And we’re off…

Our Worldschooling journey has begun. We left last Tuesday for three months in Costa Rica. But let me back up a little. I closed my catering company and began pursuing my lifelong delusion of grandeur of being a writer and Tim worked his fabulous butt off to get his two mattress stores in a position where he could run them from abroad. We paid off credit cards, student loans, sold a work van, and personal vehicle. We switched from Verizon to Google Fi which has great international rates (well, sort of, but that’s another story). We sold or donated most of our belongings, moved out of our rental, and packed our few remaining possessions into storage. We stayed with my mother-in-law our last week in Washington State and celebrated an early birthday/baptism/going away party and said our goodbyes for now to everyone. Many a skeptical everyone.

Not that family and friends weren’t supportive, they were just, well, not totally excited about this whole crazy idea of ours. I get it. It’s hard to explain wanderlust to people who haven’t experienced it. It’s also hard to explain a feeling that we don’t live in the most amazing place in the world, and while it can be wonderful, there are many, many other wonderful countries, people, and cultures we would like our girls to experience before they are teenagers and “the American way” is the only “way” they know.

https://www.time4learning.com/homeschooling-styles/worldschooling.html

People often ask, or yell, what about math? Science? AP Chemistry? No child is going to ask to learn AP Chemistry! Well, that part might be true. But we have found our oldest, who is all of seven, gets just as excited about doing math and science as she does dancing and talking about dinosaurs. It’s all exciting to her, all interesting. Our job as her parents is to facilitate her excitement and find cool and interesting ways for her to learn about things. To include math and reading and climatology in every day and traveling life. Here’s five dollars for a $3.28 ice cream. How much change should you get back? They speak Spanish in Costa Rica? Let’s learn it! What is the political system here and how does it differ from where we grew up? It’s actually very easy. We have conversations. Lots of them. About everything around us. And we’re not afraid to say “I don’t know, let’s look it up together.” We all learn.

Now, the question of how much learning is actually happening when you’re jet-lagged, arriving in a foreign country, and said kids won’t eat anything—well, that’s the story for next time.