Three used Chromebooks showed up on our doorstep about a week after the official announcement:
“School buildings will remain closed indefinitely. All classes will be held remotely.”
As someone who works in tech, this seemed like a natural way to keep school functioning while in lockdown; set up each kid with a computer so the teachers can host a video call and teach a whole classroom of tiny human thumbnails on a screen. For our second and third grader this was a challenge. For our kindergartner, this was an impossible mission.
“Circle time“ is one of those social, group activities that’s woven into the fabric of a six-year-old’s nascent school experience. Circle time through a laptop? This was obviously very broken. Our son was fidgeting and squirming as he tried his best to pay attention. Some kids had just an ear on screen. Others were holding up stuffed animals. Some were just empty bedrooms or the haggard face of a tired parent. Eventually, he looked up from the screen us and asked “can I go play in the backyard?” Without hesitation, we said yes, and shut the screen. That was the moment we realized we weren’t just dealing with a temporary workaround. The model itself was broken—for our kids.
We don’t blame the teachers for any part of this. They were doing their absolute best. This moment though, this bewildering, stressful moment, was the catalyst for us to start doing school differently for our kids. We stuck with the school district issued laptops for a few weeks and then officially pulled them from class in favor of home-based learning.
One thing you have to understand about homeschool is that a lot of it has a real religious slant to it. We researched what seemed like hundreds of resources in order to find what matched the unique learning styles of each of our kids, eventually narrowing it down to the few we felt would work best.
Getting to know our kids as learners
One thing this transition (and the pandemic) offered us, was simply more time to observe our kids as they learned. It wasn’t long before we realized that our son struggled with reading, at least according to academic standards for kids in kindergarten and first grade. So, we spent a lot of time with him, focused on reading, phonetics and confidence in his abilities. This is something that has since mastered, but it took him longer than the traditional school schedule to get there. Instead, he was fascinated by (and brilliant with) anything that involved engineering or math. We invested in STEM activities and learning based around experimentation and saw him clearly thrive in this environment.
Colette, our middle child, entered her homeschool journey feeling frustrated with math. I suppose she just didn’t inherit her mother’s math genes like her brother did. She was instead more of a writer and poet who loves language arts, creative play and music. Since math was extra difficult for her, we spent a lot of time curating curriculum to help with that while also leaning into her unique strengths and interests. Math required more attention, but we were able to provide it.
Our oldest had a really intense study habit where she would try really hard and get to the point where she was so frustrated with herself that she would stop and break down. We were glad to be able to support her and guide her through this frustration whereas in a classroom setting, this would’ve been pushed aside and she’d be feeling those feels by herself without receiving the support she needed.
This curriculum curation and the connection to their interests and needs was a gift. While we were initially worried about their academic performance (at least according to traditional standards), we know those standards are meant to create good test takers, and not necessarily good learners who have an appetite for learning and an ability to go deep with their passions.
Plugging in to the hybrid learning community
Once everything started opening back up again, we found a few other families who were feeling the same way about education and wanted something different. A lot of new programs popped up organically during this time, many of them lead by retired teachers who saw this as an opportunity to pursue their own passions. These programs were considered “supplemental” to homeschooling and provided a little more structure while offering activities that are hard to replicate at home: advanced science experiments, book clubs, writing workshops, and social connection with other kids their age.
There’s this myth in the homeschooling world about homeschooled kids, being “socially awkward” and not getting the “traditional school experience“ but we found that this wasn’t the case. There’s an entire community of kids who often connect in person for these supplemental programs and a rich and helpful wealth of resources that are shared widely for free or little cost. It may take some time to make these connections, but if you’re intentional it’s entirely possible.
Homeschool + “Normal School”
After a year or so putting together our own curriculum and “surviving” education (and working full-time) during the height of the pandemic, we debated sending them back to “normal school”. We had settled in to a rhythm and saw objective improvements in our kids appetites for learning and we were impressed by their progress. But balancing homeschooling and remote work was a challenge we hadn’t quite figured out. We knew sending them back to traditional school could open up more time for us to work, but the tradeoffs didn’t make sense.
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Weighing the pros and cons of traditional school
There are many widely discussed trends in the US education system but if we set aside many of them (such as core skills being in decline, teacher pay and attrition, US students falling behind internationally, the shrinking job market and AI disrupting everything) there are a few that stood out to us as we decided to continue homeschooling full time. These weren’t the spark for our decision, they were the context behind it.
⭐️ Gun violence and school shootings are (still) on the rise
This was a major factor in our decision. The unfortunate reality is that gun violence is prevalent and persistent which should NOT be the case. Two years ago, there was shooting near our kids’ “regular school” that resulted in a campus lockdown while a manhunt was conducted. This creates fear and fearing attendance at school seems like a sign there’s something wrong. We’re tired of seeing the numbers going in the wrong direction while feeling helpless to affect meaningful change.
⭐️ Curriculum increasingly has an agenda
In some states, public education is moving away from a fact-based curriculum to more of an opinionated, religious or nationalistic mandate. This is prevalent in the homeschool community (and we’ve avoided it), but it’s now showing up more frequently in the public system. We’ve seen efforts to require Bible instruction, post the Ten Commandments in classrooms, or frame curriculum through a specific religious worldview under the banner of “parental rights” while virtually (and sometime literally) erasing parts of our history and anything to do with inclusion or diversity. From our perspective, this represents a move away from neutrality.
⭐️ Debt is an unavoidable burden
Our 17 year old is looking at colleges right now and she could not believe how much it costs to attend in the US. For many, it’s unattainable. If we look at the numbers, there are about 42 million people who hold a total of around $1.6–1.8 trillion in student load debt. Trillion! This means the average borrower carries $38k–40k in federal loans. This issue reinforced our desire to keep all potential paths open. We want our kids to be free to choose where and how they work, instead of letting debt decide for them.
⭐️ The ROI of college and advanced degrees is becoming less certain
Many graduates now say they could do their job without the degreethey paid for. For example, Computer Science (CS) degrees used to be the only way to land a job as a software developer. But AI is now in the driver’s seat of software development and developers are more creative managers of output. Yes, there’s still demand for computer scientists but there are so many more opportunities in tech that don’t require advanced degrees and instead require practical thinking, creativity and other, less technical skills.
As someone who started – but never completed college – I know it’s possible to successfully navigate the world without a degree. Has it been hard? Of course! What students miss in college though, is what I was able to pick up through experience. I was in a band, I waited tables, I rebuilt an engine when I was in high school, and I grew up learning the value of critical thinking and problem solving. We tell our kids openly that we support whatever path they want, but we caution them against rushing into something just because “it’s what you’re supposed to do.”
So what is that alternate path? What does homeschooling offer?
How homeschool (or “hybrid school”) is different
Even given the challenges of homeschooling (planning curriculum, driving from program to program, active teaching, grading and a whole host of other things), the positive outcomes vastly outweighed the extra work it would take to continue. So we continued but with one major and meaningful adjustment: we found an anchor.
We were very fortunate to find and then enroll them in a program that was a fully-formed “real-school” supplement to homeschool that they could attend one day per week. This program was funded by the school district and was a way for homeschool kids to have a “real school“ experience that handled academic testing, transcripts and a lot of the administrative work that homeschool families are burdened with. But they also offered multiple classes daily, friends, dances, and field trips. We called it “real school” because on that one day every week, it felt like they were part of a group sharing a homeschooling experience together in a setting that resembled their non-homeschooled peers.
It was a magical experience that we were truly grateful for and we were sad to leave as well, but through this period of time we maintained a fairly rigorous check-in with each of our kids around their passions they’re interests their struggles and their needs. This included not only the topics they were actively learning, but also exploring how they learn, what type of reinforcement they need, what additional resources might be valuable to them, and how long each of them might need to achieve a certain type of work.
What we (as parents) learned during homeschooling
If there’s one thing that feels most true about this experience for us, it’s that education isn’t so much about what you teach. It’s more about helping your kids learn how to learn. It’s giving them an intrinsic hunger for trying things differently and trying different things. This is why we’re on this expanded, global journey now.
Today’s approach to education still relies on the factory-worker model it started from. Instead of helping accelerate growth in areas where kids are strong or interested, they can quickly become stagnant and – dare I say – bored. Kids with unique strengths and any level of neurodivergence are offered exactly the same experience as everyone else. I believe every child should have the same opportunities, but that doesn’t work when kids are all forced to use the same model.
We know this kind of flexibility isn’t available to every family, and we don’t take that lightly, but we do believe that there are creative ways to achieve similar results regardless of your own situation.
Homeschooling to full-time worldschooling
Once we stopped optimizing for the school “system”, we started optimizing for curating and responding to a desire for learning. And that changed everything.
We’re now full-time “world-schooling” which is something we’ve been dreaming about for years after starting our homeschool journey. We have done a lot of travel through HomeExchange (see my previous post) so we’ve been able to conduct school while visiting Spain, Portugal, New Zealand and some US states. Each time we visited a new place, we realized just how much depth there was to explore. If you only visit the “touristy” spots, then you may not realize the depth. But if you venture out to areas of the landscape or culture that don’t come with the bumpers turned on (sorry for the bowling reference), then you end up meeting new people, expanding your capacity for learning, and trying new things that require a little discomfort, but pay off a hundred-fold.
If homeschool offers flexibility in how you teach a standard curriculum, worldschooling offers an entirely new curriculum. There were many things we had to consider, but the possibility of worldschooling was actually one of the main reasons we decided to leave the US and travel full time. Here are a few of the main reasons we feel it’s right for us:
Experiencing different cultures
Learning about other cultures is possible in a textbook. However, immersing yourself in other cultures by seeing their traditions, tasting their foods, walking their streets and living your life through a new lens is an incredibly powerful way to understand them. You see daily life, you get to know people and what they love, what their challenges are and how they grew up. You’ll also get to witness and (sometimes participate in) traditions that a deeply meaningful. These are moments you have to witness to remember and they often leave an impression that lasts a lifetime.
Creating independence
When is the last time you or your kids navigated a new transit system? Ordered a croissant by themselves using a second language? Walked to the grocery store alone to buy a few groceries? Ordered food from a menu that’s literally foreign to them? These types of new experiences are the ones that create new neural pathways and provide confidence for navigating life (no matter where you live). You’ll quickly see your kids become more independent, brave, and confident.
Learning new languages
Do you remember taking Spanish is high school or college? Aside from “¿donde esta el baño” do you remember any of it? After visiting Spain and fumbling through Spanish for two months, we very intentionally chose to begin our worldschooling adventure by spending a solid six months in South America. While in Guatemala, the kids were able to take Spanish lessons from a Guatemalan woman who ONLY spoke Spanish. Three days a week, two hours per class. The key though, was practice in every moment outside of class. We don’t always choose the English menu, and we never assume anyone speaks English.
Going beyond textbooks and YouTube
Do you remember… field trips? When I reflect on my time as a student through all grade levels, my lust for learning was always strongest around field trips. In elementary school I remember visiting a sewer plant to see how it works and walking to a local park to study bugs and pick up litter. In high school, I remember going to the NASA / Ames research center in California to walk their facilities and learn how they test jet parts in supersonic wind tunnels. The things I learned that actually stuck with me and sparked the most intense curiosity were on those field trips. So why not create a learning environment that allows mastery of the basics but is FULL of field trips?
Becoming more interesting people
Friendships are tough when traveling full-time. That’s a known challenge and I’ll share more about how we manage that another time. But I think our kids have been surprised how quickly they can make new friends on this journey. I was talking with Lilah recently about this and I mentioned to her that travel makes you immediately more interesting… and being interesting is a surefire way to meet and get to know people! I can’t count how many times we’ve told people what we’re doing and have made a lasting connection because of it.
If you’re a parent reading this, I’m sure it’s a lot to consider. The same was true for us when we first considered worldschooling. So, I’ll leave you with a question – something that might help clarify whether this is right for you:
What do you wish your own childhood learning journey looked like?
I doubt it’s “sitting behind a desk more, and hoping they wheel out the tv cart.” I think it’s something more inspired, more exciting, and more adventurous. Taking time to consider your answer to this question is a solid first step towards understanding what changes you might make. Maybe you never end up worldschooling but find ways to spark curiosity around a subject. Maybe you dip your toes in and exchange your home for a month or two. Or maybe you go all-in like we did and make this the new normal for you and your family. There’s no “right answer” there’s only the “answer that’s right for you.”
Stay curious. Embrace the adventure.