One of the biggest issues faced by travelers-turned-parents is deciding on how to go about with their adventurous lifestyle while still managing to provide their children with adequate education. Somehow, parents around the globe have figured out a way to give their children the best of, not just both, but the whole world through a new trend known as "worldschooling".
While the name might suggest simply sending children to different schools around the world, the term, also known as "world schooling", actually refers to the act of accompanying children in their parents' travels. The term has also been spun off into different alternatives such as "edventuring" and "life learning".
The phenomenon involves the education of children through firsthand exposure to world history, culture and traditions. According to The Guardian, "worldschooling" is driven by parents' desires to escape work pressure, spend more time with their children, and discover the world as a family.
Many travelling parents explain that the idea of world education is not a consequence of taking children on the road, but rather an appealing aspect of travel. This new version of homeschooling has taken books and classrooms out of education and moved it on to the real world.
While many families opt to follow school-based curriculum and modules, others opt to leave learning to personal discovery and human interactions. Several parents have even begun creating destination-based itineraries to make each trip a learning experience.
According to 2016 statistics, there has been a 65% increase in home-schooled children in the UK over the past six years. In the United States, hundreds of travelling families have been recorded to engage in homeschooling and "worldschooling" practices over the past two years.
Parent.co explains that most travelling parents only intend to go for month-long vacations with their children. These vacations tend to extend into longer voyages, covering more locations around the world. Several interviews conducted by the same website state that these voyages often extend into two or three-year long trips.
While the idea of "worldschooling", its long-term effects on the mental and social development of children is still being heavily debated, many travelling parents will argue that the practice results in more adjusted individuals. Through travel, parents and children are able to engage in a mutual learning system which increases family intimacy and understanding.
This article is copyrighted by Travelers Today, the travel news leader
