Craig’s father died when he was 13. The next year his mother pulled him and his siblings out of school and travelled in England and Europe for a year. They spent a lot of time in Austria skiing. Then about 3 or 4 years later they did the London to Kathmandu overland trip and continued onto New Zealand. Craig highly recommends this way of educating our children. His advise when people asked him “what text books to take on a trip” was to “leave them at home and learn all you can in the Country you are in”.
I think Craig would have enjoyed reading and following this blog:
More than a few of you have asked how we’ll be homeschooling on the road—or, worldschooling, more appropriately. I’m happy to share.
There should be a few bits of disclosure before diving head-first into the topic of education from the road:
• Our educational priorities are a bit different this year, seeing as we’ll be stomping around and through the greatest textbook ever (that is, Earth). This, plus living out of backpacks, means we’re taking a very minimalist approach to school. (This fills me with glee.)
• We don’t exactly know what we’re doing here. We’ve never lived out of backpacks for a year while traipsing through almost every continent, oddly enough, so we sorta feel like we’re making this up as we go. There are plenty of people who’ve gone before us—and who are doing this lifestyle, right now, all the time—so we’re not alone. But we’ve certainly never tried it ourselves.
• Our family has a rather unique philosophy about education. Or maybe I should say unique approach. Either way, it’s taken us a few years to really figure out what matters to us… we’re slowly getting there. Basically, we believe:
• That learning is a constant, 24/7 endeavor,
• That educational opportunities can be found everywhere,
• That students are people who educate themselves (sometimes with the help of inspirational teachers or mentors), and
• That the two most significant things we can do as parents is to provide an environment where learning is naturally inevitable, and to model a posture of lifelong learning ourselves.
This can happen anywhere—in traditional classrooms, at home, in the woods, between the covers of a book, on a rickety bus in rural Sri Lanka, or at the table of a restaurant on a Chinese side-street.
So. Yep, our kids will be learning stuff this year. And while the bulk majority of their school supplies involve their passports, eyes, and legs, here’s a few other things we’ll use: read here for the other things they use: http://theartofsimpletravel.net/worldschooling/
The blog post finishes with
(Not shown: dice, white boards, little kid workbook. I could retake the photo remembering everything, but I’ve got stuff to do.)
Ultimately, we hope to live out our conviction that learning can happen anytime, anywhere, from most anything. Writing, reading, and math will comprise the bulk of any “formal” education, with everything else providing opportunities to build on those skills.
Honestly, our kids’ education is near the top of my list of reasons to get excited about this trip. I can’t even imagine how this would have shaped my own childhood—even if the kids aren’t exactly cognizant of how extraordinary this upcoming year will be, their parents are. And we’ll make the most of every opportunity.
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From the Smiths:
https://hef.org.nz/2011/craig-smith-26-january-1951-to-30-september-2011/
Updated 22 April 2014: Two years on (Craig Smith’s Health) page 7 click here
Needing help for your home schooling journey:
https://hef.org.nz/2011/needing-help-for-your-home-schooling-journey-2/
And
Here are a couple of links to get you started home schooling:
Information on getting started: https://hef.org.nz/getting-started-2/
and
Information on getting an exemption: https://hef.org.nz/exemptions/
This link is motivational: https://hef.org.nz/2012/home-schooling-what-is-it-all-about/
Exemption Form online: https://hef.org.nz/2012/home-schooling-exemption-form-now-online/
Coming Events: https://hef.org.nz/2013/some-coming-events-for-home-education-during-2013-2/