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In this article we share 20 TOP TIPS for worldschooling in 2024. Worldschooling is both amazing and terrifying. It is both an enriching experience and a daunting responsibility. So how do you ensure that your child gets the most from their worldschooling? What does worldschooling really look like? What can you do to make sure you’re nailing it?
We are both teachers who have worked in UK schools and international schools. Now we have made the desision to travel full time as a family and worldschool our boys along the way. It has been a realy journey and we are still learning loads.
We’re super excited to share some of our TOP TIPS and advice with you. Worldschooling really is an adventure – and if you’re considering it we hope our tips inspire you. If you’re doing it we hope our tips enourage you. Also, the tips we share in this article are not age specific and they can apply to a range of worldschooling styles.
Please take two minutes to introduce yourself in the comments. We’d love to know what you think about world schooling. If you have any experiences please share them.
Don’t miss our FULL GUIDE on the advantages and disadvantages of worldschooling
What is worldschooling?
Worldschooling is an innovative approach to education where childen learn through travel, culture and experience. Their primary learning environment is out and about – and most world schooling families are full time travellers or expats. How is world schooling different to homeschooling? Worldschooling is similar to homeschooling in many way – but more mobile and varied.
World schooling is predicated on the belief that first hand experience is one of the most effective ways to learn. Children are exposed to a variety of learning experiences and opportunities as they travel. Worldschooling presents its own unique set of challenges and opportunities.
If you are considering worldschooling we hope this article helps you visualise the journey. If you already worldschool we hope our tips enrich your family experience.
1 Involve your child in travel planning
The more a child leads the more they engage. And the more a child engages the more they learn. The more a child learns the more they thrive. One of our favourite things about worldschooling is the level of freedom and flexibility. Worldschooling children of any age can be involved in the planning. Planning may look like making small choices about an activity. Or it could be as big as choosing which country to visit. The way you do this will need to be tailored to your child. For a young child you can offer simple A or B choices about what they are interested in. For older children, encourage them to research activities and things they would like to do. They can find transport information, prices and help navigating.
Applying child-led learning
Worldschooling kids don’t need to choose everything – actually we think it could be problematic giving a child too much choice and over too many things can develop unhealthy expectations and habit. Choice is about leadership and responsibility and not entitlement. As a parent and educator you can define the perameters of a child’s choice and guide them in decision making.
The aim of choice is to develop confidence, character and skills.
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2 Connect with locals
One of the biggest advantages of worldschooling is the meaningful connections with locals. Children can interact with people from a wide range of backgrounds and cultures. Whether it is sipping tea in a yurt with a nomadic tribe, learning to fire blow darts with a tribe in the Amazon or laughing with locals in a Thai market. Worldschooling provides a wealth of oportunities for children to develop their social skills and learn about new cultures. Children can learn new languages, try new foods and find out more about people’s beliefs and values. Spotting the nuances of cultures can make a child more aware of people and develop their confidence and inter-personal skills.
3 Focus on holistic learning and development
Traditional school education tends to be highly compartmentalised. Learning is artificially divided into subjects with heavy emphasis on a handful of “core subjects” which are seen as more desirable and important. This makes it harder for children to see the natural links between subjects and apply their learning in new contexts. Worldschoolers have the freedom to escape from this and genuinely focus on holistic development.
We recommend exploring an experience from a range of angles. For instance – if you are visiting a castle you could start by exploring the history. Then look at the artwork and children could try their own art. And then consider a relevant science topic – e.g. levers, structures or the effect of the environment of the physical materials in the castle. Every world-experience has a range of relevant learning oportunities. Furthermore, take the chance to break away from the traditional academics and learn creative and cooperative skills.
4 Use rewards
Use rewards to celebrate your child’s learning and success. It could be as small as some stickers that you child collects to redeem a prize. Or it could be a treat for amazing work.
The use of rewards in education is controversial. The argument against rewards is that it removes intrinsic motivation. Intrinsic motivation is the internal desire to learn for the joy of understanding the world better and the satisfaction of acquiring new skills. Reward and punishment are extrinsic motivators (they are outside of the child). Some people argue that extrinsic motivation removes a child’s natural intrinsic motivation.
In our experience, the world itself creates a deep intrinsic motivation – in contast to the sterile and artificial environment of a classroom. Worldschooling children develop a deep and personal love of learning. In our experience, rewards seem to enhance the joy and love of learning and not detract from it. It’s hard not to love learning when it is on a volvano or in a swimming pool.
5 Keep some structures and regularity in their learning
One of the biggest misconceptions about worldschooling is that there is no structure or consistency. And we all know children feel safe with structure and consistency. This could be the case. But tehre are ways of creating strure and consistency for worldschooling. It could be that you always start the day with 30 minutes or reading. Or perhaps you always do an hour or two of more formal schooling in the morning – find a desk and do similar activities each day. Consistency can also emerge from using the same tools, techniques and activities (and developing slowly with a child’s progress). For example, in Thailand we found plenty of books where children can practice writting Englih letters and then colouring. Using the same resource and working through the book created a sense of achievement, progress and predicitability. So it’s all about building routine in at the right time and pace.
6 Find ways to capture experiences
Worldschooling is a magical experience for parents and children. Plan on ways to capture, record and remember your experiences. Not only will this help consolidate your child’s learning. It will also give you lots of happy memories to look back on. Actually we have found travel to be AMAZING for our kids memories. Here are a few ways that you can capture and record worldschooling experience. Give your child a camera. We found an old tough digital camera has done the trick.
We also use a treasure bag. This is a small cloth bag in which a child can collect small keep sakes and mementoes of their travels. Another great way to record world schooling is to use journals. A small and stylish book could be used for the child’s notes, reflections, drawings and even sticking tickets in. We also run a vlog. This is actually a lot of work – but we love the fact that we can look back on our memories with our boys and even revisit their learning.
7 Direct learning towards local experiences
Find the best activities and experiences locally and use these to guide your curriculum. For exmaple, if you are visiting Sabah, you can visit an orangutan sancturary and snorkel in amazing coral reef. Why not prepare in advance? Start learning about conservation, ecosystems and habitats before you see the orangutans. And then you could give your child a project to compare the jungle ecosystem to the coral ecosystem. There are loads of awesome documentaries and books to support children’s learning.
8 Work out the role of screens in worldschooling
This is probably one of our most controversial tips for worldschooling. It may also be one of the most challenging. If you are planning to use a traditional curriculum it is very important that worldschooling children are able to learn from a screen. There will be some concepts and ideas that are best learned online. Whether that is reading article and e-books, typing an assignment, attending an online seminar or watching and educational video. Effective use of technology is genuinely part of an effective education. However, if screens are only associated with gaming and high stimulation videos – your child may struggle to adapt to learning on a screen.
Don’t miss our guide on worldschooling resources
9 Develop independent work skills
Independent learning is a very important skill for life. And both homeschooling and worldschooling provide and excellent environment that encourages independent learning. The biggest challenge is the one-to-one nature of worldschooling. Children will naturally become dependent on their parent to explain, help, motivate and nag them to work. So why not gently develop a child’s independent learning skills. Start small. Give your child a very short task and tell them that you are going to stay quiet and watch them for a minute. Build up. Try stepping out of the room for a minute and then praise their progress. Keep increasing the challenge and duration of independent work. This will be very helpful when it comes to studing more challlenging subjects as a teenager. Independent learning skills need to be learned.
10 Slow down
There are lots of ways in which you will need to slow down if you’re planning to worldschool your child. Firstly you will need to travel slower. As a solo or couple you might be able to move every night or two. Worldschooling families generally need to stay somewhere for at least one week to settle in and make the most of the local activities and experiences. Secondly you may also need to slow your days down.
Don’t try and pack too much in. Rather, we recommend having restful times in the day (e.g. in a hot country why not take a siesta during the midday heat). Another way you need to slow down is with the learning itself. Allow your child time to explore, make connections and apply their learning. Ask them questions and equip them with the language and concepts to answer questions. Rushing will not maximise of enhance learning.
11 Make the most of digital learning resources and apps
There are SO MANY digital resources out there for worldschooling families. Make the most of these epic tools. Here are some examples:
Get yourself a local sim card with some data on the go. Most countries have monthly deals for around £10. Once your sim card is in your phone you can use it to browse the internet and access a wealth of learning tools and resources. Most phones can also set up a hotspot for other devices to log on to. We love Twinkl – packed with amazing innovative resources. TES is also full of amazing free teacher designed resources. ABC mouse is a fantastic learning resource – especially for Maths and English for younger kids. PHET is amazing for FREE science, tech and maths animations. There are LOADS more resources out there but these are a few of our favs.
12 Have a small worldschooling bag
If you are travelling full time with a child, why not make sure they have their own small backpack. It should be small enough for them to carry but big enough for some books, stationary, toys and learning resources. Giving them their own bag build autonomy. Carrying their own bag builds their shoulders. Win Win.
13 Learning to care
One of the most important parts of a child’s learning is learning to care. Plan activities and experiences that intentionally develop compassion and empathy in your child. It could be volunteering in a rural cambodian village. Visiting an animal rescue project. Or it could be spending time with homeless people in a city. Talk to your child about the experiences and encourage them to think of creative ways to help. We loved seeing our eldest boy working out what things to buy to bless a very poor family in Phuket. He chose some very lovely personal toys. Allowing a child to become part of caring develops compassion and empathy.
14 Find the best environment for written work
Depending on your worldschooling style and curriculum (or lack thereof) you may need to find time for some written work. It is very important to consider the best environments. It is a great skill for a child to be able to engage, focus and work in a variety of environments. Some just work better. We have found coffee shops are good for family work days. We often look for rooms with desk and space. Occasionally we find stunning locations (for example beaches and mountains) and get out boys settled into some work. It is all about building habits.
15 Buy resources and books along the way
Before a trip it can be tempted to try and buy everything you could possibly need and end up over-packing. As a full time backpacking family we have had to limit our bags to what we can carry on our backs. The great news is – as a worldschooling family you will be able to buy a all sorts of books, stationary and learning resources as you travel. What’s more these things are often cheap and replacable. Once a textbook or excercise book is complete, you can leave it and get something new. The same is true of craft materials and learning games. Also, we have found plenty of books in English. And remember – even if you can’t get something – there is still a world of education out there!
16 Network with other worldschooling families
Parenting can be rock solid at times. Full time travel with kids and worldschooling takes it to the next level. Be kind to yourself. Don’t be surprised if you have times of deep self-doubt and dispair. We recommend that you surround yourself by families that inspire you. Network and look for community, support and advice. Connect with expat communities through churces, sports and groups – and try to get involved in meet ups. This is great for both worldschooling parents and kids.
17 Learn new skills with your children
We have talked about how rich and varied worldschooling is. Make the most of unique skills. Try learning something new with your child. It could be free diving, scuba diving, climbing, sailing, mountain biking, ice climbing or whatever else the country has to offer. This is a great way to bond, connect and build confidence. We have loved learning freediving as a family. Yoga is a great one too.
18 Find your rhythm
Every world schooling family will have an optimal rhythm that works for them. For us it has been spending a month of faster and more intense travel and then slowing down for a month of more settled routine living. This allows more structured time for learning and our own work. During our slow down months we still do lots of cool and fun stuff. And during our faster travel we still do calmer structured learning. But the overall rhythm works well for us as a family. The best way to learn your ideal rhythm is to travel for a bit and try things out. Something will settle with you.
19 Consider a curriculum
Ok, worldschooling families may seem too free spirited for a curriculum. However, following a curriculum does have its advantages. Firstly you can make sure that your child is genuinely learning a sufficient range of concepts and content to succeed later in life. Secondly, if you do need to transition your child back into a traditional schooling environment – they will transition more easily. Thirdly, having a curriculum means your child can get qualifications. And even if you’re not keen on exams – ultimately qualifications can open up opportunities when your kids graduate the school of the world. So, perhaps it is just our ex-teacher brainwashing talking – but we do think it is worth following a curriculum.
Now here’s the good news. “Following a curriculum” doesn’t need to look like they do it in schools. We tend to just glance over the national curriculum every now and then to check we’re roughly on track. And we use levelled reading books from Twinkl (Rhino Readers app). And that’s about it. The rest of the time is fun, adventure, lots of chat and some great questions. This will probably evolve as our kids get older – but this is what works for us right now. Here are a few curricula: UK National curriculum KS3, GCSE, iGCSE, IB, A-level, AP level. Some homeschooling curricula include: Charlotte Mason, Horizons, Easy Peasy, Alpha Omega, Time4Learning (great online curriculum), Bridgeway academy.
20 Draw on the full range of experiences
Worldschooling is inherently varied. Different locations offer a wide range of learning opportunities and experiences. Make the most of the array of the variety of opportunities. Whether it’s libraries, forts, waterfalls, markets, beaches, boats, trains, jungles, woodlands or cities. Such a variety of classrooms leads to endless array of learning opportunities. Measure and observe the tide. Investigate weights and prices in a local market. Learn about buoyancy in a swimming pool. Or study biodiversity in a jungle. The opportunities really are endless.