* I’m exited today to share with you a guest post by my new friend Monica @ FamilyTrek.org.
So we’ve taken the plunge into the outer fringes of society, pulled our kids out of the public school grind and are now enjoying a life that most people don’t understand. We are the ones who people secretly envy while outwardly make fun of.
Our kids are going to be those weird ones who don’t have any social skills, can’t cope with the “real world” and especially the global society that we are now living in. Our kids are only going to know how to play computer games and will probably live their entire lives in a bubble and never meet people who are different from them….right?
As I have made the transition from public school to private school to homeschool to now unschooling, I hear these “concerns” voiced over and over again. It is like there was a commercial on American Idol that gave the entire world these 4 talking points.
I don’t blame them; we have all been raised to believe in the goodness of the public school system. Most people don’t even think twice about where their kids will go to school other than making sure they get into a good district. They don’t think about why their kids are learning the material given to them by the schools.
They especially don’t think about whether the system is actually the best way for their kids to learn. They just leave that to the professionals.
I, unlike many others, do have an easy out. Our life is centered on travel.
AND it is almost a universal truth that most people believe that travel is educational.
It is easy for people to see how valuable an education based around travel would be for a child. While they still have some concerns, I usually get a pass when I tell people we want to travel the world with our kids.
Travel is such a great way to educate your kids. I recently wrote a post on my site FamilyTrek.org called How Travel Will Develop the 5 Most Important Tools for Your Kids’ Success. I also think that it is a must for all home and un schoolers.
If we don’t get our kids out to taste, touch, handle the world then we have failed them. If we really believe in hands-on learning how can we not travel with our kids?
So here are my top 4 ways travel can help dispel those nagging concerns about unschooling:
1. Travel is great for socialization. It can be easy to fall into a grove at home. When you stay home and go to the same old places that are easy and familiar you become isolated. When you travel you are out in the world interacting with others. Not just interactions, but learning how to have meaningful interactions. Children will quickly learn how to interact with adults and other peers when there is something they need… bathroom or food!
They will learn the best way to approach strangers and make friends of them. (By the way…this is an incredibly valuable skill!) They will learn how to be kind and ask meaningful questions of those they come in contact with because they need to. So will you!
2. It provides kids with well rounded education. We believe in interest led learning and what better way to spark the interest of you children for another culture, geography, history, science, language etc. than by taking a trip? Maybe your kids would never want to learn about Belize, but I bet if you were taking a trip there they would!
Travel exposes our kids to a myriad of experiences that they would never have at home. It will shape their interests and make their education fuller and more robust.
3. It will immerse kids in the “real world.” I am really always so confused by this “concern.” Seriously, isn’t real life good preparation for real life? Is it better to spend 8 hours a day in a contrived segregated learning environment? How about learning abstract concepts that never translate into helpful tools for real life? How is that good preparation?
Our society and economic system is quickly becoming global. People who have a good knowledge of the entire world have such an advantage. Even if your kids don’t have firsthand knowledge of a particular region, I bet if they grow up traveling they will be more than happy to go there, learn about it and become an expert. The student who did one unit study on Japan is a distant second choice when it comes to employment to the one who can personally relate to his or her counterparts overseas.
4. It given them firsthand insight into prejudice. So many people who are outside the unschooled world see those who choose to break from the system as narrow minded. They believe we only want our kids to be exposed to our teachings, to not encounter “difficult” subjects, and to have total control of our kids’ minds.
We on the inside know that couldn’t be further from the truth. We actually trust our children to explore in a natural and appropriate way to find answers to those questions. Better still, we teach our kids how to ask those tough questions-questions about life, religion, and politics -areas that schools aren’t allowed to talk about.
Travel provides a fantastic platform to have some of those discussions with your kids. Why do people worship in different ways? Why are some poor and some rich? Travel will expose you and your kids to situations that will cause you to examine your life and answer these questions for yourself. It is hard to be prejudice towards others when you have lived with them, eaten with them, worked side by side with them.
It is much easier to be prejudice towards people who are different when your only experience with them is sitting next to them in a class.
I hope this gives inspiration to those who have doubts. I hope it helps someone out there who has heard these concerns, but couldn’t ever articulate the answers. Mostly I hope that to those who are on this journey, to raise kids that love learning and have a passion for living, they are inspired to travel. Don’t leave out a key component.
Travel with your kids. Make it a priority. Do whatever it takes. Travel will not only be great for your kids, but will do wonders for you, too.
Photo Credit: celebdu
Monica is an unschooling mother of 2 kids, ages 2 & 4, wife to a crazy wonderful man, inventor, writer, and architect by training. She jokes that she finds freelance projects to keep her busy and avoid doing housework! After graduating with a Bachelors degree in Architecture, Monica went on to start a surfboard company with her parents, live as a missionary in Ireland for a year, and then finally settle down by getting a job with an architecture firm and getting married.
Her family’s life was forever changed when her husband quit his high paying job to pursue a business opportunity that fell through. They took a 6 month road trip across the US and have never looked back. Monica and her husband write about their travels and how people can achieve the life of their dreams at Family Trek.org-Our Quest to Work Less, Live More and Travel the World with our Family.
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