Educating kids while travelling

[UnintentionallyMe]

Thinking of selling up and travelling - not sure where or how yet, but have wanted to do this for so long and certain events (death of a friend, possible cancer diagnosis in family) have made me realise life is short and to not put off dreams.

We have 2 DDs, one going into P4 and one starting S1. Obviously their education is a priority for us.
Both my DH and I went to school 'as normal ' and other than lockdown homeschooling (which we were rubbish at!) have no experience of alternative methods of education.

Any ideas what options there would be, pros and cons, and what the end goal should be (eg we're in Scotland so it's highers at the end of high school).

We want them to experience and learn so much by travelling, but not at the expense of their future career opportunities.

Thank you.

What sort of travelling? Van life or globetrotting? In the UK and Ireland, local authorities have an obligation to provide education which meets the needs of traveller children which (though less common) includes New Age and lifestyle travellers. The charity Friends Families and Travellers have a lot of information on their website about accessing physical and virtual education when living on the road.

If more of the global sort of travelling, I’d join some homeschooling forums and get information and advice to help inform you as to how you’d homeschool properly, materials to access, and enrolment in exams for older children.

The length of time you’d likely travel for will also be relevant. Six months will have a different strategic plan than three years.

Thanks for your reply.

Looking at 2 years-ish so aware they'll need to slot back into UK school system when we return (or if we're lucky enough to settle elsewhere, a school there) and want this to be as stress free as possible for them.

Hoping global, but if the budget won't stretch then van life in Europe is equally as appealing.

I was hoping there'd be some sort of virtual schooling where they attend basic lessons online and we support this, as opposed to leading their schooling ourselves. I'm aware that I'm not very good at organising or delivering homeschooling, plus I wouldn't even know where to start with the curriculum or best practices for helping them learn stuff.

Online schooling? InterHigh etc. flexible and not led by you. Costs though

Your post doesn’t give the impression that you’ve thought much about the impact on your kids beyond ‘affecting future career opportunities’. Two years online schooling could equal two lonely years without friendships, especially if moving around and/or in countries where they don’t speak the language.
Moving for two years to stay in one place and go to school in an English international school would still be disruptive and not ideal, but if your kids are robust they’d probably be ok.
Travelling may be your dream, but your children might not see the advantages as you do. Could you do your travelling in school holidays? Sorry for being a downer.

Just to add, I’m not saying homeschooled kids living in one place with established friendships are lonely, before anyone jumps in!

You say that you aren’t very good at delivering a curriculum and would prefer something virtual: how did your DC find virtual education during lockdown? If they struggled with virtual lessons and didn’t find them engaging or motivating then they’re unlikely to be any more so just because you’re travelling. What did they find most motivating during that time?

I think my main concern would be the social and emotional side, especially for your eldest. The tween/early teenage years are pretty formative for establishing friendships, learning from and through peers, and developing independence - and if you’re bopping about from place to place so that they never have a chance to forge any proper friendships, and in unfamiliar places where you don’t always feel confident to let them explore alone and they don’t speak the language, they’re going to have few opportunities to grow in the way they would if settled, and will find it trickier to mix back in with their peers when you return to settled life.

Ah. Cross post with LifeofBrienne there.

Are your kids up for this idea?
They will need to be quite self-motivated if you aren’t very knowledgable about what to teach and then expect them to slot back in after 2 years. Very hard to go straight into exam years for the older one. Will there even be a school place available when you return? Families moving into the area where I live are struggling to get their kids into older year groups in the good schools. If they do get in they have often not had much choice over the options available for exam subjects.
Are they academically able? Any Sen? Anything to consider around particular interests, health issues, etc?
Something like Kings Interhigh is good but costly and needs internet access.
I can see the appeal of the lifestyle but I think it needs a lot more consideration tbh.

Heaps of Australians are travelling around the country with kids. Doing the lap, it’s called. Look for forums for them and someone will talk you through it. And fb, insta and youtube. And probably Tiktok, too.

I’ve thought about doing this but would do it while kids are in primary. Personally, I think it’s too high impact in secondary unless you and the kids are really geared up for it.

I might be wrong but, I Scotland do t you just go to your nearest school? So, assuming you return to Scotland, the issue of school places when you come back might not be the concern it is in England.

There's a Facebook page for worldschoolers. Though I'm not sure that you're planning the kind of home educating that most people in groups like that do.
I know lots of people use online schools for home education, but you need to plan lots of social experiences as well as real life learning opportunities for them too.

Thanks so much for all the responses - they really are appreciated.

Yes, social/emotional wellbeing is also something we've considered thoroughly. The area we live in is a cluster of small villages and there is a culture of never moving away or aiming at achieving much in life. We desperately don't want our children to grow up with such a limited view. I think we'd need to look at ways of them maintaining current strong friendships (online) and having time to develop new ones in the places we go, so maybe staying longer in less places? Obviously we'd take their feelings into account - I don't want to be dragging a depressed tween around against her will (and we wouldn't leave her behind).

With regards to homeschooling during lockdown - the school just posted tasks online. They were easy to complete quickly each day, but the school never really checked up on if they were being completed or not. In the end we went for lots of walks and did lots of creative things to keep them busy. Plus the paddling pool stayed up for weeks!

I'll investigate online schools further. We'd provide so many learning opportunities day to day, but they'd need to keep up with the core subjects more formally.

Do you have EU passports? If not, the time you can spend in Europe is limited to 90 days

I'd be concerned that if you struggled with lockdown homeschooling then travelling homeschooling isn't going to be any better.

I'd pay for online tuition from a franchise group. I'd seek advice from the local authority.

Given your update, I would have a look at the world schooling Facebook pages and join the home education uk fb group too. You'll find lots of info about online schools and following curricula on the home ed group.
Mumsnet does seem to skew pretty heavily against home educating so you might get more useful info from people who are already doing what you're planning.

@OrigamiOwls that's why I'm looking at other options. I'd be deluded if I thought I could happily teach them myself.

We've made no plans yet, but we really want to. Both kids would be fully involved in choosing where we go, how long we stay, and any changes we make as we go along. The point would be for us all to benefit from our experience.

I feel the positives of going outweigh the negatives, and we want to plan for it to be as successful as possible, hence my asking about education.

With the age of the children could you instead focus on having some amazing experience holidays rather than disrupting everything for them for two years?

i doubt there is a way to do it without having a knock on socially and emotionally at the ages they are.

Also just moving out of your local area to somewhere more diverse is a solution to your issue with not wanting your children to grow up with an insular attitude.

We all want to travel - I'm not sure where the assumption that the kids aren't entirely up for it has come from?
If they weren't keen we wouldn't force it, but as it happens they're up for an adventure.

If in reality things don't work out how we hope we'll adjust our plans accordingly, and they would have learned lots in the process.

Sorry OP, I know I have a boring world view so pl feel free to ignore, but I think you may have sadly left it a bit late and they are potentially too old now to miss ‘normal’ school for two years. I think there could be an adverse impact on their academic (as opposite to more general cultural) education. Coming back to traditional education at 13 could possibly be very hard for your elder child.

I’m guessing moving to a more diverse area and going on more cultural holidays doesn’t appeal? I think there are other ways you could achieve your objectives. Less fun but still good. I would LOVE to travel for two years, but don’t think that would be good for my family.

If you were moving to, say, two countries for a year each, that would be completely different.

But other posters may have better ideas.

@MindPalace I do get your point, others have made similar points too.

Having been through recent experiences of loss (friend wasn't even 40 yet) it's made me realise life is short and we have no way of knowing what's around the corner. I don't want to live with regrets for things we wanted to do but never did. I'd rather regret (if that's the right word) something we tried even if it didn't work out.

Just trying to think of ways around practicalities such as education. Everyone needs that.

On a whole different note, the UK isn't what it used to be. I don't think we'd miss much while we were away. Or if we ever come back...

@maidmarianne thank you, I'll have a look for them. Hopefully there might be families in similar situations to that which we hope to be in 🙂

My cousin went travelling before her son's GCSEs (so year 8 I think it was). She used a tutoring company who just did a couple of hours a week with him, and then she did a bit of other maths and English here and there. Let me know if you want the name of the company she used - they used to specialise in working with families who travel but I'm not sure if they still do.