Have you ever seen the Instagram photos of families that sold everything and set out on global adventures? Did you find yourself rolling your eyes at their careless behaviour, keeping their children home from school, and leaving their jobs? Perhaps you secretly wished you could have done it yourself, but you felt it would be way too selfish. Here are six compelling arguments for why “worldschooling” may be the best thing you ever do for your kids.
Open their minds
As Mark Twain famously said, “Travel is fatal to prejudice, bigotry, and narrow-mindedness, and many of our people need it sorely on these accounts.” Exposing your family to new cultures, broadens their minds, destroys stereotypes, and promotes tolerance, understanding, and respect for other societies.
2. Acquire patience
Your child will learn patience and how to deal with boredom during the hours spent waiting or travelling between destinations. Finding ways to amuse themselves forces our children to examine their changing environment, stimulating their minds to discover creative new ways to pass the time.
3. Nurture personal growth
Exposure to new environments, cultures, languages, and foods all provide contrasting experiences that can help your child develop perspective. This new perspective will promote social conscience and a greater understanding of the world around them and their place within it.
4. Develop new skills
When travelling for extended periods, your child will learn and hone new skills such as language, communication, compromise, organisation, timekeeping, orientation, and self-reliance.
5. Promote cognitive development
Routine does little to promote neuroplasticity—the ability of the neural networks in the brain to change through growth and reorganisation. New stimuli, an active brain, and new challenges are three vital ingredients required to build new neurons and boost your child’s brain power, all of which are supplied by the cocktail of flavours, smells, sounds, and sights that are provided by travelling. A study by the Kellogg School of Management concluded that students who spent time abroad found it easier to solve complex creative problems.
6. Build strong family bonds
Whether you are exploring ancient ruins or snorkelling in turquoise waters, travelling together as a family creates closer bonds between family members, a reliance upon each other, and the opportunity that time affords to really learn who each other are when freed from the lure of screens and technology.
If you are interested in learning more about full-time family travels or worldschooling opportunities, you can find numerous resources online through a simple internet search. Toucanto runs an annual worldschooling event in the Galápagos Islands during November and December with a carefully constructed programme of language and immersive activities coupled with nature and animal encounters. For more information, click on the link below.
Worldschooling In Galapagos – 2023!
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