What in the World is “Worldschooling?”

—As I write this, I just found there will be a strike throughout Germany at the end of this week into next week, which means our train to France is probably going to be cancelled — so worldschooling will include navigating that now as well!—

During Covid I pulled the kids to homeschool for the 2020-2021 school year - it was a challenging shift for all of us. While I love educating in a nursing setting,I had no idea what I was doing with the kids in terms of education. Both of our amazing kiddos have dyslexia; both have various super cool skills, beautiful talents and also challenges. How do I teach? I Dunno but I had to figure it out somehow - the best I could at the time.

Jump forward to 2022 - I was thinking about this trip for our family after the mamas died and while googling, i saw the term “worldschooling”: Learning through experiencing different cultures, languages, histories, music, arts - perfect. I learned how to homeschool due to necessity the previous couple of years- why not learn to “worldschool”.

So here we’re are…about 5 months in to this trip and about to come home. We have the world as our teacher, so the learning just happens by “being”. We are also very fortunate to have an amazing online weekly tutor, Alex, that helped us during Covid as well. She helps the kids with math and English. Maddie has been working on research papers, OpEds; katie has been improving her skills as a budding writer. We’re starting the Diary of Anne Frank and are learning about World War 2. The kids have had to learn to be more independent in their work habits and overall thinking. They have had to push through challenging topics, fears, new cultures and foods, and they are growing before our eyes - mentally and physically. While I’m constantly helping throughout the day- they are the ones doing it and Brian and I are so proud of them!! ❤️❤️

As a beautiful friend reminded me recently that I should step back and look at what they’ve done in the last month or so…

In the past month:
- one month ago today: we were visiting my amazing aunts in Capetown and meeting family we hadn’t known about. We learned about life in South Africa, had delicious braai, learned some of the history of apartheid and Nelson Mandela, load shedding and met family.
- we saw so many amazing animals in Kruger National Park and learned about the intricate and complex ecosystem amongst animal species and the landscape in this amazing park.

- we traveled to Egypt - learned about Ramadan, hearing prayers over loud speakers, learned basic words in Arabic, saw the pyramids of Giza, rode camels, ate new foods.

- we travelled through Morocco, went into the 3rd largest mosque in the world, ate tagine and drank mint tea, learned about the Berber, the royal family, and saw beautiful architecture in the narrow pathways of Fes.

-spent a week living in an apartment in Venice, walking the canals, learned the history of Venetian masks, hearing church bells, and eating more delicious pizza and gelato than we could handle. (I also have a new favorite drink - Aperol Spritz! So good!)

- now we’re in Munich, Germany - we have walked through the Marienplatz, visited the local market and are currently studying in a cafe; Maddie is also taking a few German lessons at a school across town 2 hours a day (per her request) so we have quickly learned to take the metro here (somehow a fear of mine that is now overcome!) to turn a rainy 30 minute walk to school into a 5 minute walk and 2 minute metro train ride.

That is worldschooling. It’s been marvelous (!!) ❤️❤️ and challenging. Lots of laughter and tears! New sights and smells. Interesting sounds and unique ways of living life. What a beautiful world.

I wouldn’t have it any other way!Read more