Latest news with #worldschooling
Daily Mail
9 hours ago
- Entertainment
- Daily Mail
I pulled my children out of school and now travel around the world with them
A couple 'world schooling' their children while backpacking have visited 40 countries - and taught their offspring to flamenco dance in Spain and carry out marine conservation in Montenegro. Diana Blinks, 41, and her husband, Scott, 47, have world schooled their three daughters - Lucille, 12, Edith, 11 and Hazel, nine - since 2022 when they left their hometown of Tampa, Florida, US. World schooling sees parents adopt an educational approach while travelling the globe as a family. Mothers and fathers will often use diverse cultural experiences as teaching opportunities and real-world settings as the classroom. Desperate to travel and teach their children about the world after the Covid-19 pandemic, the family set off for Paris, France, in July 2022, before heading to Central America, visiting Costa Rica, Mexico, and then the Caribbean. Diana and Scott seek out school environments and teachers before they arrive at their next destination. They travelled to 22 different countries in the space of a year - including Spain, Iceland and Greece. Their favourite place is Portugal after they came across across world schooling hubs - community gathering points, often in specific locations, that support families pursuing a world schooling lifestyle. They learnt how to cook pad Thai and mango sticky rice in Thailand, took flamenco lessons in Spain, practised surfing in Costa Rica and soaked up history in the Bahia Palace, Morocco. Mother-of-three Diana feels world schooling has 'enriched' their daughters' quality of life and given them a great deal of knowledge as it's allowed them to 'fully immerse themselves in culture'. The family are currently in Punta del Este, Uruguay, where they will remain until the end of June 2025. Diana, a content creator, said: 'I never thought I would be a homeschooling mum because I didn't have experience in education. 'But when we had our girls, we didn't think the school system aligned with what we wanted for them. 'We wanted their education to be practical as well. 'But we fell in love with homeschooling, and that's when we thought about taking it internationally. 'We wanted to see the world with our daughters. 'The homeschooling hubs have been amazing - it means the girls have peers like they would in a conventional school. 'We're travelling the world while getting the different, first-hand education for our girls.' The couple decided to take the plunge after the pandemic. 'We hadn't been able to travel for a few years from lockdown and then travel restrictions,' Diana said. 'Scott and I have always loved travel, even before we were parents. 'We didn't have the girls' school commitments as we were already homeschooling and Scott was ready to leave his job as a director in a software company in the corporate world.' In July 2022, the family left Tampa, Florida, and backpacked around Europe for five weeks before travelling around Central America - visiting Costa Rica, Mexico and the Caribbean. In 2023, they then backpacked around Southeast Asia and visited Vietnam, Thailand and Bali before staying in Portugal for three months, where they discovered Boundless Life - a world schooling hub. Enrolling in their retrospective school years in January 2024, the family have been able to locate different hubs while continuing their travels. The hubs run8:45 am to 3:30 pm, Monday to Friday, with classes in the morning and then extracurricular activities in the afternoon, subject to the country they're in. They are currently in Uruguay and have plans to go to South America- to explore Brazil, Porto Rica, Colombia and Mexico during the summer holidays. Diana said: 'The hubs have been amazing, it's meant we've all been able to make lasting friendships. In some places, the girls will attend classes at world-schooling hubs 'We're still able to make full use of culture immersion through cooking classes and historical tours. 'We get some backlash from people online, but I try not to pay that any attention. 'World schooling isn't for everyone [but] we believe in hands-on education.'
BBC News
2 days ago
- BBC News
Ripon family 'sold up' to travel world searching for new life
A family who sold almost everything they owned to travel the world have said they were "sick of the grind" of working life in western 34, and Joe, 33, gave up their house and possessions in Ripon, North Yorkshire, and flew to Central and South America with their 12-year-old daughter, set off on their adventure in January after taking Tilly out of school, and plan to find a new country to settle in. Joe, who worked as a mechanical engineer and technician in the renewable energy sector, said: "We wanted Tilly to have relevant life skills that we think the world is going to teach her."Pulling Tilly out of school was a logistical hurdle, but it was an easy one."School didn't argue, they actually pushed it and said, 'we don't blame you for doing what you're doing'."The family have learned Spanish and Tilly's maths developed as she got used to using difference currencies. Her confidence and cooking skills have also improved, her parents added: "We're travelling around the world and she's involved in the logistics side of things - how we're going to get from this country to this country."Her mother Emma, a former occupational therapist and teaching assistant, added: "We are not massively concerned about her GCSEs."A lot of people that we know that haven't done well with GCSEs have done well later on in life. I didn't get much out of school."Joe added that "life experience" would make Tilly more employable, although she could "pick up" GCSEs if she would like to sit exams. After starting their trip in Mexico, they have travelled through Belize, Guatemala, El Salvador, Costa Rica, Panama and Colombia, before relocating to each location, they have stayed at a mix of hotel and Airbnb accommodation, often negotiating a cheaper rate in exchange for promotion on their social media said the family "have looked at long-term rentals for a base", which would be cheaper, but had "complications" with their visas."Tilly's already starting to miss having a house and a routine and friends, but we're also thinking that we don't know exactly where we want to call home yet and the only way we're going to find out is to keep travelling," Joe family have now made friends among the expat community in Chiang Mai. Emma said: "For me, travelling is to get out of that western society of consumerism and constantly trying to work, and the grind."I also want to be around people that are just added: "I want to get away from the point of 'we need to make more money to buy a bigger house, we need to get more money to buy a better car, we need to get more money for better clothes'." However, the trip has not been plain sailing, as they left Colombia for Thailand after witnessing a young girl being held up at gunpoint. They felt "generally unsafe" in South America and changed their plans to tour the continent for around a said they "fast-tracked" their visit to south-east Asia and now "don't really know" when they will return to the UK to visit their elder daughter and other family members. Their 16-year-old has moved in with her grandmother and "understood" that her parents, who were in their teens when she was born, wanted to explore and and Emma resigned from their jobs and rehomed the family dog before leaving, and said some of their relatives struggled to understand their said: "The older generation see it as 'you need to graft hard' and they don't really understand the technology and the different ways of working now." The couple post about their travels on social media under the "Smiths On Tour" said: "We're just an average family from the UK that have completely jumped out of our comfort zone." Listen to highlights from North Yorkshire on BBC Sounds, catch up with the latest episode of Look North.
BBC News
3 days ago
- BBC News
Atherton family sell everything to travel world with kids
A couple who has sold their home and all their belongings to travel the world with their children said their decision "just makes sense".Billie and Selwyn Van Der Walt, and their two children, Bligh, four and Rothko, one, left behind their family home in Atherton, Wigan, on Wednesday to start their new life travelling the family sold everything and quit their jobs to begin a few years of travelling, starting in South said the "dramatic" decision made sense due to the cost of living crisis and to spend more time together as a family. "We always knew travel was something we wanted to give our kids, now we get to show them the world," she said."The kids are so excited, they just know we are going on an adventure." Billie, from Atherton, and Selywn, originally from Cape Town, South Africa, met in 2017 while working on cruise have visited more than 60 countries but since moving back to the UK shortly before the pandemic, they admitted they could not keep up with the cost of living. "We would have been content doing the odd couple of holidays a year but the work, family balance in England just doesn't do it for us," said Billie."It felt like we were working to not see each other." It was also their love of travel and the school fine system that set plans in motion last August, when they finalised on their house said they do not want to be fined for showing their children the world."Travel is such a valuable part of education, to see how other people live and experience other cultures first hand," she added."We decided to home educate just so we could travel if and when we wanted to and it snowballed into what's keeping us in England, why don't we travel full time?""We made the leap and instead of getting Bligh a primary school place this September we decided to put our money where our mouth is and really go for it." The family sold everything to afford their first few months will document their journey on the Instagram page, WanderingVanDerWalts, showing trips which will include two weeks in South Korea, six weeks in Japan with a trip to Disney Toyko for Rothko's second birthday, and six weeks in China before settling in Vietnam and Thailand."Neither of us has visited South Korea and we wanted to dive straight into the really unfamiliar and get the culture shock out of the way for the boys," added Billie. Selywn also quit his job at Wren Kitchens and has retrained in coding and software to seek freelance work while away. While the family are excited for their new chapter, they said it has been a "sad goodbye". "Atherton is such a lovely community which has made it hard leaving," said Billie."Our regular chippy gave the kids a present for the plane, everyone is just so lovely here."My children also have a really close relationship with my auntie and uncle who they call nan and grandad, so it is hard leaving them and we will miss everyone."But seeing other families do it has given us the confidence of making it a reality," she added. Listen to the best of BBC Radio Manchester on Sounds and follow BBC Manchester on Facebook, X, and Instagram and watch BBC North West Tonight on BBC iPlayer.
Times
07-05-2025
- Times
Meet the nomadic families who ‘world-school'
I t's a hot, sticky afternoon in Poinguinim, a farming village in India's Goa region, and Amanda Ashworth is waiting for her two younger children to finish their circus skills session. They will then decamp to the nearby beach for an evening of surfing and maybe turtle-watching, along with the seven families in residence at the Worldschooling Hub Goa that Ashworth runs on a former cashew nut plantation. 'The families were all up very early this morning for a guided hike to an abandoned hotel. Then some drop off their children for schooling from 8.30am until 1pm while they work,' says Ashworth, a 41-year-old entrepreneur, of her guests who have decided to step off the treadmill back home and take a family gap year, or two.
