Homeschooling While Traveling

While Traveling: Consider Homeschooling For Your Children.

As the school year is just around the corner there is a lot of excitement happening in the air. The kids are ready to meet their classmates. The parents are ready for the children to finally get back to the established routines and start doing something more productive.

We have changed several schools while traveling around the world. Schools are a lot of fun, opportunities for learning and development. Schools are life within life with victories, failures, achievements, frustrations, friendships, discoveries and sometimes disappointments.

I would like to speak from my experience as a parent and a teacher.

Every time we would move, finding a right school for us was a priority # 1 on our list. The choice of schools varied from none to immense depending on which part of the world we would end up.  So, when you have no choice of schools, then you might seriously consider home schooling.

When we were in Turkmenistan, I knew a family which had their children home-schooled. I believe it worked very well for them. It was a choice I never made, but looking back I think I should have considered it more seriously.

Homeschooling has many advantages, however it also has some weak points. It is up to a family and the commitment they are willing to make to keeping track of their children’s educational progress.

Homeschooling provides:

1. Safety of the home to study.
2. The opportunity for self-paced education.
3. Less distractions and more focused environment to do the assignments.
4. More individual attention to the student on behalf of the instructor.
5. Possibility to attend athletic clubs and extracurricular activities in the local school.
6. More time for hobbies, sports or other activities.
7. Opportunity and flexibility for education during traveling or relocation.

On the other hand, homeschooling requires:

1. Creating the educational environment at home;
2. Establishing the routines for study and play;
3. Parents’ or caregiver’s supervision and assistance;
4. In the countries with limited Internet access and educational resources, adjusting to the lack of books and materials.
5. Consistent and regular communication with the home-school academy;
6. Establishing the relationship with one of the local schools so your kids could attend the sport events and extracurricular activities;
7. More involvement of the adults to support the student’s progress.

In a nutshell, homeschooling is a wonderful opportunity for many children to get their education. I met the kids, who were happy to be home schooled. I also know that some of those kids did not have the same environment for social interaction and development of their social skills, which resulted in them being very shy and quite, when they finally would come to the school. However, I personally think, even in the school environment children experience the same reserved feelings among their peers. It takes time to build connections and friendship.

When you are in a foreign country, homeschooling might be the only option to educate your kids. Think about it. What a pleasure it might be to learn with your child, while helping them be successful.

Remember life is a journey of joy. Embrace it.

Much love.

Lena