inspiration – The Traveling Academy

reading vs. television

Television has always been a difficult issue for families. In our family we avoided broadcast TV and watched only parent-approved DVDs while our son was little. But those rules began to relax when he started to visit his friends.

It felt like TV was a Pandora’s Box; once we let it in, it grew more and more distracting. But what to do about it? We didn’t feel quite ready to toss the television set out the window…

To our complete surprise the problem solved itself when we got away from English language programming and traveled. Like the budding TV addict he was, our son complained bitterly for the first few weeks but then something remarkable happened: he discovered books.

We let him follow his own curiosity and select books at the English bookstore in Rome. He found the ‘Horrible Histories’ series from UK author Terry Deary and from then on he was never without a book.

Which made waiting in line, riding trains and planes and all those boring parts of traveling much, much easier for everyone.

Try it at home – turn off the TV and explore a book with your kid.

GO TEAM GO!

GO TEAM GO! Seize the day! Life is short! There’s no time like the present! Just do it!

Traveling and learning are naturally compatible activities; one enhances the other. Together they create a different state of mind where the world becomes a classroom and all the people in it are teachers. Homeschooling on the road was such a great experience for our family that I’m convinced if everyone knew how easy, rewarding and fun it is, there would be a groundswell of road scholars. And I think that would be a very good thing for kids, parents, education and world citizenship.

It’s easy. We were not professional educators – just a couple of freelancers with an eight-year old son. If we could homeschool on the road, then you can too (all you need is love…). Start by planning a trip to a place your family is curious about. Then visit your child’s principal, outline your travel plans, promise to keep up with the curriculum while you’re away and politely ask for a leave of absence for your child. Here’s some advice: do not ask teachers to work up a curriculum for you – they are already very busy. You may ask them for a list of the material they expect to cover while you’re away; then do some research and assemble your program; there are lots of resources (and many are free) on the web.

It’s rewarding. You don’t need to make a long term commitment to roadschooling to reap the rewards; you can do it over summer vacation, a long weekend or even on a family daytrip. It’s not about how far you go or how much money you spend, it’s about focusing a child’s natural curiosity about the world and connecting that to learning. The effort you make now to teach your kids about the world will benefit them for years to come. It may even kickstart your child’s education (like it did for our son: the power of positive disruption).

It’s fun. Well duh, that’s pretty obvious (see the photo above). You’ll explore new places together, get closer and make memories that will become family treasures. What could be more fun than that?

One more piece of advice: Don’t wait.

Homeschooling on the road is simpler when kids are in elementary school. As they move into the higher grades, the curriculum can get pretty challenging for non-professionals to cover (I’m talking about things like algebra and physics).

There are no cheerleaders for the ‘stay home and don’t try anything new’ team. So…GO TEAM GO! Hit the road and LEARN!

the power of positive disruption

Traveling is a disruptive activity. It eliminates your usual routine. The scenery changes along with your state of mind and your curiosity muscle gets a workout. So when you travel with kids, I think it’s a natural opportunity to experiment with homeschooling.

Our experiment came at a time when our son Angus was struggling at school; he seemed to be a bright boy but he just wasn’t reading. We started to hear phrases like learning disability, special education testing, intervention programs, Attention Deficit Disorder and medication therapy. The pressure was mounting when we got two very lucky breaks: an offer to live and work in Italy for 6 months and a supportive school principal who allowed Angus to take a long absence, as long as he studied while he was away.

We hadn’t planned it but homeschooling away from home was the best possible ‘intervention program’ for Angus. Traveling disrupted his routine, gave him time out from the pressure at school and brought him into a world of new things to be curious about. He started reading – voraciously – because he was really curious about ancient myths.

It’s well known that tailoring a meaningful curriculum and creating a comfortable learning environment for each individual child is one of the biggest benefits of homeschooling. What we didn’t expect was that – even though it was brief and we were inexperienced – homeschooling away from home had significant and lasting effects. When Angus rejoined his class for the last half of fourth grade he had become a strong reader. In middle school he chose Latin classes, tested into selective high schools and now he studies Cognitive Science at the University of Edinburgh in Scotland.

I call that a very positive disruption.

all you need is love…

Homeschooling is not difficult but it is time consuming. It takes time to prepare and supervise homeschool lessons but it’s no hardship when you love your kid and enjoy being together. I think this is why homeschooling and traveling are a natural fit – away from your regular schedule you have more time for yourself and your family. And whether you’re visiting Miami or Madrid – new places are an inspiration to explore and learn together.

Besides love, I think the next biggest thing that made homeschooling work so well for us was having access to the internet. It gave us the confidence to try it out. There’s an enormous homeschool community online so we could always find answers and advice – everything from help with math and grammar to the story of Pompeii (along with cheap train tickets to get there). Searching resources on the internet meant we didn’t need to pack alot of books so we could travel light.

unplugging

Homeschooling on the road requires unplugging. Step away from your usual distractions and quietly observe. Of course, you’ll have to unplug your kid, too. Nobody panic! Just try it for a little while.

When you’re traveling there’s alot of new stuff to see so it’s a perfect setup to observe your children interacting with a new environment. Take a walk together and watch what they watch, then talk about it and listen carefully for more clues. When you plug in to their natural curiosity, home schooling will be a lot more fun for everyone.

Here’s the best part for grown-ups: if you practice looking at the world through your child’s eyes you’ll notice a renewed sense of wonder.

And there’s no app in the world for that.