Worldschooling: What We've Tried and How It Worked

Overview of our worldschooling experience

One of the most frequent questions we get as worldschooling digital nomads is: how do you educate your kids, and does it work? We left the US and began worldschooling our three children in 2015 when they were ages 2, 6 and 8. I define worldschooling as education through real-world exposure and experience, combined with intentional, thoughtful and relevant enrichment that uses where we are as a fulcrum for learning on a wide variety of subjects--both academic and spurred by the kids' own passions.

For more than seven years now, we have worldschooled our kids in a variety of circumstances: 2.5 years of full-time global travel, 2.5 years of short-term travel from a fixed address, more than a year of worldschooling exclusively from home, and over a year of keeping our worldschooling approach alive after our kids returned to formal schooling (in public schools in France). Our three children were completely outside the formal education system for five academic years, and when they re-entered school (of their own choice), all of them were at or above grade level for their age. So while it takes dedication, creativity, and trial and error, I have loved the process of worldschooling so far and consider our experience to be a success.

Parents’ backgrounds

We are not teachers, but we parents brought to the table some relevant background. My partner himself was homeschooled as a child (and though he got an excellent education, he did not initially aspire to tackle the same challenge with his own kids!). Two of our children had attended Montessori and Waldorf schools for various periods, and as engaged parents, we informed ourselves on those and many other education approaches. I have an undergraduate degree in Linguistics and we opted to raise bilingual children using the one-person-one-language (OPOL) approach, with me speaking with them only in French and my husband using only English. I also have some formal training in dialogue-based education and multifaceted learning principles, and I have developed training curricula for adults as part of my work in economic and community development in Africa, Asia and Latin America. My husband and I are privileged to have been educated in excellent public schools, colleges and university. We are strong supporters of public education, and our choice to take our kids’ education into our own hands and on the road was made with mixed feelings.

What we’ve tried

Having three kids, we know well how different each individual child is, and we have adapted different ways of educating our kids according to our geography, logistical circumstances, local opportunities, and their individual needs, temperaments and interests. Over the course of our worldschooling journey so far, we have tried out a wide variety of educational approaches, including: immersion in local primary schools in different languages on three continents; unschooling (natural learning with no instruction at all); intensive language schools with private, semi-private and group classes; a child-led democratic school; project-based learning; remote coursework through enrollment in asynchronous online classes; self-guided online study using sites like Khan Academy and No Red Ink; community-based collaborative education, drawing on parents’ domains of knowledge to engage groups of kids in theme-based workshops; and self-developed worldschooling curricula based on where we find ourselves with the help of homeschooling resources to complement real-world learning.

Transition from travel-based education to public school

After five years out of the formal education system, our kids made the choice to enroll in formal schools (this time in France). Their transition went surprisingly smoothly, and they quickly adapted to the rules and rhythms of a new education system. It was fascinating to hear their insightful anthropological and sociological analyses of classroom dynamics and teacher-student relationships during the initial months of their re-entry. Much like alumnae of democratic or “free” schools, my children seem exceptionally unintimidated by authority, more apt to ask questions and ready to politely state their case and stand their ground with teachers and coaches. While they are marked by the sadness of having frequently made and left behind dear friends throughout their young lives, at school they have again forged strong friendships. I think that because their attendance is essentially voluntary and they have already experienced several alternatives, their viewpoint on school—even going on two years since their return—is similar to that of adults who return for higher studies after been out in the “real world” for a time. That is, they appreciate some aspects, shrug at others and are less inclined to sweat the small stuff.

Observations on worldschooling outcomes

There are numerous routes to the goals (such as encouraging curiosity, resourcefulness, compassion, communication and family bonds) that inspire many parents to worldschool, and becoming nomads is just one strategy. I am uncomfortable with the suggestion of a direct, causal link from our travels and educational approaches to my children’s particular attributes. What I am comfortable saying is that as a parent I love the creative and collaborative process of planning and engaging in learning opportunities along with my kids, and that my children are thankfully healthy, well-adjusted and decent human beings. Here then are some observations of their skills and development that I can at least say with confidence were not thwarted by worldschooling.

Today, our kids (ages 9, 13 and 15) are true global citizens. They are adaptable, resilient, bilingual, third-culture kids. They have a nuanced understanding of the world, their own privilege, geo-politics, world history, numerical concepts, art and music, religion, social interactions, love, life and death. They have a broad base of contextual knowledge that enables them when presented with new information to perk up and connect it with places they have been, themes they have heard of before, and the diverse experiences they have had. Their inquisitive and empathic reactions when we have tried to objectively answer their questions about topics like the Spanish Inquisition, the Vietnam War, colonization, the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and the Me-Too Movement have reinforced what I see as the exceptional value of immersion in a variety of languages, cultures and perspectives—they are poised to look at an issue from many angles.

Especially (though certainly not only) through travel, our children have seen firsthand a lot of both good and bad all over the world. They have experienced years of life with a single pair of shoes and just a few changes of clothes, and they know what it is like to not always have full tummies. They have witnessed the meanness of bullies and bandits, felt hurt or indignant, and then learned to look with compassion at others’ motivations. The generosity and kindness of people we have encountered from all walks of life have instilled in our kids a feeling of fundamental confidence in and respect for people everywhere. They have watched and participated in resolving tribulations large and small, and my 15-year-old said recently, “sometimes when I start to get stressed, I think about challenges we have had while traveling, and I realize that there is always a solution, so I just need to stay calm and find a way.” In sum, I am a believer that worldschooling can contribute to an uncommonly profound notion of the world, humanity and life.