Travelling abroad off and on for a year?

[SoCal_Bear]

I am seriously contemplating taking a year before (technically on paper) reaching the high school years with my family and spending some time overseas and around the US travelling. DS already has some high school credits under his belt so he is technically ahead. I was considering keeping math up during that time, but I am open to letting a lot of formal education go. We have shifted to outsourcing a lot of classes for him this year because he asked to do that and has wanted more independence and separation. It just doesn't seem possible to do more than a class or two that if we decide to do a travel year. For me, this is completely out of the box thinking as this is certainly the road less travelled. 

The one thing for sure I would want to keep up is math. I don't think it would be a problem for him to not have formal science course or I could let him use the year to study computer science. He is set to do Latin 3 this year. So it is possible that he might want to continue on through AP Latin so I would not want him to lose momentum if that is the case. Everything else seems like I could let go without any major issues or focus on doing self-paced or with me when we are on breaks from travelling. One of the issues about self-paced learning is that he really thrives on the live component of classes. Something like a month away and a month back or some sort of routine like that.

Thoughts as I contemplate this possibility path?

Edited May 6, 2021 by calbear

[bibiche]

The first time I ever heard about homeschooling was when some family friends did it while sailing their boat around the world. Travel and homeschooling have gone together in my mind ever since.

We’ve traveled extensively while homeschooling. When we’re remote we just take AoPS books and kindles, when we have internet access we add online classes, and of course educational research of wherever we happen to be. Frankly, I prefer the freedom of the former, as, particularly when we’re in a much different time zone, the classes can be constraining. Your DS might feel the same and be willing to exchange the stability of online class for the thrill, or at least novelty, of travel, particularly if the class is suddenly in the middle of the night!

I think it sounds like a great opportunity. Travel is of itself an invaluable learning experience IMO. Since he’s already ahead I would probably just switch to learning organically except for the math and the Latin if that’s important to you. If you know where you’ll be headed you can plan some literature/history/art etc learning to take advantage of your location. Happy trails!

 

[Miss Tick]

When we have taken short trips (3 weeks was the longest) we took a laptop and logged on for the one live class that would have been awkward to miss. However most of my dc's online classes have offered a recorded version to watch if they miss class. When I reserve an Airbnb I usually filter for wifi availability.

@madteaparty spent 6 months in Asia with her dc a couple of years ago. They went all sorts of super cool places!!

Please keep posting all your planning, I would love to do this myself, but barring that perhaps I can travel vicariously with you all!

Edited May 6, 2021 by SusanC
onconce I link someone, weird things happen - even in the ETA section

[Not_a_Number]

We've definitely thought about doing this. I really hope we get to do this at some point, too. So I'd love to hear how this goes for you 🙂 . 

I'd probably drop everything but the non-negotiables. Here, I guess that'd be math and Russian. I don't know what we'd do for music... that's pretty non-negotiable here, too, but it's hard to do that traveling. 

But I'd definitely drop the non-core things 🙂 . 

[SoCal_Bear]

On 5/10/2021 at 7:21 PM, Not_a_Number said:

We've definitely thought about doing this. I really hope we get to do this at some point, too. So I'd love to hear how this goes for you 🙂 . 

I'd probably drop everything but the non-negotiables. Here, I guess that'd be math and Russian. I don't know what we'd do for music... that's pretty non-negotiable here, too, but it's hard to do that traveling. 

But I'd definitely drop the non-core things 🙂 . 

Honestly I wanted to do this earlier if I could, but we couldn't swing it given #2's age. I know some people are happy to bring under 5's around, but I would have hated the hassle of all the little kid challenges with travelling long term. And then Covid happened which put this coming year as a non-starter for us to do this as we felt there was too much uncertainty. 

[madteaparty]

1 hour ago, calbear said:

Honestly I wanted to do this earlier if I could, but we couldn't swing it given #2's age. I know some people are happy to bring under 5's around, but I would have hated the hassle of all the little kid challenges with travelling long term. And then Covid happened which put this coming year as a non-starter for us to do this as we felt there was too much uncertainty. 

That was a good call. The trip I did would have been hard to do with a 5 year old (though, lighter to carry I suppose). 
I did it when my older was in 8th or 9th. I plan to do a trip like that with just my younger when she’s the same age but she won’t be homeschooled for high school so I need to time the school admission tests and the like. And it will be different and we might just move slower (or reside someplace a month or so at a time). I don’t like to plan that far, it’s asking for trouble..

Edited May 13, 2021 by madteaparty

[SeaConquest]

My entire life trajectory changed because of a trip I took to the [then] Soviet Union when I was 15. IMHO, travel is the best education there is. If you can do it, I say totally go for it. You and the kids will have memories that last a lifetime. Have you joined any Facebook groups like Worldschoolers or (depending on how you intend to travel), some of the RV groups like Fulltime Families? If boats are involved, I can introduce you to lots of sailing families -- some of whom still managed to send their kids off to the Ivy league. Kids4Sail is a good FB group for cruising families. Anyway, I am excited for you!