Alternative Education and Long-Term Travel with Kids

by Emma Walmsley

When my first­born child was a baby, I started learning about alternative education pathways. It was amazing to me that home education was such a popular and wonderful way to learn, and I fell in love with the idea of worldschooling as soon as I read about it. How incredible that we could not only take responsibility for educating our kids, but we could do it all over the world!

I was very open to these ideas and happy to give them a go with our kids, but my partner Anthony needed a little more convincing. He eventually agreed to try home education rather than kindergarten for our son Dante, on the condition that Dante was learning and that we were all happy. If not, we figured school would always be there to fall back on.

Well, we have never even considered sending him to school once, and he is turning nine this year! Home education suits Dante perfectly, and he is thriving outside of the school system. We also have a daughter now, and it seems that our choice will suit her too. Allegra is four and is also happy and healthy and learning without school.

Why we chose home education

I think I was most attracted to home education because it allows my children to learn at their own pace, and to follow their interests rather than what someone else tells them is important. We follow a relaxed approach called Unschooling or Natural Learning, so we don’t use curriculums or schedules. We do use some resources as they’re appropriate for the kid’s learning, and we seek to support their ideas and interests with further relevant information and experiences that they might like and benefit from.

I love following their current passions and seeing how many branches of learning they cover very naturally. It’s amazing! For example, Dante was really into Star Wars last year, and along with watching the movies and reading many books about the series, he sought activity books based on Star Wars (practicing writing, reading and math within), as well as drawing and coloring characters from the series, playing Star Wars apps and board games, learning about space with some great conversations and YouTube clips, and building Star Wars lego. It’s fun to follow a theme and it’s doesn’t need to be forced upon kids; it’s a very natural progression of learning.

He’s quite obsessed with Minecraft at present and similar patterns are occurring; he’s also doing his own very thorough research. Dante has learnt how to research online and also uses some books he got for Christmas to enhance his Minecraft worlds and test new features ­­all by himself. One of the key benefits of homeschooling recognized by universities is the ability of students to research and take control of their learning independently. I can see why, after watching my son learn these skills at eight.

The other reasons I had for choosing home education include avoiding competitiveness and bullying at school, having the opportunity to cover a greater range and depth of learning than school can provide (especially very practical life skills and the development of empathy, kindness and other positive character traits), and to facilitate family travel. We knew from the beginning that travelling would be one of the best experiences we could give our children, and home education seemed like the best choice to enable us to travel often and for long periods.

Our worldschooling adventures

We officially began worldschooling in 2017 with a four month trip to South East Asia. Before then we took many shorter trips within Australia with the kids, so they would slowly become familiarized with travelling. We have taken Dante to Queensland, South Australia and Byron Bay, and camped at Mungo National Park when he was three. We also spent a week in the snow at Mount Buller when Allegra was one, and two weeks in steamy Kununurra, Western Australia when she was two. We decided we didn’t want to travel overseas while she was still in nappies/diapers, so once the timing was right for her and for Anthony’s business, we rented out our home and left for Asia.

Allegra had recently turned three when we arrived in Malaysia, and Dante turned seven while we were there. We spent two months exploring Peninsular Malaysia, including one week of volunteering together at a turtle conservation project on Tioman Island which was amazing. We soon learned that travelling from place to place every couple of days was too much for us all, and adjusted our travel style to include a week or more at each destination. It’s much better for our health and the planet’s health to travel slowly,

so we have time to relax and immerse in each place, and we don’t need to rely on transportation nearly as much.

We also spent a little time in Singapore and then a month each in Thailand and Cambodia. We loved Chiang Mai in Thailand: it remains one of our favourite ever cities! From there we travelled into the mountains of Northern Thailand to see elephants in the forest and have a homestay with a rural family. It was a truly amazing experience, and is the type of travel we like best as it supports local people, allows us to connect and learn in a meaningful way, and it supports animals living naturally too.

We also enjoyed Siem Reap in Cambodia and spent three weeks there over the holiday period, getting to know people, exploring Angkor Wat and supporting NGOs and social enterprises doing great work there. After Siem Reap we travelled to Battambang and learnt much from a wonderful local guide, but by this time the kids were getting quite homesick. So instead of continuing on to Vietnam or Central America as we’d planned, we surprised our families by arriving on their doorsteps in January 2018.

Dante and Allegra were happy to stay home for awhile and to travel a bit closer to home too, so we decided to get a van and travel within Australia last year. It seemed like the right decision at the time, but the old van we got needed a lot of work and it took Anthony more than six months to complete it. We finally got going in late October, and spent five weeks travelling through Central Australia, reaching Uluru before coming home for Christmas. It was still amazing, especially Uluru­ Kata Tjuta National Park, where we stayed for ten days and absolutely loved exploring. We took several workshops and learnt a lot about aboriginal culture and history, as well as how the rock formations developed and much more.

That trip was supposed to be the start of our trip around Australia, but we won’t be continuing on with a lap around the coast. Towing a caravan is not a sustainable way to travel: we used a great deal of fuel, thus generating a lot of carbon emissions. We had hoped to be able to convert our 4 wheel­drive to biodiesel but for numerous reasons it’s not going to work, so again we have changed our plans. Luckily we are all flexible! And Uluru was the trip we most wanted to take here, so we all feel satisfied that we made it to the heart of Australia at least.

What our kids have learned from our travels

There are so many things we are all learning! Flexibility of course, and the ability to listen to each other and change direction if our plans don’t feel right. I love that we listen to our kids and our hearts, and take all opinions seriously.

Dante and Allegra have already learned that they have much in common with children from all over the world, and they happily play with all kids even when they don’t share their language. Dante has converted Australian dollars to Malaysian ringgit, a great mathematics lesson as well as a stimulus for discussions about currency. Allegra loves animals and has seen how they live happily in nature rather than visiting them in a zoo. We have all learned more about our own country’s history and ancient culture; an education that Anthony and I didn’t get in school.

Our kids are learning how to just be in the world, and that it is a safe and fascinating place. They are learning travel skills and life skills each day, and especially as we adapt to new places and situations. They’re learning how to communicate with a huge range of different people, and how to be respectful and thoughtful in all cultures. And they’re learning how to respect the earth too, with our focus on sustainable travel and supportive experiences. We talk often about our choices and allow them to make up their own minds about each topic, but find that since we model environmentally­ conscious practices, they often want to help anyway.

I really value being able to spend so much time with our kids as they are growing and taking in the world. Anthony and I have the chance to make a positive impact with our choices and demonstrate qualities such as kindness, empathy, respect and generosity, and it’s wonderful for our children to be a part of that. It’s also just amazing to be able to explore the world together, and we have very purposefully crafted our life so that we can travel often. We’re currently preparing to spend much of 2019 in South and Central America! And beyond that we have some ideas, but are open to going wherever our four hearts take us. SM

About the writer

Emma Walmsley blogs about sustainable travel and lifestyle on her site Small Footprints, Big Adventures. She is a worldschooling parent who loves to travel with her young family. They aim to travel slowly and often as the children grow up, immersing themselves in cultures, exploring landscapes, and leaving a positive trail along the way. She hopes to inspire others to travel with sustainability at heart, and to live amazing lives full of adventure, connection and hope.