Frozen in the Face of Opportunity - Please Help!

[Shoes+Ships+SealingWax]

We are living in SE Asia (Hong Kong). At some point in the next 12-18mo we will most likely be permanently moving back to the US. We’ve made a point to travel around HK while here, but haven’t visited surrounding countries due to other priorities / obligations which have now been satisfied.

This autumn we are taking our first big family vacation. We start our school year in June, so that’s about the mid-point. We’ll be at a natural stopping point in ELA & history. I can find a stopping point in math. We could drop sports at half term.

Part of me would love to stop our “regularly scheduled school activities” at that point & focus on travelling for the next several months. We could do a 3-4 day trip once a month. 

The problem is...that is SO not me. We are not worldschoolers. We are not unschoolers. Our lessons are very structured - DS thrives on it; I get anxious without it. I’m anxious just *thinking* about this ...but how could we miss this opportunity?? We are in SUCH a fortunate position for this to even be an option. I feel like I’d be an idiot not to take advantage of it!

Do I stay the course & have a “normal” year, possibly with some travel thrown in on “weeks off”? 

Try to make the 2nd half of our year into unit studies about the countries we will visit?

Keep only a light schedule (some math / spelling / reading) in-between trips? 

[Shoes+Ships+SealingWax]

Our big vacation is 2wks (closer to 3 including packing, flying, settling back in, etc).

After that we’d be aiming for one or two 3-5 day trips per month in a different country: Philippines, Taiwan, Indonesia, Thailand, Vietnam, Japan, South Korea, Macau, & China. We have non-revenue flight benefits, so that part is pretty manageable... just a matter of hotels, excursions, admission costs for museums / cultural sites / activities, etc. 

I’ve spoken to DH & he is on board... so I think this is our plan now. I’m both ecstatic & mildly terrified! 

[SoCal_Bear]

I would totally take advantage of the short trips. There are so many interesting places to go. China is so huge that you could even just do at least six 3-5 days to various areas there. 

Edited April 20, 2019 by calbear

[SoCal_Bear]

Not sure if you are a Christian or a secular schooler, but Sonlight Eastern Hemispheres or Bookshark's secular version might be a nice tie-in. 

 

Edited April 20, 2019 by calbear

[Shoes+Ships+SealingWax]

1 hour ago, calbear said:

Not sure if you are a Christian or a secular schooler, but Sonlight Eastern Hemispheres or Bookshark's secular version might be a nice tie-in. 

 

We’re secular 😊 We have lots of good literature planned already, but I’ll take a look at the list to see if there’s anything else I’d like to add in. Thanks for the tip!

[El...]

I'd take the trips. I know what you mean about wanting to stay on track, I'm a spreadsheet person myself, but traveling and seeing other cultures in person is a game changer, I think. We're in Germany for a few years, and walking through a no-kidding 12th century castle... you don't undo that.  My kids are never going to forget this place. I'm so glad they are the right age to enjoy and remember! 

[*Jessica*]

Your signature leads me to believe your son is around 3rd grade age?  I’m also a fairly structured schooler with 15 and 13 yo boys and at that age I would not hesitate to drop everything for an experience like yours!  

[J-rap]

I wouldn't hesitate for one minute to take advantage of travel.  You can always do math and literature when you're sitting around -- during downtime, when on planes, etc., if that's important to you.  I'd probably require my child to keep a daily journal, writing about things and drawing pictures of things that make an impression on them.  Over meals, discuss what you've seen and experienced.

[sweet2ndchance]

My biggest regret when we lived overseas is not travelling to the surrounding countries more so of course my vote is to travel, travel ,travel!

We lived in Okinawa. I would love another opportunity to live there and we would travel and visit and experience everything if I could do it all over again. We never even made it to Hong Kong despite being so close.

By the way, I would definitely visit Okinawa if you haven't already. The culture, the atmosphere and even the language to an extent is quite different than on Honshu (mainland Japan, where Tokyo is). So much history to experience, beautiful beaches (even just landing there and seeing all the reefs and fish is breath taking), lots of touristy places (glass bottom boat tours, Okinawan blown glass demonstrations, Peace Prayer Park, Gyokusendu Cave, Churaumi Aquarium and hundreds of parks for children) and festivals (in fall there's the Naha Festival, an Eisa dancer festival and a couple of others), but still lots of hidden corners of local culture to explore and the people are some of the most kind people you could ever hope to meet. Can you tell we loved it there? lol

[8filltheheart]

I would encourage you to think about what the definition of education encompasses. Is it opening textbooks and completing a set amt of book work?  Or does education also cover what children see and experience in the real world outside of pages of information?  Geography? Ecology? Human geography and cultures?  

Public schools have the mindset that only teachers provide an education and that it requires sitting in a classroom and learning through a book for a set amt of time/day/yr.  I absolutely positively LOVE the 2nd chpt of Hard Times as a motivation for homeschooling.  It was written by Dickens over a century and a half ago, but he sums up exactly how our culture defines education with scantron tests defining the best and brightest.  in simple terms, Gradgrind is a teacher who is focused on book memorization that misses real understanding and knowledge.

Books do convey information, but is it the same as "knowing"? Blitzer or Sissy?  I'd rather have Sissy's knowledge of a horse.

Quote

CHAPTER II - MURDERING THE INNOCENTS

THOMAS GRADGRIND, sir. A man of realities. A man of facts and
calculations. A man who proceeds upon the principle that two and
two are four, and nothing over, and who is not to be talked into
allowing for anything over. Thomas Gradgrind, sir - peremptorily
'Girl number twenty,' said Mr. Gradgrind, squarely pointing with
his square forefinger, 'I don't know that girl. Who is that girl?'

'Sissy Jupe, sir,' explained number twenty, blushing, standing up,
and curtseying.

'Sissy is not a name,' said Mr. Gradgrind. 'Don't call yourself
Sissy. Call yourself Cecilia.'

'It's father as calls me Sissy, sir,' returned the young girl in a
trembling voice, and with another curtsey.

'Then he has no business to do it,' said Mr. Gradgrind. 'Tell him
he mustn't. Cecilia Jupe. Let me see. What is your father?'

'He belongs to the horse-riding, if you please, sir.'

Mr. Gradgrind frowned, and waved off the objectionable calling with
his hand.

'We don't want to know anything about that, here. You mustn't tell
us about that, here. Your father breaks horses, don't he?'

'If you please, sir, when they can get any to break, they do break
horses in the ring, sir.'

'You mustn't tell us about the ring, here. Very well, then.
Describe your father as a horsebreaker. He doctors sick horses, I
dare say?'

'Oh yes, sir.'

'Very well, then. He is a veterinary surgeon, a farrier, and
horsebreaker. Give me your definition of a horse.'

(Sissy Jupe thrown into the greatest alarm by this demand.)

'Girl number twenty unable to define a horse!' said Mr. Gradgrind,
for the general behoof of all the little pitchers. 'Girl number
twenty possessed of no facts, in reference to one of the commonest
of animals! Some boy's definition of a horse. Bitzer, yours.'

The square finger, moving here and there, lighted suddenly on
Bitzer, perhaps because he chanced to sit in the same ray of
sunlight which, darting in at one of the bare windows of the
intensely white-washed room, irradiated Sissy. For, the boys and
girls sat on the face of the inclined plane in two compact bodies,
divided up the centre by a narrow interval; and Sissy, being at the
corner of a row on the sunny side, came in for the beginning of a
sunbeam, of which Bitzer, being at the corner of a row on the other
side, a few rows in advance, caught the end. But, whereas the girl
was so dark-eyed and dark-haired, that she seemed to receive a
deeper and more lustrous colour from the sun, when it shone upon
her, the boy was so light-eyed and light-haired that the self-same
rays appeared to draw out of him what little colour he ever
possessed. His cold eyes would hardly have been eyes, but for the
short ends of lashes which, by bringing them into immediate
contrast with something paler than themselves, expressed their
form. His short-cropped hair might have been a mere continuation
of the sandy freckles on his forehead and face. His skin was so
unwholesomely deficient in the natural tinge, that he looked as
though, if he were cut, he would bleed white.

'Bitzer,' said Thomas Gradgrind. 'Your definition of a horse.'

'Quadruped. Graminivorous. Forty teeth, namely twenty-four
grinders, four eye-teeth, and twelve incisive. Sheds coat in the
spring; in marshy countries, sheds hoofs, too. Hoofs hard, but
requiring to be shod with iron. Age known by marks in mouth.'
Thus (and much more) Bitzer.

'Now girl number twenty,' said Mr. Gradgrind. 'You know what a
horse is.'

 

[madteaparty]

I did this for approx 5 months last year and i will say it is very hard to formally school on the road.  And by the end my kids were sick of yet. another. temple. We did all the great courses and documentaries and whatever but it was just...hard. I’m thrilled I did it but wish I had travelled a bit slower especially during challenging parts of the trip. I’m thinking of moving to Europe next fall and basically just do things on weekends and school holidays and stay put all week long. Ultimately do what *you* want to do. I’m so thrilled I saw Borobudur even though it’s quite literally in the middle of nowhere and it was the only time my kids got sick on the road. We sat with local families and  learned about growing rice, etc. but you know what my little DD remembers from the ENTIRE trip? Those tiny tunnels in Vietnam...she’s mad I wouldn’t go in 😂

Edited April 20, 2019 by madteaparty

[Shoes+Ships+SealingWax]

7 hours ago, madteaparty said:

I did this for approx 5 months last year and i will say it is very hard to formally school on the road.  And by the end my kids were sick of yet. another. temple. We did all the great courses and documentaries and whatever but it was just...hard. I’m thrilled I did it but wish I had travelled a bit slower especially during challenging parts of the trip. I’m thinking of moving to Europe next fall and basically just do things on weekends and school holidays and stay put all week long. Ultimately do what *you* want to do. I’m so thrilled I saw Borobudur even though it’s quite literally in the middle of nowhere and it was the only time my kids got sick on the road. We sat with local families and  learned about growing rice, etc. but you know what my little DD remembers from the ENTIRE trip? Those tiny tunnels in Vietnam...she’s mad I wouldn’t go in 😂

 

Yeah, I definitely don’t think we’re cut out for long-term / permanent worldschooling. Each of our weeks of travel will be followed 3-4 weeks at home, so we’ll leave our books here in HK. On the road he’ll bring his camera & keep a daily journal. I wish we could stay longer in each place, but DH is a pilot so he can’t exactly telecommute 😂  I’ll go out of my way not to choose “too similar” of excursions in different places. 

[HomeAgain]

Take the time and travel.

We lived outside the U.S. for nearly 6 years.  What my oldest remembers most is not the school books from all his years of school.  He remembers reading about the Medici family on a kindle and walking through Florence.  He remembers being in awe of aquaducts and Roman roads and seeing the amazing reach of the empire as we went from country to country, finding the same tokens left by an ancient civilization.  He remembers the feeling he got standing at the base of Michaelangelo's David and the awe inspiring paintings all over Michaelangelo's home.  He remembers really getting up close to the Magna Carta and understanding the Latin written everywhere.  He remembers listening to connected languages but hearing how they changed from culture to culture, and how our language reflects that. He remembers trying to lift huge cannonballs and walking through city gates in walls that were 8 feet thick.

Take advantage of your time.  The books will wait, and when they are opened again they will have more meaning.  He will be able to relate to them more.  If you have to take math with you, take math.  But take some time and, if you have to, plan organized "school" through long extended field trips.  Our kindle at the time was loaded with stories of all the places we wanted to go.  We searched out guides if necessary, but the amount of sheer life learning my kid took with him into high school could not have been substituted by reading about it.