On world schooling...

We did a fair amount of research before we left on approaches that other traveling families have taken on this kind of trip with kids. From established homeschoolers who are already committed to a full curriculum and just take it on the road with them, to unschoolers on the other side of the spectrum, who avoid curricula in any form and use each experience as the opportunity for learning - we needed to find what blend we felt would serve the kids and the family experience best. The homeschooling experience of Covid, I think was deeply educational for most parents - us included. It made us trim down our expectations of what formal schooling can be achieved without major argument that makes life unpleasant. And it stripped a lot of romance away from the notions of being your own children's primary educators! 

At certain points I found myself lost in the details and feeling a bit lost and overwhelmed. So it was good to step back, and ask what the purpose of this trip was for us.  There was something about learning about the world through experience. There was something about seeing ourselves as global citizens and opening our minds up to the bigger systems at play. There was something about having lots of fun together as a family. There was something about building character - travel presents many challenges you have to dig deep to overcome and shows you what you are capable of meeting. There was something about appreciating our home, our people and our lives, not taking things like hot water, space or loved ones for granted. When we dug right down though, at the heart of it all, was cultivating a sense of wonder and awe at this life we get to live on this extraordinary planet that orbits in space. 

So it became clear to us - 'the curriculum is wonder'. Looking with fresh eyes and asking lots of questions would be the core of our world schooling approach. Plus a bit of maths and journaling. We got a Cambridge maths workbook for each of them, and a journal folder each, with questions that we all came up with before we left, such as:

What did I learn about the history of this country?

What is the story and meaning of the flag?

What did I learn about the rocks, plants and animals here?

What music did I hear and how did it make me feel?

What art did I see that made me feel something?

What did I learn about culture and religion here?

What food did I try and like?

Who did we meet?

What are the challenges in this country, and what would I do if I was the president?

What things did we see or do that were interesting?

So far, there have just been so many opportunities for so many layers and dimensions of learning for all of us - about the world, about each other, about ourselves. Learning without realising you are learning is the most fun and engaging. Sitting down and doing written work is usually met with initial resistance, but it also serves as a kind of discipline, and we've mostly done it in gaps - on trains, at airports or at the edges of the day. 

Now and then, when the push back to written work is big, I wonder if we should just have gone with the unschooling approach and rolled with the learning that comes with life on the road - converting currencies for multiplication and division,  shopping and budgeting for adding and subtracting, and figuring out DHL box volumes. It would have been easier. But we do take comfort that at least the structure of the workbooks and regular writing will mean they hopefully they are keeping up with the essential skills of this time of their education, and will be able to slot back into the demands of the normal schooling day. And I know their journals will be something they look back on when this trip is long finished. What we can see in conversation with them though, is that their grasp of layered history, geography, politics and even economics is in a different realm to either of ours when we were their age, and hopefully whatever they have missed, they will be able to catch up in the flow of life when we are back home.

Travelling heavy, travelling light

Whether packing for a weekend camping or setting out on a longer adventure, the balancing act of bringing along what you need and yet keeping as light as possible is an elusive goal. Everyone’s sweet spot is different – we’ve met people who have cruised around happily with a tiny backpack, and others who don’t leave home without their 13m luxury home on wheels (complete with underfloor heating, washing machine and 200l deep freeze.) 

As we come towards the end of our trip, we’ve hit close to the sweet spot a couple of times, but I don’t think ever perfectly on it. We’ve still got some stuff with us that we don’t use enough to justify lugging it along, and we still need some things that would be really useful, we now know, like mini salt and pepper shakers. But overall we’ve learnt a lot about what we need, the way we like to travel, and with kids at the ages they are. And we’ve stumbled across some useful rules of thumb – like never have a bag packed too heavy to carry up stairs, and travel with hands free as far as possible. No doubt our needs and wants will keep changing, but it’s been fun to sit together and come up with what we think has been useful and what hasn’t been.

Things that have been useful to us:

• Osprey wheeled backpacks - These bags are incredible. We really forked out for good quality and these bags are the best - rugged, light, easy to carry and roll. Nick and I have the Sojourn 60 litre bags and the kids have the Farpoint 40 litre models. We also have 2 Daylite 20 litre day packs that strap onto the bigger bags. 

• Plate, set of cutlery, and thermal insulated mug that doubles as a bowl – these have been super useful as lots of places have not had cutlery, and it’s allowed us lots more options to eat on the go

• Leatherman – which Graham goes anywhere without one? We’ve used it a lot, from getting thorns out to making holes in coconuts

• Washing line – again, a multifunctional item, it’s held our washing, been a skipping rope and tied our bags together when we’ve stashed them

• Plug – the bath kind; so many places, from Ireland to Indo, haven’t had plugs – how do they wash their dishes? We’ve used our multi-fit kind a lot.

• Travel sheets – these have been handy when linen is scarce/not warm enough or we’ve been sleeping on the go on buses, planes or trains. I made the kids lycra tubes, which have also doubled as useful energy expending stretchy bags, and hidey holes for when they just need some alone time

• Blow up mattresses – we bought 2 really small blow up mattresses that fold into a bag the size of a grapefruit. We haven’t used them a lot, but when we have needed them, they’ve really been a lifesaver. For nighttime layovers in airports, the kids have been able to get a good few hours of sleep; some places advertised themselves as 4 sleepers but only had 2 or 3 beds, and some sleeper couch beds have been so uncomfortable, the mattresses have been rolled out in preference. Overall, they came out as a win that we would pack again.

• Clothes washing soap bar – Nick picked up two bars of clothes washing soap in Italy, and they have lasted us almost to the end. They were brilliant – small, compact, effective, low foaming and surprisingly nice smelling. While we’ve also brought along a small amount of machine washing powder for when we have access to a machine, the hand bars have been super useful for keeping up with the laundry monster.

• Lunch bag – we were gifted this by Di and Jeremy at the start of our trip, and it has been a brilliant little kitchen cupboard, holding tea, coffee, pickles, onions, fruit or whatever essentials we end up needing to take with us from one place to the next.

• Flask – this was an impulse buy in Wales for GBP 5 and has given us hot tea at the bleakest, coldest moments and cold water when we’ve been pouring with sweat.

• Zip lock bags and folding shopping bags – both have been super useful

• Packing blocks - have been a game changer for months on the road. It’s like having drawers, being able to keep things organised, and make packing and unpacking simple 

• Hairbands, duct tape, cable ties, superglue – for tying anything, sticking anything, fixing most things, from earrings to shoes

Tech and digital wins

• Kindles – nothing like trying to travel lighter to make the switch from paper books

• Airalo – an e-sim app that allows you to buy data online in just about every country, it was super handy to be able to get connected immediately on entering a new country and trying find our way

• The Man in Seat 61 – our favourite rail travel guide, the Man in Seat 61 gives all the information you could possibly want about just about every country that has a railway line in it. We love his website.

• Eurail Global Passes  - European train passes that let you travel anywhere for a set number of days are heavy to fork out for at the outset, but worked out very worthwhile

• Wander-Lush - a stand out travel blog, focused on the Caucasus but including SE Asia.

• AirBnB and Booking.com we used throughout the whole trip – so great when you discover you’ve booked the wrong date and need an emergency switch!

• 12GoAsia was equally useful across Asia for booking various kinds of transport

• Google Everything, of course, but Google Maps we have used multiple times a day, every day, and Google Lens and Translate were especially useful when trying to figure out what we were eating, how to make the washing machine work, and generally communicating

• Audible – audiobooks are the best for long trips and long waits. When the kids are disappointed that a bus ride has come to an end, you know it’s a good story!

Fails

• Multi-adapter electrical plug – we bought a multi-country converter, but have hardly used it because almost everywhere uses European 2 pin plugs.

• Grater - we picked up a flat grater in Kyrgyzstan and haven’t used it since!

• Wrong season clothes – there has been a slight residue of unused clothes as we’ve crossed from -8 in Europe to 43 degrees in SE Asia. Sun hats didn’t get a wear for 4 months, and the puffer jackets we know we’ll need when we arrive back in SA have not had a moment of use for the last 3 months.

Much of what we found we didn’t use, or little souvenirs that we bought along the way, we sent back home in a DHL box and with willing grandparents. If we had to do the trip again, I think we might be a little stricter with ourselves, reduce our belongings to a barer minimum and lean into travelling lighter and with less. A constant challenge for travel and life!