.
I was like that's a validquestion, that's.
I've got no answer other thangroup management, like.
So many of them came back toyou like, well, group management
.
And like, but we're only agroup of six.
I'm like yeah, but that teacherhasn't de-schooled yet, so
they're still teaching to youlike they would to a group of 25
unruly, disinterested,disengaged students.
(50:01):
So, anyway, that was yeah, andpart of it was the comparison.
They're like ah, I was reallyenjoying maths, but now I'm
behind, I feel like I'm dumbfrom one lesson one lesson with
friends no teasing, no bullying,no grading, no assessment.
Speaker 3 (50:18):
They'd already made that comparison I was like, oh
yes, you know, I rememberlistening.
It was an episode of yourpodcast where there was a lady
on that was talking about thischild who couldn't read until he
was like eight years old andshe said you know, he went on.
When he turned eight he'dlearned to read.
He became this voracious readerbut his passion was ballet and
(50:40):
so he became this incredibleballerina and he had a career in
it until he turned 27, 28.
He gave that up, decided to goto medical school.
She said if he was in astandard school system and he
was eight years old and couldn'tread, he would have been
labelled.
He would have been, would havebeen labeled as slow, learning
difficulties needing specialcare and attention.
(51:01):
He he's.
His story about himself wouldhave not allowed him to be a 28
year old man going into medicalschool because he would have
taken that story about beingslow and dumb or whatever, and
through his life and.
Speaker 1 (51:16):
I that that story really stuck with me and it's
stuck with me too, because myyoungest has only just
solidified his reading at ninenine and a half, I would say and
as an English teacher this hasbeen like my biggest.
It's okay, it's gonna likehaving to talk myself through.
It's gonna be okay, it doesn'thave learning difficulties, I
know it's just time and interestand it's okay.
(51:37):
It's gonna like having to talkmyself through.
It's gonna be okay.
He doesn't have learningdifficulties, I know it's just
time and interest.
And it's finally clicked thisyear.
And and from from that one mathlesson I was like can you
imagine if I had to put him inschool like the hatred of
reading that he would have nowcompared to him reading novels,
like novel after novel afternovel this year.
So so yeah, and I know that'snot every school student's story
(51:58):
either, so I do need to padthat a little.
But for those that are on theyou know the Ds and Es and Fs
side of the spectrum, that isthe common story that by high
school, as an English teacher,day one year, eight English
hands up.
If you love English hands up,if you hate it, I can split the
class.
I'm like they're my A-levelstudents, they're my D, e's, f's
.
Wow, I guarantee it.
(52:20):
Yeah, yeah, so sad, all right,and where can we find out A more
about Boundless Life and giveyourself a plug about your
business too?
Speaker 3 (52:29):
Okay, so Boundless Life go to their website.
Just type that into google,it'll pop straight up.
You will find it, and they areon instagram as well.
So on instagram you'll see alot of other families um tagging
boundless life, so you'll beable to see what they're doing
in the other cohorts as well.
Um, it's really great to followalong on their stories and my
business um.
(52:50):
Go to nisi at so n for nellydouble e c y um you'll so N for
Nelly double E-C-Y.
You'll find me on Instagram.
I sell high quality, low-toxhair care, skin care, skin care,
makeup.
I help other women earn anincome from home, just like me,
changing their lives as well,growing, you know, working
(53:10):
towards their goals and theirdreams.
So that's kind of what I do.
And, yeah, have a look andcheck it out.
Get in touch if you've got anymore questions about Boundless
Life, like directly with me orwith Boundless Life themselves.
They're quick to respond.
Speaker 1 (53:27):
Amazing.
Thank you so much Again.
Like Denise gets no plugs fromthis, she's just a passionate
advocate.
So thank you for your time andyour generosity of sharing with
this.
I can't wait.
I guarantee next year there'llbe someone on someone else going
.
I heard Denise's podcast.
I'm now over in Uruguay andwe're in our eighth month and
(53:49):
just loving it, and that's whatI love about this podcast is
that knowledge is power andpower it changes.
It can change the course in thedirection of your life.
I could just think I'm stillsitting in my little old sunroom
in the middle of Sunshine Coast, queensland, and because you
heard this podcast, you're nowin Italy and you, being on this
podcast now, you'll inspiresomeone else to take their
family out and go and explore anadventure as well.
Speaker 3 (54:13):
Thank you, thank you for sharing my pleasure, and
that is exactly why I wanted tojump on, because I think I want
to see as many families and asmany women mothers as possible.
Like literally, just grab lifeby the ball, yes, and just like
be with your children as much asyou can, explore, have fun,
create memories.
That's honestly.
Money comes and goes, but thiskind of life like yeah, yeah,
(54:35):
you're not going to regret doingit.
Say all the time like we've gotyou know mine.
Honestly, money comes and goes,but this kind of life like yeah
, yeah.
Speaker 1 (54:38):
You're not going to regret doing it.
My husband and I say all thetime we're like we've got.
You know, mine are 10 and 12.
Now can you believe it?
And I'm like we've got maybe 10years left, maybe if we're
lucky to go and do all this coolstuff with them, and then if
things go really well, we've gotanother 40 to do whatever we
(54:59):
want on our own, wherever.
But if we want to do stuff withthem, we've got 10 years.
So, like we always every yeardo a trips, you know, every
month, like what are we bookingin a camping trip, a weekend
away?
What's our big trip once a year?
Um, and that's what keeps us oncourse, because if we don't do
that, life just gets in the way.
But maybe we need a three-monthone next few years, or a
nine-month one.
Let the next few years, or anine-month one, let's do it.
Watch this space, yeah, thankyou so much.
(55:21):
It was so good to chat, please.
I'm definitely going to followyou.
Please post a lot.
Let us keep up to date withwhere you're at and what you're
up to, and, best of luck,everyone else stay wild Bye.
What a way to shake up yourlife, break out of the status
quo and see the world withoutcompromising on your child's
(55:41):
education.
I love that Denise has reallythought about what she wants her
life with her son to look likein these really short years that
we have together, and has justmade it happen.
It's absolutely incrediblyinspiring.
Chatting with Denise for me wasa really great reminder about
how, when we share our stories,we show people what other
(56:02):
choices are out there and givepeople permission to do the same
.
I mean, life is really, reallyshort, and our time with our
children is even shorter.
You really only do get one shotat it.
If you want to go and dosomething different and it
doesn't have to be boundlesslife it can be changing careers
or moving to another town, justtaking your career online or I
(56:26):
don't know take up roller derby,dyeing your hair bright green,
taking half a day off a week,downsizing your house, so you
can do that.
We just need to stop trying tokeep up with the Joneses.
We're probably in debt andmiserable anyway.
So this week, this is yourpermission to just do what it is
that you want with your life,and particularly in this phase,
(56:47):
with your children.
That is so short.
I can't wait to hear so manystories about people hearing
this episode.
So many stories about peopleHearing this episode.
The cycle now from Denisehaving started listening to this
podcast to coming back on thepodcast to talk about Boundless
Life.
I can't wait to see who we chatto next, who was inspired by
(57:08):
Boundless Life to do somethingelse even more amazing.
Please let me know if that'syou and want to come on the
podcast.
Until next week, stay wild.
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