Homeschooling and Traveling 2021

Homeschooling and traveling, two wonderful freedoms in life. We are one of a large and growing crowd of families who are homeschooling while traveling the world. We’ve been on the road well over 5 years but we homeschooled with state approval and registration before departure. This post is freshly updated to bring you useful resources and information on homeschooling your kids while travelling as well as learning through travel. This is sometimes called world schooling or road schooling.

First a few words about us. We homeschooled overseas, all around the world, full-time for almost the entirity of our kids school years. We do so under the UK system but we did live in Australia for a while and there we had to follow Australian regulations. When you travel, you are not usually bound by local restrictions.

Homeschool probably doesn’t mean what you think it does. It is not “school at home” we don’t do lessons or distance education. We don’t fill the kids up with the same stuff the schools try to teach. You can do that, of course, but we just learn, in total freedom.

This post is about how we homeschooled as we travel, from 6 to 16. We will likely continue to 18 and maybe seek a different route to and through college or university

We’ve been educating outside school for a long time and it’s worked out great. We include information from pre-school to high-school. This is our story and a blog to help you start your own adventure in education.

There is a huge amount of information in this blog post, you may find our index helpful. Please bookmark this page for future reference (Pinterest is a good way).

Homeschooling While Traveling the World.

We can help you with:

• How to homeschool.
• Why homeschooling offers such great advantages
• Are there any disadvantages?
• Will the children miss out on being in a group environment?
• What are the differences between unschooling, world schooling, and homeschooling.
• Deschooling – What is it?
• What gear, equipment, books, resources and online learning programs you will need on the road?
• The legalities of homeschooling around the world, including registration, or not
• How to find, facilitate, and promote education through life and through destinations.
• Exams and testing.

Travel Schooling Video

I originally used the term travel schooling to describe our idea. Others use worldschooling or homeschooling while travelling. Road schooling is another popular term. The video below will give you a taste of what this actually looks like. My kids make most of the videos for this site. It’s a little “school” project for them and it’s made them thousands of dollars so far. If you keep watching, more will play.

Advantages of Homeschooling and Traveling

• We strongly believe that homeschooling delivers a top-notch education, particularly when coupled with travel.
• Travel adds so much more in terms of experiences, observation and exposure to a homeschool lifestyle. It puts learning into context and gives kids a sense of place and people.
• Academic outcomes for homeschoolers are good. (source)
• If you homeschool you are free to travel, you are free to live your life your way.
• Your family spends more time together and bonds are tighter.
• Education is tailored to the child’s interests and progress is at the child’s speed.
• Education fits around your life, your life doesn’t have to fit around education.
• There is always 1 on 1 help and support. Your child is not lost in a crowd of kids.
• There is physical freedom for the child to run, jump, climb, and play. Goodby desks.
• Kids can eat when they’re hungry, go to the bathroom at will, sleep, and get up according to need.
• Homeschoolers are not restricted to a classroom, there is far more to learn in a changing, real-world, environment.
• Kids are not kept together in same-age groups. This means they are free to interact with and learn from all people. These people may be of any age and all levels of wisdom and experience.
• It makes (most) kids happy and less stressed if you get it right.
• The modern world, and the future, needs future adults with a different way of thinking.
• Kids get the childhood they deserve, full of play and freedom, not restrictions and timetables.
• There are many ways for Homeschoolers to sit exams or get into university – should this prove necessary.

What’s The Difference Between Homeschooling, Unschooling, and World Schooling?

Homeschool is the preferred term in our original home state, Queensland Australia. There it incorporated unschooling. In the UK the term Home Education is more commonly used. This separates our style of learning from that employed in schools.

Worldschooling is a way of describing any education provided by or enhanced by, travel and the world. It’s a popular term amongst traveling homeschoolers or unschoolers.

Unschooling is a complete rejection of the school system, but does not imply un-educating, good unschooling is very proactive. Unschooling is always child-led.

• Find out what is world schooling here.
• Read our Ultimate Guide to World Schooling Here. Including resources and destination ideas

We tried them all and found what worked for us. As the boys got older their education evolved. It’s obvious that what works for 6 and 4-year-olds isn’t what works for tweens and teens. Home education is fluid and adaptable and that’s one of the great beauties of it.

We homeschooled in part because we cared so deeply about education. I wanted them to get a good one. A proper education doesn’t necessarily include exams or university. It’s about kids having the tools they need to make life choices. They need to know what they want to do and be able to go for it. If they want to sit exams, then they can.

We Were Homeschooling Long Before We Started Travelling. About Us.

Homeschooling and traveling go together, they have to. We’d already chosen the homeschooling path before we even thought of returning to the travel we loved.

After 2 years of homeschooling before we left on this trip, I wasn’t at all worried about the kids’ education. I’d been through the de-schooling process ( What is deschooling?). This is the term used for forgetting everything you’ve been conditioned to think about acquiring knowledge. Learning happens all day, every day, it doesn’t come from teachers, textbooks, tests, and exams.

That said, learning doesn’t just happen by chance. The parent has to be pro-active in seeking inspiring learning opportunities. Homeschooling parents are strewing opportunity and we find ways to fill every day with learning and fun.

Is it Legal to Homeschool While Traveling?

You need to check this out for yourself, but I can tell you what I know of Australia and the UK. For the USA, sorry, check your state regulations. These laws and regulations can and do change, always research independently and find reliable sources.

I was a registered homeschooler in Queensland Australia many years ago. I had to submit my curriculum for approval every year and put a report together 12 months later. That report included forced work samples. We were approved each year. Once we left Australia this was no longer allowed, nor required. We reverted to our UK passports, curriculum, structure, and education style.

If you’d like to see examples of Queensland applications, reports, and homeschool curriculums, they are on our other website, Homeschool Group Hug. Regulations vary enormously between Australian states.

The decision to homeschool or withdraw your child from school was nothing to do with the school. The school in our case had no authority to allow or disallow homeschooling. This meaning parents did not need to ask permission. You will need to register in some way with your state’s homeschooling body.

One of the wonderful things about the UK is that no homeschool registration, reports or checks are legally required under British law. (visit this site to find out about home education in the UK)

You’ll need to check regulations in your home country or state, but it’s important to remember that if your kids are un-enrolled from school, they cannot be truant.

In a handful of countries, homeschooling is illegal, you can find that list here. My understanding is that these laws only apply to residents and citizens, but check for yourself.

How Does Travel Enhance Education?

Obviously, travel does amazing things for children, helping them along with their self-confidence, resourcefulness, social skills and ability to empathise. Alongside this, there is the more concrete learning in geography, history and languages that comes naturally from visiting every country.

I say naturally, but there is a lot of parental input in getting this “natural” learning to happen. See this post on education through travel to see what we picked up in our first year of travel. We were very new to this back then.

Our travels put us in the amazingly fortunate position of being able to take the kids TO the learning. So, for example, if they want to learn about the Mayans, we took them to Tikal.

• For art and art history, we took them to world-renowned galleries or to see local artists at work. Sometimes they would join in or take a class. My elder son draws ( as do I), there are a million ” how to draw” videos on YouTube at all levels. Khan Academy has great art history content.
• For music, we watched diverse performances, used internet resources and tried our hands at different instruments from around the world. We don’t pursue playing instruments, we’re not that family.
• History is all around us, you can touch it. My elder child loved studying the Seven Ancient Wonders through an online course. He was keen to see the remains of the Mausoleum at Halicarnassus at the British Museum. We planned to taking him to Turkey for Ephesus. Subsequently, he went to the pyramids and to see the Statue of Zeus at Olympia. Imagine finding out about Pol Pot or the Vietnam War through being there, on the spot. Don’t you think that’s better than a book?
• For religion, we visited as many temples, mosques, churches, and museums as we could. We talked to the locals and saw first-hand the realities of their faiths. We observed their practices, respected them and sometimes joined in. This style of learning is so much more fun than books, and so much more accurate. We had Religious Education course books at home bases for reference.

• What about science? I was a scientist in my life before kids and we did a lot of hands-on homeschooling science using various kits and the things we had around us. You can do this too. It’s harder on the road as you can’t really carry the circuits, chemistry and magnets kits. I was good at talking about science in a situation. Science is in everything, from frying an egg to the zoological classification of the animals you see. Look for museums with hands-on learning opportunities such as London’s fabulous and free kids science shows at the Science Museum and the incredible Natural History Museum. Zoos are also great for young scientists. As they got older my boys took online science courses to supplement this natural learning. They enjoyed Minecraft Homeschool as little ones, before progressing to Khan Academy and Open University. If you think kids need a hands-on chemistry lab, you’re wrong. You can find any science experiment or reaction you like on YouTube. We really liked this book, Help Your Kids With Science. It’s compact, concise and to the point. This makes it an excellent reference book and curriculum guide if parent or child is stuck on a scientific explanation. Also in the series, Help Your Kids With Computer Coding is good for very new coders.

Do Homeschooled Traveling Kids Have Friends?

Yes, people ask, 1 person, one man, asked. Fortunately, nobody has ever asked me about socialisation. In homeschooling circles, it’s known as ” The S Word” and is a massive cliché.

The rule in homeschooling is that they’re better socialised than kids in classrooms. The person asking often doesn’t know what socialisation is.

I wonder why this guy didn’t ask me if I have any friends? There’s no difference, but because they’re kids this person felt it was OK to ask them. If you wouldn’t ask an adult you don’t ask a child. That’s the rule.

Of course they have friends, of all ages, but we don’t carry them around the world with us. We visit when we can and these days, more and more, we bump into familiar faces. They also hang out with kids online and occasionally even Skype.

They weren’t really into staying in touch and weren’t very needy socially so mostly they couldn’t be bothered. These days they’d spend all day chatting online if they could. They have good friends around the world that they are always delighted to see again.

I don’t know if their lack of social need is down to nature or nurture, but I’m the same way. School gave me FOMO and a desire to be liked and have lots of friends around me. I shook that off eventually and got on with being me. It’s much better not feeling that pressure.

We don’t really ever feel any unmet social need, I guess because we’re mostly too busy. We don’t have a school mindset so we don’t need loads of people around us all the time. That’s just the way it is. If you feel you need to meet up with other travelling families it’s pretty easy to arrange and plenty of people do that. You’ll soon discover huge networks of people wanting to meet up with you and your kids for playdates on the road.

Curriculum, Record Keeping and Exams for Homeschooling and Travel

In Australia I had to write our curriculum every year and get it approved. It was based on the progression of learning, the government curriculum from a few countries and our own interests and needs.

I facilitated learning from this curriculum by bringing up topics in conversation, showing them books, toys and films about the topics we need to cover and taking them to places where they could learn at source.

We also followed the boys’ interests as they cropped up. We have never bought or needed any sort of “boxed curriculum”.  On the road we considered the UK curriculum. I knew what was on there and we covered it in our own way. I always had UK curriculum books at home bases. If you need to check your local curriculum it’s usually available online.

I used to class myself as maybe a partial unschooler, certainly an eclectic homeschooler. I always employed some workbooks and online learning but in a casual sort of way. The workbooks were more to do with me reassuring myself and writing practice than any real need.

When the boys were around 8-11 we used workbooks as a response to their needs. I found they were a great way to get the boys writing. This meant a science workbook could also be an English book. We mixed that up with some online courses. Every workbook they completed I photographed and documented

As they headed into their teens and the high school years, online learning became far more important. My elder son would never write, he hated it, so online worked better. Interestingly, he later took prolific notes when he was studying. He loathed writing for years and I used to have to force him to do it at homeschool reporting time. When he wanted and needed to write, he did.

Children outside mainstream education can forget about sitting particular exams at particular times. They are free to progress at their own pace and according to their own needs. Should my boys want to go on to any further study there are multiple ways they could do this without the standard school certificates. In the UK we don’t have a high school diploma set up. It’s a long-established process and generations of kids have gone before. You can find out how homeschooled children can go on to tertiary education in Australia here.

I think it’s important to keep records in the form of a journal, photographs, spreadsheets or work samples. You need to be able to see and show that a quality education is actually happening. Keeping records will help you reassure yourself.

Homeschooling Resources For Travel

The educational resources we use as we travel include:

• Workbooks. See below.
• Online educational programs for younger children such as Reading Eggs and IXL maths. Now they are older we are on to Open University and Khan.
• YouTube has plenty of documentaries and movies to tie in with whatever they’re learning about. You’ll also find some great online lessons for kids. Just as an example, we were studying microbiology on Open University. Edward Jenner and Alexander Flemming popped up so we found 5 minute YouTube videos on both these guys. That’s them done. 10 Minutes, not hours-long classes and homework. Because the kids were interested to find out and they were older – the information sticks.
• Khan Academy (FREE) We used it more and more as they got older. That included me, I studied art history on Khan, something I never did in school. They both worked their way through Maths, Science and History on Khan as well as joining me in art history.
• Minecraft Homeschool  ( paid, about $20/ term) They not only learn the finer points of Redstone construction, but they can also study science, history, geography, and more in a Minecraft environment. The kids then answer questions and submit work while hanging out and chatting with kids all over the world.
• Local classes, tours and courses. Whenever we can we take tours and courses, including cooking, languages, painting, scuba diving, metalwork, high diving, pottery and stone carving.
• Blogging. Kids can write posts, create images or videos and learn about the technical side of website creation, including HTML, graphic design and social media management and marketing. Find out how to start a free blog for them here. They’re learning a trade that could provide them with an income long before they leave school. If you want to create a money-making blog, you need this post. They wrote me a post on what they learned about Egypt when they were younger, you can see that here. D now has his own author page and often writes for me on destinations, history and experiences. My son made the video at the top of the page. In 6 months his videos have earned him around $5,000. I share this information just to make you aware of the possibilities that exist.
• Group classes (such as Forest School). Obviously, they get to take part in all sorts of sports and activities. Sports we found for the boys to enjoy included kayaking, rock climbing, high diving and scuba diving. There were never any worries about PE.
• Attractions. Museums, historic sites, zoos, farms, rainforest and places of interest are the business, luckily the kids love them too.
• Tours and Guides. The older they get, the more they get out of guided tours and audio guides. When they were tiny this was pointless. We had a fantastic day-long tour in Assisi, a guide at the ruins of Tikal, a Vietnam War based tour also the British Museum, Tate Modern, and National Gallery tours.
• Audio books for the car, Horrible Histories audiobooks particularly.
• Free Open University courses ( Open Learn – UK ). My elder son has done free courses in Chemistry, Meteorology, Microbiology, Histopathology, Welsh and Marine Science this way. He was 12 when he started these and nothing was beyond his capabilities. Of course, I did them right alongside him to help him along at first. If anything crops up that he doesn’t understand, it’s super quick and easy to Google or YouTube the gap. He may do a degree this way, it’s expensive, but if he wants to he can do it.
• The world around them. There is always something to learn in each new place.

We did not travel lite, that wouldn’t be fair on the kids. Alongside the books, computers, pens and pencils, we were always picking up new Lego sets, Nerf Guns, cuddly toys, frisbees, and Harry Potter paraphernalia. Carry on only travel came when the boys were much older and our travel less full-time.

Workbooks and “School” Books

We loved the Carol Vorderman series of workbooks, she covers English, Maths, Science, French, Computer Coding, and more. Check out the beginner’s computer coding book here. We’ve tried many different workbooks, these always came out favourite and best. Workbooks like this are fairly slim and easy to carry, both boys usually had at least 2 with them.

Take a look at Maths Made Easy series, multiple ages, multiple topics on Amazon. If you look around you’ll find all the other Carol Vorderman workbooks.

It was fairly easy to pick up workbooks around the world. We mostly bought from Amazon in age or ability appropriate levels. We saw good ones in English, in Sri Lanka, and always stocked up in the UK.

If we simply had nothing to do, workbooks filled the time nicely and done right, they were fun. Don’t forget that puzzle books, crosswords, and word searches can also count as school. They’re all improving reading, spelling and vocabulary.

Online Learning Resources

Online schools and all manner of courses exist. You can even study for iGCSEs and I A levels using online schools. No school attendance is usually required. For less formal courses and classes on a huge range of interest-led topics, try Outschool. If you sign up we both make some money to offset against a course.

When the kids were younger we used some online learning resources such as Study Ladder and Reading Eggs. As they got older we progressed to Minecraft Homeschool and Open University. When exam time came they transitioned easily to iGCSE online schools. We never set out to put them for exams, but the 2020 quarantines left us staring at walls and twiddling thumbs. It gave them something to do and they enjoyed the new experience.

Reading

How the kids learned to read and how they continue to improve their literacy as teens and tweens:

• Reading to and with them as much as possible.
• Road signs, tube maps and menus were big players.
• The Reading Eggs online learning program.
• Written workbooks bought online or in shops. (above)
• Gaming, such as Minecraft, and chatting in text boxes to other kids, helped reading and spelling a lot.
• Almost all of their spelling and grammar has come naturally from extensive reading.
• Giving them plenty of time to read, in bed, on buses, planes, and cars. We had a Kindle-only rule, no games during transit.
• A steady supply of quality books on their Kindles. I keep a written record of what books they’re reading and try to encourage quality literature but they read what they want to read.

When the boys were tiny, just learning letters and starting to read, they both used Reading Eggs. They used them for fun and simple, brightly coloured games were their first steps in letters. You could, of course, use this online course in a much more structured way.

Reading Eggs now works for children right through to 13 years old, there have been big changes on the site allowing it to be used for more advanced reading and comprehension. Our link to Reading Eggs should give you a free trial.

General Online Programs

We had a subscription to an online learning site, Studyladder (paid), this covered primary and preschool English and Maths and gave us a good idea of where they would be if they were in school. It also has a useful science, music, and art section, although these are in no way complete enough to be used in isolation. In hindsight, this gave us the feeling that we were doing something and gave us something to do, but it was totally unnecessary

As my kids progressed towards taking iGCSE exams at 16 years old we discovered so many free, complete, lessons tailored to their needs on YouTube. Everything you need is there to help your kids pass exams if that’s the path your family chooses.

Computer Coding

Computer Coding for Kids Available for Kindle, as Paperback or Flexi Bound on Amazon

For computer coding we used Scratch, Khan Academy and Code Academy,  all are free. We supplemented this with this book (above) Computer Coding for Kids which is tied to the UK coding curriculum ( This computer coding book is also available as a work book)

Scratch is loads of fun and the kids do this without realising they’re doing “school.” The book gives them ideas for projects. This book also covers Python and has earned a place in our backpacks.

Code Academy introduces HTML, but I found it easier to teach myself this coding language from a book HTML for Dummies. I use this skill on the websites every day and honestly, it’s not hard. The boys use HTML in writing posts and inserting links. I think that just learning to code by doing, as they do now, is a much better way to do it. Scratch is fun though – give them Scratch.

Typing

My 11 year old decided to learn to touch type. He did brilliantly on BBC Dance Mat and loved doing it. This was pure self-directed learning.  He also found some other online typing games and practice sites, I’d have to ask him what they were.

As teens now they can both type way better than their mum. I’m a professional blogger and webmaster and I still type with one finger. With the amount of time they’ve been able to spend online, typing mostly just came naturally. They also know a lot more about some aspects of computers than I do.

Art

I find that both boys CAN draw, but they never knew WHAT to draw, so online drawing and art classes were fun for them  ( sometimes, push it and they went cold) and they were always proud of their creations. We used a variety of free online art and drawing classes. Again, in hindsight, this comes under the heading of “unnecessary time filler”. If they enjoy it, do it.

• Thrive Art School on YouTube.
• Art Hub For Kids has great free drawing and painting lessons (including Minecraft).
• Art Venture has a few free art lessons, mostly using the wax-resist method.
• Khan Academy has some superb art history content for older kids which we are using now.

This series of famous artist colouring and drawing books found our way into our packs sometimes too. This one is Van Gogh, the kids’ favourite because of Doctor Who. We always have coloured pencils and sketchbooks with us, which mostly they didn’t use when they were younger.

I’ll just share that my teen, “despite” no formal art lessons, is now so keen on sketching that he carries his sketch pad and pencils when he travels. That’s been an interesting development. If he can’t figure out how to draw a nose, for instance, he finds a short tutorial on YouTube. He’s also learning Welsh, self-initiated.

Languages

You will find many, many apps that will help you learn languages. Our favourite is Duolingo which we use for Spanish along with the excellent BBC Languages website. Here you’ll find FREE languages courses.

We tried immersion in a non-English speaking village in Romania. I can now speak a lot more Romanian than the boys, but they know more than the average person and can at least communicate.

That old wives’ tale about kids being natural language sponges seems untrue, they have to want to learn. I did, they didn’t. A formal language class enrollment is a possibility if they’d like to do that. As I mentioned above, my elder teen decided to learn Welsh, mostly to impress his friends I think. He uses Duolingo, some old Welsh books of mine, YouTube, music in Welsh (Thank you Cerys Matthews), and free OpenUniversity Welsh classes.

Geography

Seterra is an online geography game, you can download it to your computer and have endless fun beating the kids at identifying countries against the clock. It’s great when they start to beat the grown-ups. There is also World Geography Games, which my son’s Geography teacher introduced us to.

Obviously there is a lot more to Geography than this. They live and breath Geography every day and we have the UK Geography curriculum books at home base. We use iGCSE Geography books now for their exam study and as a curriculum guide before they started these formal courses. For younger kids, Geography workbooks like this one are useful.

History

Our particular favourite learning resource on the road was the Crash Course in World History by John Green on YouTube, it was previously on Khan. Lots of fun! As they got older they developed a real historical interest and ran with YouTube, books, talking to people, visiting places of historical significance, and so on.

For younger children the Horrible Histories series is superb. You can buy the audiobooks for the car or find the videos online.

Tools and Equipment for Homeschooling

The most important tool you need is the Kindle ( see the full range and varied prices here)! It works for kids of any age, anywhere in the world. The paperwhite doesn’t play games, it’s just a book, that way your kids will read.

The Kindle Paperwhites ( see above) are the single most important tool we carry, other than the laptops. We couldn’t travel without a never-ending supply of books, in English. Click the link above and buy the kids one each.

Ours, the Paperwhite, do not play games, they are purely for reading. We had a no-computer game or phone rule when we’re outside the house, it applied to adults too. If we had the Kindle Fire they’d just play games.

Without books to read, travel days would be long and hard. Sure, they play computer games too, but on laptops at home or on their 3DS. By only allowing Kindles on trains, in bed, on planes, we made time for reading.

We like the Nintendo 3DS a lot, it’s easily portable and less addictive for gaming. It has lots of other functions (camera, music, video, stop/start animation etc.) but Kindles are our best friends.

Our kids got phones around 13 years old and from that point things changed.

How Many Hours Does Homeschooling While Traveling Take?

That’s up to you and your kids. This is what we did.

• When we were actively traveling, backpacking around fast, seeing new things and places, we did almost nothing. They were learning enough, why spoil it? (for example during our month in India or in 3 weeks trekking Everest)

By nothing, I mean no workbooks, online learning or reading other than what they would do for pleasure. They read for pleasure a lot, they read on every bus or train. They were learning enormous amounts every day from diverse experiences, places, and people, along with my constant chatter and commentary. I would read around the topic and direct them to the learning. They didn’t get out of India without, for instance, learning about Partition, religions, Gandhi, the spice trade, Nehru and Indira. So nothing really means nothing that looks like a conventional school structure.

• When we’re settled, in one place for a few weeks or months, we do SOME. A bit, ENOUGH, what we need to do or what they want to do. We never let “school work” get in the way of going out, taking trips, seeing friends or having fun. Bookwork was purely something for downtime. (for example during our breaks in London, Romania, Antigua, Vietnam, or 6 weeks on Ko Phangan). With one-on-one intensive education they flew through content, it didn’t take a whole term, it took hours. We completed a whole year of Khan maths in 2 weeks, for instance. There were no term times, no holidays, and no weekends. The education fitted with us, not the other way round. As they got older they’d write up what they’d learned about a particular destination, colour maps, do projects, and so on.
• Also during downtime, they took online courses such as the free Open University science courses mentioned above or Minecraft Homeschool. 

It’s important to remember that “school” isn’t just the dull stuff, it’s easy to focus just on maths, English, and science and forget that drawing, making things, hanging out with interesting people, cooking, chopping wood, growing a garden, animal care, reading and computer studies are important too.

Let them have fun with their interests and make sure they know it counts towards their education. Life, from cradle to grave, is your education, I wish more people got that.

Further Reading

To help you get the ball rolling, a few classic books on education. Every homeschool or unschool parent reads at least a few of these, there is a big shift in thinking and these books will help you get on the road to worldschooling or homeschooling and traveling.

Try John Holt’s How Children Learn, a timeless book of wisdom from a top-level school educator turned homeschooling advocate. This is the classic book, the one you must read to change your school mindset and see that for children “learning is as natural as breathing.”

That’s just a quick overview of how we roll, how we cover all bases on the road. If you’re new to taking the responsibility of facilitating your kids’ education try to find other homeschoolers online to talk to. Everybody does this thing differently. There are philosophies and routes that you probably haven’t heard of so it’s about picking the right one for your child and for you.

I started blogging because of my involvement with the Australian homeschooling community. I met inspirational and knowledgeable people online and eventually became heavily involved in supporting and encouraging other new homeschoolers. There are plenty of us out there and our numbers are growing. Seek us out, we love to share. You could join our FREE FACEBOOK SUPPORT and KNOW HOW GROUP. Sign up to follow our website below and you’ll be sent the link.

You would be amazed how well young kids can learn to read, develop incredible grammar and improve their spelling, just through having what they think is fun. I’ve been through the early years. They learned to read and do primary school maths, it worked.

We were far more unschool in those days. My younger son took a long time to start reading, he was 8 before he really started reading books, but now he’s a voracious reader like his brother, the “catch-up” period was just a couple of months once he was ready.

That’s the beauty of it, there’s no pressure, let the child go just as far and as fast as they like, it doesn’t matter. The elder one was totally put off reading by school, once he was out, he flew.

When we started this journey there was no grand plan. The kids were always in the driving seat and if they wanted to start school later they could. They never wanted to. Maybe we’ll continue homeschooling while traveling into late teens even 20s. Education is a life long occupation after all.

Returning to Formal Education and Exams

Read here why, eventually, our kids quit homeschooling and went to school.

We’ve looked at tutors, the British iGCSE system and Open University degrees. So many possibilities exist today for education outside normal school progression. Homeschoolers can take their GCSEs without ever going to school and at any age. (check this for yourself as this varies). We love this as the boys can pick whatever subjects they like. The kids were never under any pressure to sit exams. If they chose that path, fine, but I saw no point. Likewise degrees, mature students can get into university as I did at 17, and as the mainstream do at 18. Nobody can predict the future. I can simply tell you for sure that what we’ve done so far by way of homeschool and travel has been amazing.

More Information on Travel Homeschool Lifestyle

If you would like to read more about homeschooling and traveling, have a look at the links below.

• Ultimate destinations, tips, resources and guide to Worldschooling.
• Homeschool and Travel. How’s it Going?
• What is Worldschooling?
• Homeschooling on the road. Do You Need Much Gear?
• What is Deschooling?
• One Year of Travel. How much learning happened?
• What Does A Homeschool Day Look Like?
• Socialization for travelling Homeschoolers and Worldschoolers

If you need further information on the nuts and bolts of making this travelling lifestyle possible, you need these posts.

• How We Financed This Trip, saving up and earning as we go
• How To Start Your Own Blog and create an online income
• What Gear Do You Need to Travel with a family
• Tips For Backpacking (long term travel, not hiking!) With Kids
• What are The Best Christmas, or Other, Gifts for Homeschoolers ( We love educational gifts, toys and sets)
• How Much Does it Cost to Travel The World as a Family

If you’d like to sign up to follow and receive e-mail notifications that’s great. You’ll get an invitation to our free private Facebook group for support and knowledge on travel, homeschooling and traveling and earning on the road. We are not selling courses here, that’s not how we roll. Cheers.