For a “worldschooling” task one morning, we asked the kids a few questions to get them thinking about their own thoughts and feelings regarding this adventure that we are on.  Here is what we asked:

We would like you to write about your thoughts and feelings so far.

What are the highs and lows of the adventure? Now that we have started, how long do you think we will (or want us to) last? What were your favourite parts so far?   Would you change anything?

Eli (just turned 7)

I think worldschooling is better.  It is better because we get to be with our parents more.

I might want to travel five or more years.

I am happy about the adventure.  I think it is better than having a normal life.  Going to parks and airbnbs is awesome. I didn’t think it would be as good as this.

There are different parks.  We go to parks more. They are more fun!

We explore all day by walking.

Mommy and daddy are with us more because they don’t have a whole bunch of chores, like 80, 000, 000, 000 tons of chores.

We get to stay at fancy airbnbs around the world.

Researching is better than having it in school.  We are researching on the main thing, what it is called and where it is.

Our tablets are for researching and things like photo editing.

We are learning more because we get to see more.

Ben (8)

It has been three weeks since we left.  At the start it was okay. Now I feel so great with myself that I’m in a life like this.  It’s not always rushing around like I thought it would be. We still have time for ourselves.

We have been arguing way less (knowing that a traditional dessert is on the line!).

One amazing thing is that the parks are so different.  Like they have ziplines and climbing nets.

One thing is they don’t have a fence on a cliff even though there’s a walking path right at the edge.  They allow so many other things than that.

I think this trip will last about a year or two of backpacking, though we may start sailing or RVing.  I still wonder where our new home will be.

I think this is a great way to live and there is no problem with it other than walking two kilometres with a heavy backpack!

Jake (10)

Good Things About My Trip:

There are lots of good things about my trip like we get more family time. In Canada it was like a gift to have family time.

Another good thing about my trip is that me and my brothers don’t bicker as much because we are with our parents and I think we will develop a good habit and we will not bicker again after 3 months or something.

Another reason family time is a good thing is that my parents get to know me and my brothers better.

How Long Will This Trip Last?

I think this trip will last two years because my parents got the idea of slow traveling which is where we stay in countries for like a month and my parents want to go to a lot of countries. I’m not against slow traveling or anything.  I would actually prefer to stay in one AirBNB for a week at least. It’s just that I don’t like to be moving around all the time for like two years. I think I would like one year of traveling then move onto something like a sailboat or an RV where we’re still traveling but we still have a homebase and my own space (ha ha that rhymes).  

If you are inspired to go on a trip like this I think your kids (and grownups) should be adventurous, creative and outgoing.

Owen (11)

Three weeks into our trip. Wow. Time is flying by fast. In these three weeks there were rises and falls, ups and downs and this post is all about those, with a little extra input from yours truly.

We are a big happy family, emphasis on the word big. That’s probably the best type of family to have, but there is a down side. When someone is grumpy everyone else starts to get grumpy. When someone’s tired everybody is affected, especially on “travel days” a little more on that later. On the other hand, when somebody’s happy and/or psyched about something, everybody else starts to be happy too. That is pretty much the pattern that we’ve been going through, and so far we’ve been lucky enough to be psyched and happy quite a bit.

Travel days. Some of the highest points on this trip were travel days, our first plane ride, and Eli socializing with flight attendants on the way to Prague. But travel days also had some of our lowest points, like waking up at three in the morning to catch our flight when we all wanted to get some sleep. Travel days to us mean some major sleep deprivation and some unhappy campers. But we always push through within a couple days.

Exploring days. They are mainly meant for fun and learning and they are. But a lot of the time to me is being spent on walking and trying to find out where we are, since sometimes we get lost. On the other hand, since we got a little lost in Prague for example, trying to find a store we were looking for (which we found in the end) we found the world finest toy store (that is literally what it is called) and had tons of fun! So I guess l’m pretty happy that we got lost that time.

People used to ask me all the time “how long are you going for?” I usually say “at least one year probably more”. But it really depends on what you mean. I personally hope to backpack for a year or so, then try sailing for a while. After that maybe move to Japan or another Asian country for a home base. Then maybe I could chase my dreams and go to university.

This concludes my post on how our trip is going, an emotional perspective, and my plans for the future. Thanks for reading!