The rise of travelling families and world-schooling

World-schooling, edventuring, life-learning, whatever you call it, more parents are doing it – if the proliferation of blogs and books by families on round-the-world trips is anything to go by.

To our minds, they are learning in a more interesting way. We don’t know if we’re right, but it’s our gut instinct
David Hurst
Driven by a desire to spend a greater amount of time with their children, escape the pressures of work and discover new cultures and lifestyles, a growing number of parents are jacking it all in, taking the kids out of school and setting off on an adventure.

Take Jo and Jamie Robins, who are two weeks into a four-month South America trip with their daughters, aged 10 and seven. “We want to take some time to step back from life, the treadmill of working hard to pay a mortgage, not having enough time for family or to follow our interests,” says Jo. The Robins have only just begun their adventure and are planning to come back home later this year – maybe. However, many parents find that once they are on the road, they can’t imagine going back to their old life.

David and Debs Hurst’s three-month mission to visit their Facebook friends, with their sons, aged six and four, turned into an extended campervan trip across 13 countries, which they dubbed “education by astonishment”, visiting people and places with a “wow factor”.

We don’t have a TV in the van and the boys only have one small box of toys each. We encourage them to spend as much time as possible outside,” says David.

They were so inspired by their journey that they are setting off again, this time to Spain where they hope to buy some land and set up a family campsite with a focus on learning through outdoor play.



In 2014, Martina and Julian Tyrrell sold their house in Cambridge, their car and 90% of their belongings to sail off into the sunset on a 36ft yacht, with their daughters, aged five and four. Nearly two years on, they are temporarily based by the Guadiana river on the border of Spain and Portugal, while the girls go to a Spanish school, and are wondering where the wind might take them next.


“When people asked us how long we would be away for, I jokingly said between six months and 60 years. The kids love the life and I’m not that concerned about school because we always said we would homeschool them. If they get to a point where they want to go to school, I won’t stand in their way,” says Martina.

For many travelling families, homeschooling is not just a consequence of travel, but part of the attraction. Overall, homeschooling is on the rise. Local authority figures released at the end of last year show a 65% increase in children recorded as home educated in the UK over six years. US website Vagabondfamily.org, which profiles over 100 nomadic families, has a series of posts on the benefits of “roadschooling”, while Daniel Prince (princesoffthegrid.weebly.com), who has been travelling for nearly two years using lovehomeswap.com, talks about the inspiration for homeschooling, as well as some of the resources he and his wife use to educate their four children.

Article Source: http://www.theguardian.com/travel/2016/jan/29/is-world-schooling-kids-selfish-family-travel-edventures