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Worldschooling Year

August 2022 - June 2023
we're hoping to immerse as much as possible into local cultures to understand how other families live around the world while exploring interesting cultures and histories. Read more
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  • Worldschooling Year

    The Countdown Begins...

    May 28, 2022 in the United States ⋅ 🌧 73 °F

    We're three months away from departure day. We have:
    - a general sense of where we will be traveling each month,
    - a few plane tickets, AirBNBs, hotels & activities booked,
    - a long to do list,
    - an even longer packing list,
    - not enough of the kids' curriculum planned out,
    - an amazing fb group of 35 other families with elementary aged kids who are also leaving this summer on amazing worldschooling adventures,
    - a lot of excitement,
    - a lot of nerves, and
    - an ongoing debate about whether trail runners can substitute for our sneakers AND hiking shoes.

    https://www.google.com/maps/d/u/0/edit?mid=1wbV…    Read more

  • Worldschooling Year

    Changing our Perspective...

    July 13, 2022 in the United States ⋅ ☀️ 86 °F

    We were listening to Family Adventure Podcast where a traveling family with 6 kids interviews other traveling families to learn about their travels, goals, accomplishments, challenges, etc... During one 'from the kid's perspective' podcast, a 10yo talked about how his favorite part of his 'big trip' was going to Disneyland and Lego Land. Our kids chimed in that our trip would be SO much better if we could go to Disney too (little do they know that we're hoping to go to Disneyland Tokyo...shhhh).

    Sooo...rather than starting August 30th AFTER a pre-planned whirlwind trip to California (including a day with our California fam at Disneyland), Chicago & Montreal to see our families one last time, we are 'starting our trip' on August 18th, the day we fly to California, and spending our first full day at Disneyland. Without changing our plans in any way, our trip became more exciting with a quick perspective shift. So please see our adjusted travel map for our 'new and improved' big trip!

    PS: for those of you following closely, we also added a week in Morocco to meet Grandma & Papa!    Read more

  • Worldschooling Year
    Day 2

    Disneyland (by Andrew)

    August 19, 2022 in the United States ⋅ ☀️ 75 °F

    CALIFORNIA
    We went to Disneyland. There is a ride called Incredicoaster. It had a loopdeloop. It went 50-60mph.
    We got a Tesla 3o. Uncle Mike has a Tesla 3p. I love Teslas. We went in Uncle Mike's pool. We had soooooooo much fun. I miss my family already.Read more

  • Worldschooling Year
    Day 5

    Mini Trip, Packing & Airlines

    August 22, 2022 in the United States ⋅ ⛅ 68 °F

    Before we embark on the 'big trip', we decided to do a 9 day mini-trip to visit family in California, Chicago/Wisconsin & Montreal.  Not only would this enable us to do fun things like play with cousins, see our families, go to Disneyland, spend time with the boys' 94yo great grandma, and hang out on a lake, but it also allowed us to have a packing dry run.  All in all, we felt well prepared and plan to make a few tweaks like bringing more chapstick and switching the boys' headphones to something more comfortable.

    As expected, air travel hasn't been quite so smooth.  After our flight home from Montreal was eliminated, forcing us to leave midday rather than in the evening as originally planned, we are now 9 hours into an unexpected and poorly explained delay at LAX.  One valuable reminder we've had is that the boys are always observing us and modeling our behavior.  Thus, despite us being given misinformation, being directed to one 2hr line, when we really should have been in the other 2hr line, and other frustrations, we are doing our best to "choose kindness" (in the words of Emma) and remain appreciative of the fact that we are well-positioned for these disruptions.

    We have been so impressed with the way the boys are rolling with the unpredictable delays, long runs between terminals, hurrying up to wait and other fun airport antics.  Lewis has frequently reminded us to remain positive and be thankful that we're not missing another connection and Andrew has kept us entertained with his humor (including a comment about how the women's bathroom is so much better than the men's and smells like "cheese-its"! <barf>).

    We're hoping to make it to Chicago by 2am and up to Wisconsin tomorrow.  Come on American Airlines - you can do it!    Read more

  • Worldschooling Year
    Day 6

    Oconomowoc (by Andrew)

    August 23, 2022 in the United States ⋅ ☀️ 77 °F

    WISCONSIN: LAKE OCONOMOWOC

    I went to Oconomowoc. I went tubing. I love tubing, because I like bouncing.

    There is a nerf gun. I love nerf guns, because I’m good at aiming.

    We saw my cousins. They are fun and I went tubing with them. I had sooooooooooo much fun at the lake.Read more

  • Worldschooling Year
    2
    Day 7

    Lake Oconomowoc with the Litows

    August 24, 2022 in the United States ⋅ 🌙 70 °F

    We had a wonderful time in Southern California with Nanny, Poppy, Aunts Ashley & Mimi, Uncles Jon & Mike, and cousins Avery, Ethan, Izzy & James, full of lots of family & pool time, some epic diving competitions, Disneyland, and desert pumpkin dissections. After a mere 11 hours at LAX, we headed to Chicago to pick up our car rental and drive up to Lake Oconomowoc where my sister and family had rented a lake house for the week. Unfortunately, the car rental closed at midnight, so we found a hotel room at 2am to get a few hours of sleep before driving up.

    Once we arrived, we had two relaxing days of tubing, swimming, eating & drinking, Monopoly, s’mores, s’more eating and drinking, and a lot of laughs with cousins Levi & Carter and Aunt Debbie & Uncle Micah. It was the first time for all of us to visit Wisconsin and the soft cornfields, kind people, and peaceful lake life didn’t disappoint.

    We had another fun flight hiccup when Air Canada canceled our flight to Montreal the night before, but luckily within a few hours they were able to rebook us on an early flight out of Chicago. Unfortunately, that meant waking up at the butt-crack of dawn and not getting to say goodbye to our cousins who had an elaborate plan of cousin time in the wee hours before we were originally scheduled to leave. Don’t worry Levi & Carter – we promise some dedicated cousin debauchery time when we return :)    Read more

  • Worldschooling Year
    Day 8

    24hrs in Montreal

    August 25, 2022 in Canada ⋅ ☁️ 70 °F

    We arrived in Montreal without additional delay and went straight to see Great Grandma Bevy. We were so honored that the whole Greenberg clan took the afternoon off from work to spend time with us. We enjoyed some heated games of Chutes & Ladders, a delicious lunch and dinner, and even a post-dinner swim. We retired to our favorite hotel and quickly fell asleep completely oblivious to the local time. Chef Andrew awoke early, eager to make his own waffles and bring up breakfast for the whole family. We had a too-short visit on Friday with Grandma Bevy and an easy flight back to Boston (that had previously been rescheduled – three for three!).

    All in all, we felt very accomplished seeing 19 dear family members in nine days, trialing our packing (which worked surprisingly well), trialing doing math on the ipad (which didn’t work very well at all), testing our passports (yes, they worked!), negotiating three time zones, and hoping that if things do come in threes, getting some of our flight issues out of the way. With about 30 flights over the next 10 months, we imagine this is an amuse-bouche of the airline disruptions to come.    Read more

  • Worldschooling Year
    Day 11

    One Last Stop in Newton

    August 28, 2022 in the United States ⋅ 🌙 72 °F

    Four days back in Newton was just what the doctor ordered to help us regroup, give the boys some downtime at home (Lewis is still readjusting after sleepaway camp), see some friends (apologies if we didn’t get a chance to see you!), spend time with Emma (who flew back from Tallahassee to be with us), get our house ready for the next 10 months, and sleep in our own delicious beds. We felt so loved with friends and family going out of their way to help us feel special and will miss so many of you terribly. Big thanks to the Farwells, Yelenskys, Gordon-Gordons, POC, Aunt Susan & Uncle “Birthday Twin” Alan, Blanchie, Emma, Grandma & Papa for helping us negotiate these last days in Newton for the next few months.

    While we are so excited about this adventure and know it’s the right choice for our family, we do feel like we are abandoning our ‘people’ (as my friend Ellen refers to close family and friends), especially our 94yo great grandmas and our ‘framily’ who have been our support system during the difficult times over the past few years. We will be immersing ourselves in new and strange environments where most things will feel foreign, whereas our friends will be in a familiar environment, with a difference being our absence. I am hopeful, however, that we will have a fluid return. When I came back from 6 months abroad in 2007, I remember finding life at home was very much the same as I had left it; as soon as I learned to live in the present (vs. reminiscing about my travels), I found it surprisingly easy to reimmerse. Fingers crossed!    Read more

  • Worldschooling Year
    Day 15

    Ciao Roma!

    September 1, 2022 in Switzerland ⋅ ☁️ 57 °F

    We made it to Roma! We’re a bit sleep deprived, our eSIMs don’t seem to work correctly, we narrowly escaped arrest for not correctly paid for a bus ride (kidding…sorta), but we’re here and full of carbs! We had a good layover in Zurich where we got a few more hours of sleep and ate a lot of ‘breakfast chocolate’. Through the kindness of strangers, good memories, and dumb luck, we somehow found our AirBNB in Rome without internet access. We dropped our bags and walked much of the main sites of the city fueled by pizza, pasta and gelato. Rome is dreamy.

    We love walking around a new city when we first arrive. So much feels exciting and different, yet we find ourselves doing much of the same as we would in the US. This evening we spent a lot of time watching street performers, admiring architecture (and pretending to explain it to our kids – after a quick google), ruining our clothes with ice cream dribbles as we walk around, playing with whatever water we can find, and reminding our kids to stay to the right when our path has oncoming pedestrian traffic. Same same!

    We have an exciting few days ahead of exploring ancient sites, learning more about Roman mythology, and what Andrew has been looking forward to for three months, watching Gladiator. Rob and I are looking forward to learning more about Roman mythology from our kids who apparently know a surprising amount (thanks Pod School!). The boys are cruising through some books about Rome and we are contemplating starting math homeschool tomorrow, depending on what time the kids wakeup.

    Good luck is something we believe we will need in great quantities in starting homeschooling. There's a great Italian phrase for good luck: “in bocca al lupo!” which translates to “into the wolf’s mouth.” We feel like this is fitting for where we are attempting to go with homeschooling tomorrow. [FWIW: the response to “in bocca al lupo” is “crepi il lupo” (may the wolf die)…not sure how we feel about that response given that we think the wolf is our kids in this analogy…we'll let you know after tomorrow ;) ]    Read more

  • Worldschooling Year
    Day 16

    The Colosseum (by Andrew)

    September 2, 2022 in Italy ⋅ ☀️ 68 °F

    I went to Rome with my daddy and my mommy and my brother. We went to the Colosseum. The Colosseum is a very big stadium for gladiators and a lots and lots of people who watch the gladiators fight for there life or they will meet there doom! The gladiators fought together and most gladiators had a difficult time in battle. Some gladiators used a trident and a net and spear some gladiators used a sword and shield and a spear for battles.Read more

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